March of 1988 was the 20th anniversary of the first operational SR-71 first operational mission out of Okinawa. The crew was Jerry O’Malley (Pilot), Ed Payne (RSO).
A gathering of former crew and maintenance people came to Okinawa to participate in the dinner celebrating the event. Jan and I were in attendance and took as many pictures is time allowed. Col Lee Shelton was Det commander at this time assigned tasks to whoever was at hand. I became a guide on the bus tour taking some attendees on a tour of Okinawa so they could see the changes since they had last been there.
General Pat Halloran was to be guest speaker; he also wanted to go golfing at the Kadena course. Pat and I set out to play 9 holes the morning of the banquet. After the first nine Pat decided he wanted to play the second nine so we did. Meanwhile operation for the banquet was going fine but no one could find the guest speaker. They were relieved when we finally showed up in plenty of time.
Thanks to Jan for taking these pictures and saving a copy of the program.
I had the privilege to serve under 5 of the 7 commanders at Det-1 from 1976 to 1985. I enjoyed the the mission and the great people that were part of the SR-71 program.