Corsair Presentation held at Oronoque Village

From Left to Right: Dick Steele, Ed McGuniess, Chris Soltis, Drew King, & Fred Hyatt

On Tuesday the 9th of November the a presentation was given by some of the core members of the Corsair Restoration Project at the Oronoque Village retirement community located in Stratford CT. Both Fred Hyatt (VP of the CASC) and Dick Steele (Corsair/SB2C pilot & CASC member) live at the Oronoque Village and were the initial reason the Corsair Project spoke there. The presentation was a private one as it was only for the "Fun Seekers", a club of active senior citizens that plan trips to various events and locations. Sadly the rest of the Corsair project team were not allowed to view the presentation. It is expected that every other presentation done by the team hereafter will be a public event unless noted otherwise.

Drew opening up the presentation

The room of around 150 individuals seemed to be most interested in this part of our local history as nearly all of them had lived through this time period. At the end of the presentation a Q & A session was held. Not surprisingly the first question thrown up from the crowd was: "Will the plane fly?". This question was  followed by the equally expectant: "Can we see the plane?". Both these answers should be simple one word answers but unfortunately they aren't due to local policies and problems that we've had to encounter.

The Corsair crew on hand after the presentation behind the exhibits booth

Nonetheless the presentation was a success for two main reasons. We informed the public that much more about our plans, ideas, progress, and future (many of whom never even knew what we were doing!) and the Corsair Project was given a $250 check to aid in the restoration. While a fairly small donation in the grand scheme of things, the team has not made light of the monetary amount. Every little bit counts, and every little bit will be used. The Corsair team anticipates this presentation to be only the first of many more public speaking events to take place in the near future. If you or someone you know would like to have the Corsair Restoration presentation come and speak at your event please email:
corsairfas217@gmail.com