I was at Sand Point: I went through radio school from August 1941 through December 1941.I left Seattle on the USS Grant on December 25, 1941. Regards,Cal VP43

My Mother in law worked at Sand Point as store keeper in A.R. I believe. She was Irene Marchant. I came to Sand Point for training in flite crew on detachment from VP 61 at Dutch Harbor, most of VP 61 on tenders. Oak Harbor NAS opened about 11/43 and I finished training there and returned to VP 61 then at Umnak and PBY 5as. We returned from Aleutians late Oct. 43 and were there for few days getting orders and leave. Sand Point was at end of bus line and tavern restaurant across street called Dooleys was meeting place. My parents worked across Lake Washington in Shipyards. Thousands from the Midwest came for Boeings and Shipyards, many stayed. Best Regards, Hank VP 61 VPB 23

Message from Doris Paskewitz to Francis Clifton concerning PBYs at Sand Point Naval Air Station in WWII: Francis, your article in the Cloisters' Newsletter on navy patrol PBY aircraft reminded me of the two years my husband and I spent working on PBYs at Sand Point Naval Air Station during WW II.
My husband , Bill Paskewitz and I left the farm and my teaching job in Holt, Minnesota to begin working at the Sand Point Naval Air Station in the state of Washington in November 1943 We stayed until November 1945.
Bill worked as an inspector and I worked cleaning and sand blasting the body and parts of PBYs that had returned from the Pacific Area in a damaged condition.
Bill's brother, Homer Paskewitz, worked there as did my mother, Anna Carlson. She had the job of dusting and cleaning the desks of the officers.
Thank you for bringing these memories to mind.  Doris Paskewitz.

I was only 16 At PH but got Dad to sign age certificate made 1925 24 and SD boot and LA RM school went up with 61 by ship 9/42 but as all over on tenders sent me back to otu Sand Point 10/42 then Oak
Harbor then back to VP 61 then Umnak 5as then May 43 to Amchitka spent few days on Casco Massacre Bay arriving May 13 and were Back Amchitka by May 30 cause picked up P 38 Pilot in drink. Wife’s Birthday, oldest son born on May 29. We left late in October and went on leave from Sand Point. Got married while in OTU at Lutheran Chapel, Seattle. went back to 61 soon after. In and out of Oak Harbor 4 time various lengths time.I was at Dutch during Williwaw but not in flight crew. Saw pile of plywood
dealt like deck of cards. Drake Puget Sound was working on base. Lost all logs and Navy stuff in fire but PPC sent 10 dates and evenys and stuff and got 2 rdo so pac log mid 44 thru 45 as flew together but gaps 3 otus, Regards, Hank

The Sand Point NAS is no longer but is now a park but think most buildings are still there. If all things in picture were unchanged from 1938 to 42 when I arrived detached from VP 61 as Rm3/c for Qual air training to the left of ramp in 1982 I worked on NOAA Facility where they had big white ship moored they could bring from Puget Sound thru locks. Was an electrician and went for couple days from another job to help pull big feeder cable. Sand Point was way out in 1938. Now two floating bridges cross Lake Washington and there are as many people East of the Lake as in City of Seattle. Big week for Seattle, Sea Fair, Blue Angels are here big Fleet in Elliot Bay and 100,s of thousand people will be in Boats all sizes at log boom by I 90 bridge and in Lake for Hydroplane Races, They have to close inter state 90 on Blue Angels fly over’s. Till this year lived where we could watch them from N to South as they screamed toward the site. 85 degree weather so Mt Rainier in full view with Olympics across sound. I know many in this group did duty at Sand Point pre Oak Harbor NAS so thought I would toss this in. My first PBY flight was off the ramp in picture. Hank

For what it's worth, PBY-3, 0854 served out it's final years very honorably in the training command, VN-18B, NAS Corpus Christi, from Jan '42 til it was surveyed for 'old age' (most likely corrosion) in Feb '45.
Bob R.

Hi Bob, I too have wonderful memories of Sand Point NAS. I arrived there in late August 1941 to attend radio school and graduated shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed. I enjoyed Sand Point very much. I returned there three years ago and found it had now been changed into a park, I drove up and down
the length of the old NAS. Thanks for the memories. Regards, Cal

I have a print off the original negative for  this one. The picture is of PBY-3s, 9-P-1 in the foreground is BuNo. 0854. The photo was taken on 26Jun38 at NAS Sand Point and the tail stripes are red. Mark

I was fortunate to visit the PX and all else at Sand Point from when my dad retired in 1965 to the late 1970's as a dependent. My mother would make the monthly shopping trip to the PX and drag us young
boy's along. She knew the butcher there and always got the best cuts. Have fond memories of getting a physical at the dispensary in 1975? for a US Forest Service fire fighting job. They put me in with 20 other navy seaman who were leaving the service (or bad conduct). We all stood in a line and one doctor would go down the line with latex gloves on and each one of use would pull our shorts down and bend over for inspection. All the doctor said was "no funny business!" After that I was sent to a corpsman for a blood
draw. He was a year or so older than me and it took him four jabs to find my vein. Beautiful base! Thanks Bob Bergstrom

Hank, sure wish I could meet you and talk about Qual-Air...........Boy when we got that representation , I could not wait, but I got a shaft when everyone got into a squadron as I crew member, and good old Larry got into VP23 but on detatched duty in the Comm.Office.....On a circuit copying Fox that seemed a life time.But that was all right as my buddy from New Jersey,Doug Libby got on some ship as a radio operator, and that ship was no bigger than a tug, called the USS Swan/Thought he was going to jump ship, get on the next Lurline to get back to the states....Right after the attack heard from a shipmate of his that told me that Libby tried every which way to get into a squadron,but no way,I , to this date dont know what ever happened to him, he and I use to hitch hike from Noroton Heights, Conn.to N.Y.C. He to get home to Jersey and me to take the IRT to Brooklyn.Before the attack, we would meet nearly every night that we could at the Beer Garden on Ford as at that time the Swan was berthed next to the USS California....This is about PBY's as I was in VP23, and finally got into VP21, as a crew member and at last got my skins. Larry

PBY’s in Lake Washington:

A diver "found" a submerged Catalina near Sand Point, Lake Washington, Washington State, USA. Does anybody know anything about it? Greetings, Heijo.

Unfortunately raising aircraft rarely goes well. The common problems are: Sand and silt filling every available space ,The great suction between the hull and the mud on the bottom, and the all too common practice of only using a few straps (or worse cables ) slung underneath the craft to lift by. The latter being how they destroyed the Cat that sank offshore from Hawaii in the 1980's, and also how that P5M Marlin was torn apart in the 90's.  Don't forget, if you do bring it up and it was Navy owned when lost, it is still Navy owned. Champlain museum just lost their case in this regards. One other thing, if these aircraft were in pristine condition, they wouldn't be there in the first place. How did they sink? Did they lose their nose gear doors and tumble? have aerial pics and some from the crash scene that show what that did to the CAF's 6A. Nothing salvageable. Bob Swanson

I live 1/2mile up the hill from Sand Point. there are 3 cat's left in the lake. I don't know about the one close to the base. They find stuff all the time. Where did you get the information. Here is a picture taken in 1920's the day of The Douglas Air Cruises took off for the around the world tour for those of who served at Sand Point. My relative walked down and took these pics. I guess 1925. Kevin

The old Naval Air Station Sand Point on Seattle's Lake Washington shoreline was originally and Army Air Corps facility... and from that base the Army launched their around the World flight in -- I believe – 1923/4, with the Douglas World Cruiser. At the main gate to the old station a monument to the flight still stands.
NAS Sand Point was later Naval Station Puget Sound, and formally closed in 1995/6, I think, and no longer federal property. It would be a shame to just let that old monument get swept aside by some bulldozer in the future.
Does anyone know how and when the base was taken over by the Navy? It must have been in the mid-late 1920s. Patrol Wing FOUR operated from Sand Point during WWII.
There probably are more than one Catalina resting on the bottom of the Lake. Perhaps we ought to organize and conduct a methodical search. Who knows what might turn up. Lake Washington is fresh water, temperature is cool year round, currents and tides of almost no effect. Wouldn't it be prime to come up with a crisp, nearly intact PBY airframe just waiting for a fresh paint job and new fabric? How about an older Consolidated P2Y-2? Who's interested in such an undertaking? Cheers, Lou

Do you have anything on a PW10 NAP named Kegerreis? His son is asking me questions but doesn't have any documentation except that his Dad told him he was an enlisted pilot in the Philippines before WWII. I'm not even sure of that name although that is the way the son spells his name.
How deep is Lake Washington? Scuba divers could probably search down to 15 fathoms although maybe the cold water would deter them. If the water is cold is must be quite clear. Have you thought of getting in touch with a scuba club to do a search? Allan LeBaron

NAP Kegerreis? No, nothing on such a name so far. Many serving in PW10 in the prewar period up to the late fall of 1941 may have transferred out for the States and thus I have been missing them. Anything more on this dude, pass it along. PBYs? J2Fs? VP squadron or cruiser aviation unit? Cheers, Lou

Did you receive the JF-1 Duck, ab CA-31,Utiliy Unit, Asiatic Fleet photos I sent a few weeks ago by post? If NO JOY then NO SWEAT please advise and I will try again. Need your input on this for the VJ/VU book
Best, Sean Paul Milligan, Air Station Historian, Quonset Air Museum, 401 722-5821

I read your e-mail to Sean Milligan regarding photos of a JF-1 and a CA-31 aircraft for the VJ/VU book you are preparing. I am interested in getting a copy of the book. I was in VJ-9 and VJ-3 late in WWII and a year afterwards. I have a photograph of all the pilots in VJ-9 from sometime in April 1945. I don't remember the date. I also have a couple of pictures of the JM-1's we were flying then, also of the Culver Cadets as target planes radio controlled from SB2C's. I would be most interested in purchasing a
copy of your book. Carlos H. Blazquez

QUESTIONS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PBY/message/17868

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