“FRIENDS OF THE FIRST LADY”

This tradition started as an Annual Gunship Reunion for all the past and present members of the 919th Special operations Wing at Duke Field, FL in 2006. It was created and hosted for 2 years by a small group of dedicated people who then had decided, after being so successful, it was time to organize and form a committee in order to handle the growth of the event.

In January of 2008 a group of 919^th SOW retirees formed a committee and started an organization called Friends of the First Lady. They first took on hosting the annual reunion, and later adopted aircraft 53-3129 (The First Lady) as their main theme. They then started helping a few 919th crew chiefs and museum personnel with its preservation. One good example was the massive repainting project on the First lady back in the fall of 2008. It was a well coordinated effort by crew chiefs Rick Andreozzi and Ken Moerscher along with several other retiree volunteers  who came out in support of the project. It showed once again what made the 919^th SOW so very special during its more than 20 year span in the AC-130A Gunship business. 

As you can tell by our reunion participation and the appearance of the First Lady we’ve come a long way with the growth of our organization and upgrades made to aircraft 53-3129. We are constantly reaching out to find more of our old A-model Gunship Retirees and coming up with more projects to help improve the overall appearance of the First Lady and its surroundings. We have only begun to scratch the surface in locating all of our AC-130A Gunship Retirees and others from the past that were truly Friends of the First Lady and we sure hope this website will assist in attracting even more of them. 

Our Friends of the First Lady committee has two main objectives which are to host and manage our Annual Gunship Reunions scheduled for the last Saturday in April every year, and work with the museum in preserving the First Lady thru  donations and volunteers. We also have periodic planning meetings to setup work projects and other functions relating to the First Lady (Aircraft 129) each year. 

Our committee consists of 10 members, including a 5 person Board of Directors and 5 other committee members that work close together with them on all projects involving the organization. We also have meetings in January each year to elect a new Board of Directors to manage, govern and make policy for the organization.

Friends of the First Lady Board

Friends of the First Lady Committee