Squadron reunites to honor bygone era

The last time the 497th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was in the area, cars had fins, Elvis was skinny, Ike was president and Spokane International Airport was Geiger Air Force Base.

That was the mid-1950s, when the 497th, with its F-86D Sabrejets, was just one of several units of military jets flying in and out of the West Plains base. A half-century later, members of the squadron are returning to Spokane for a reunion that will turn back the clock. They’ll reminisce, attend a sock hop, listen to tunes they first heard on jukeboxes or 45s and view some vintage planes.

“It’ll be enjoyable to get back together,” said Roger Blum, of Spokane Valley, who was stationed at Geiger with the 497th. “It’s a big family, the military.”

Blum arrived at Geiger in 1958, when the squadron had been at the base about three years and just months before it was sent to Spain.

In the 1950s, the Air Force was in constant flux, resurrecting units for the Cold War that had been disbanded after World War II, creating air divisions and air defense wings. Geiger, which had trained bomber crews and aviation engineers during the war, became home to Air Force, Navy and Air National Guard fighter and interceptor units.

One of the resurrected units was the 497th, which was based briefly in Portland and transferred to Geiger in 1955 with its F-86Ds, which the Air Force called Sabrejets but the airmen called “dogs.”

The plane had been a star of U.S. fighter operations in the Korean War, but by the mid-’50s it was being replaced by delta-wing jets like the F-102.

A friendly rivalry developed with the other Air Force fighter squadron at Geiger, the 498th, which got its F-102s first. Blum and Joe Gondek, also in the unit at the time, recalled the 497th’s standard line about the other unit. “Three useless things: The runway behind you. The altitude above you. The 498th.” They suspect the 498th had a similar saying, but can’t recall what it was.

Gondek, who transferred to the 497th after serving a stint with bomber units at Fairchild Air Force Base, recalled the fighter squadrons’ pilots were younger, “almost like college boys,” which helped fuel a lighter, yet more competitive, atmosphere.

In 1958, the Air Force decided to try something new with overseas deployments, he said. It would send a complete unit – planes, equipment, personnel and their families – to a foreign base. The 497th was chosen for the experiment and sent to Torrejon Air Base near Madrid.

“Spain was really quite a good experience,” said Gondek, who helped keep the unit’s parachutes and other emergency equipment in shape. “The economy was kind of unbelievable.”

Torrejon didn’t have base housing for the families when the 497th arrived, and many stayed in apartments in Madrid. Food was different, but cheap. Families could hire a maid who would also serve as a baby sitter for $10 a month, Gondek recalled. Many of the children became fluent in Spanish, but not many adults did, he said. His wife didn’t speak Spanish, the maid didn’t speak English and they communicated by sign language.

The squadron was transferred to Germany in 1960; when it returned to the United States in 1964, it was assigned to a base in California.

Over time, members of the unit scattered through transfers, reassignments and retirements. When the squadron had its first reunion last year in Kansas City, on the 50th anniversary of its deployment to Spain, attendees voted to have the second reunion in Spokane, where many members have fond memories, Wanda Newton, the reunion chairwoman, said.

They expect more than 90 attendees, including former squadron members and family members, at the Holiday Inn from Thursday through Saturday, where the theme of the food and music will be the 1950s and 1960s, Newton said. On Saturday some attendees will visit Felts Field, where some restored vintage aircraft are housed.