Wayne Irwin (18-48) died Monday, 20 April 2009.
He and Betty recently moved to Auburn, California. His new address - which you may not have - is:
1511 Christian Valley Road
Auburn, CA 95602
I met Wayne on the train en-route to Pensacola from Los Angeles in August 1948. We were roommate during OCTU and, I think, pre-flight. Again at Whiting and Cabiness. I was F8F and Wayne was AD. Monte Nichol (spelling?), who later gained "fame" with the recording of his formation flight out of Saufley, was our roommate.
Wayne and Betty celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary on April 3, 2009. They were married before Wayne boarded that train for Pensacola. As I recall, a no-no for prospective midshipmen. And I didn't discover he was married until we were at Cabiness when he would occasionally disappear after his last flight and not return to the base until the following morning (Betty had moved to a small converted garage room in Corpus Christi). Wayne bought an old car while stationed at Cabiness and before he was transferred back to Corry for CQ, he taught Betty how to drive (she had never driven an motor vehicle before). After a couple of weeks practice, she drove back to California and he flew east.
After his retirement from the Navy, Wayne taught geography at Merced College and built airplanes, among other activities. One Thorp T-18 and one Questair Venture (he had two Venture kits and the wreckage of a third Venture - but completed the construction of only one which he crashed and rebuilt twice).