The Aurora Navy League Council 247 will hold its monthly dinner meeting Tuesday, March 20. The meeting will be held at Grandma’s Table Restaurant, 1700 Douglas Road, Montgomery.
The after dinner speaker will be Lieutenant Colonel Vincent K. Catich, USAF(Ret.) who will speak on “My 15 Years Flying the U-2 Spy Plane”. He will discuss his early naval flying career, his transfer to the Air Force flying the U-2 spy plane, and discuss the plane and its missions which contributed so significantly to intelligence gathering in support of our Nation’s security.
A reception will begin at 5:15 p.m. followed by dinner at 6 p.m.. The dinner includes a choice of three entrees, fish, chicken, or beef, soup or salad, dinner rolls, vegetables, dessert, and nonalcoholic drink. The cost is $20., all-inclusive. Alcoholic drinks can be purchased separately. A fourth, lower cost entree, a dinner salad, may be purchased for $12.. It includes soup, dinner rolls, dessert, and nonalcoholic drink.
You do not need to be a member of the Navy League, or have a reservation, to attend the meeting. The general public is welcome. The Navy League is a civilian organization started by president Teddy Roosevelt to provide civilian support to the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, and Sea Cadets.
After college, Colonel Catich worked as an electrical engineer for McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, assigned to the AV-8B Harrier project, a vertical landing and short takeoff aircraft. He flew in the Navy for 9-1/2 years and subsequently in the Air Force for 13 years. For the past five years he has flown for United Airlines as a first officer (co-pilot) on the B787 Dreamliner based in San Francisco.
He retired from the U.S. Air Force as the director of staff, 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale AFB, California, a Wing with 5,000 personnel. Prior to that he was Commander of the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, USAFCENT. The 99 ERS is composed of more than 100 personnel flying U-2 and RQ-4 high altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions directed by CENTCOM Air Tasking Orders in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and Horn of Africa. He was the director of operations, 9th Operations Support Squadron, Beale AFB, Calif..
—Aurora Navy League Council 247
