CAPT Ralph Arnott, USN (Ret.)
USS Midway volunteer

Please join us for our next Luncheon Meeting at the Italian Athletic Club. Guests are welcome and no RSVP is required. Social hour begins at the bar at 1100. Program begins at 1200. Validated parking is available at 721 Filbert Street.

Our special guest speaker will be CAPT Ralph “Rafe” Arnott, USN (Ret.) and U.S.S. Midway volunteer, who will illuminate the development and the continuing evolution of the aircraft carrier since 1922. Our first Aircraft Carrier was the Collier Jupiter that was renamed the Langley on 21 April 1920 and commissioned CV 1 in 1922. She served heroically until lost during action in the South Pacific on 27 February 1942. The "super carrier” Gerald R. Ford (CVN 80) was commissioned in 2017. Gerald R. Ford class carriers are currently being built and fitted out. 

CAPT Arnott received his Navy Wings in March of 1970 and then reported to Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, for training in the A-7 Corsair II aircraft. He made two combat deployments to Vietnam completing over 200 combat missions flying from the USS Oriskany as a member of Attack Squadron 155. He was stationed at NAS Lemoore on and off over the next 20 years in various squadrons, the last as Commanding Officer of VA-146 making an around-the-world deployment on USS Kitty Hawk. While assigned as ships’ company on USS Ranger, he worked in the Combat Information Center, and also qualified as Officer-of-the-Deck underway. During a carrier overhaul in Bremerton, Washington, he met and married his wife, Susan.

Shore assignments included: Naval War College in Newport, RI, where he also received a master’s degree in international relations; Yokosuka, Japan, on the staff of Commander Seventh Fleet embarked in USS Blue Ridge; and The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. His last assignment was as Chief-of-Staff, Commander Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, NAS Lemoore, where he retired from the Navy in October 1993.

After providing training support for the F/A-18 aircraft for two years, he was hired by FedEx and spent the next 15 years flying from Memphis, Tennessee, to most every state in the union. He retired upon reaching the mandatory retirement age at FedEx in July 2011 as a B-727 Captain. He then began volunteering at the USS Midway Museum as a docent.

$45 per person at the door

Social Hour 11:00 a.m. and Luncheon at 12:00 p.m., followed by our speaker/presentation. Secure at 13:30. Guests are welcome.

The Italian Athletic Club is on Washington Square at 1630 Stockton St. (between Filbert and Union and near Columbus and Powell), San Francisco, (415) 781-0165
Please Call IAC for information about validated parking

For those of you who are unable to attend our In-Person meeting at the Italian Athletic Club, you may use the Zoom link to participate in the meeting.

The Zoom link should be open by 11:30 a.m.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88494630609?pwd=MWc3dXlqMzZyNmQ2Y1Q2STIvSGcvZz09

Meeting ID: 884 9463 0609
Passcode: 1776

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Meeting ID: 884 9463 0609
Passcode: 1776

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