On the weekend of Sept. 9th, the "Pieces Of Eight" Skydiving Team was at Perris Valley Airport to skydive & indoctrinate new members. To qualify, first & foremost, one must be missing a limb. New members have to be in a completed POE freefall formation of at least eight people or more. Here's the official results as reported to Don Vredenburg by legendary skydiver & all around good guy.... Al Krueger..... "As you may have heard, we qualified 5 more POE for numbers with a completed 12 way". "The new members are : Chuck Anderson, Aleksey, Kelsey Rice, Bud McElroy & Dan Glanz". "Others in the 12 way were: Mike Dimenichi, Skip Newman, Keith Ragusa, Bob Clark, Lyle Cameron, Dana Bowman & me". Al then added : "Mike Boland was injured & did require surgery on both feet".... Mike, we wish you a speedy recovery.

The Air Trash / Silly Tit gang decided this would be a perfect day to come root for the POE team & to make a couple of leaps ourselves. The usual gang showed up, as did a couple of our favorite skydiving vets. Mike [Sparky] Owens came to visit and Don Vredenburg drove all the way down from Cedar City, Utah.

It's a thankless task, but Bob Butt did his best to organize our jumps. The first jump was a successful two point 7 way. The second jump was an SCS attempt for John Veraldo. The 8 way round built clean & was flying pretty nice. John was right there but got a little bit too excited as he attempted to break grips on the formation. It was a good effort though & John bought a case of beer anyway. Him ! Him! .....

"Little Don" Vredenburg was in attendance & enjoyed meeting the POE gang. Like any skydiver, he took advantage of the photo ops & even lurked Tom Sanders' movie camera a couple of times.

As afternoon turned to early evening, the usual antics in the parking lot ensued. Slammer recited "Old Nell", and a Silly Tit meeting was held, Ray Cottingham is our newest S.T. He's # 208. Ray, welcome to the lowest point of your life.....

Many photos were taken throughout the day & evening by Mike Gerwig, Fred Basile, Don Vredenburg, Larry Walsh & possibly others. The conversation was lively, the cold beer flowed freely & even Al Frisby showed up to join in on the fun. Towards the end of the night, out in the parking lot, Don Vredenburg inducted the new Russian POE member, Aleksey (Alex) into Air Trash. Don presented him with a new Air Trash cap which Linda Hardesty attempted to pour beer all over. [see photos]. All & all it was a perfect day. Great weather, fun skydives and lots of laughter.

This is John Bull reporting for Air Trash News.....

Click on any of the thumbnail pictures below to see a larger image of that picture. Use your BACK BUTTON to return to this page.