Vice President

bill then now

AFCM Dick Gray, USN (ret)

Raised in Calais, Maine, Dick joined the Navy in September, 1955 along with 71 other "kids" from all over the state. His first tour was as a plane captain on the NAS Lakehurst R4D-6 station “gooney-bird.” He remembers one of his (better known) pilots at Lakehurst then was a CWO named Pappy Burns. Dick then joined VP-21 at NAS Brunswick, deploying to Malta and flew all over the MED; even operating out of the Beirut International Airport during the 1958 Lebanon crisis. He left to become a “plank owner” in VP-30 in 1960, flying as instructor plane captain on P2V-5's & 7's.

Dick then joined VP-45 in 1964, as an ADR1 “ground pounder”, but soon found himself on a P-3A flight crew as 2nd Flight Engineer. He says: “Our F/E was unexpectedly grounded and they asked me if I thought I could handle the job; I said sure, as I don't have to know anything because a light always comes on to tell you when there is a problem, and off I went!" He was a qualified F/E from that day on. He left VP-45 in late 67 for NAS Brunswick's AIMD T-56 engine shop.

Dick then was assigned as Maintenance Chief in VP-10, and 26 and he retired from VP-26 in 1976. Five years later, in 1981, the Navy was low in their AFCM manning, so they asked if Dick wanted to return to active duty. He said “YES!!”

After putting the uniform back on, Dick found the Navy had changed, and he was not e9 wings destined to get back into flying or aviation maintenance as he had hoped. Instead, he was assigned as a Command Master Chief. He served as CMC in VP-23, VP-11, NAS Sigonella and NAS Brunswick; then finally retired out of VQ-2 in 1992 with 32 years of active service.

Dick and his wife Dee are retired in Ellsworth, Maine. They have 4 grown children: a daughter in Rhode Island, a son and daughter in Maine, and a daughter in Washington State. Their son is also a retired MCPO, one daughter and her husband are both West Point class of ’83 graduates, another daughter is a GS-12 at SUPSHIPSBATH and the last daughter is married to an electrical engineer with the former Narragansett Electric in Providence.

Dick says: “I am proud that you all gave me the opportunity to serve as Vice President of our VP-45 Association. I look forward to seeing each of you at our next Reunion!”

Dick was elected Vice President of the VP-45 Association in 2010.