Jon Shay, VQ-4 Celebration of Life - January 7

TACAMO Fallen Veteran - Jon Vincent Shay, VQ-4

Celebration of Life by Spruce Creek Pilots,

There will be a Celebration of Life for

Captain John Shay USN, in

Doris Kennedy’s hangar

(222 Cessna Blvd. Port Orange, FL 32128)

at 3pm Saturday Jan 7.

There will be seating in the hangar

The flyby should be excellent also.

Please note the date and be aware that a formation of local airplanes and pilots will be honoring Captain Shay with an overflight down Cessna Blvd. John Foster will be the safety observer and Air Boss for the event.

Everyone is invited.

Questions: Please feel free to post Jim Stone's email for the group scpoa.pilots@gmail.com

Reported by Randolph Mahoney

"It is my sad duty to inform you that my friend and mentor of 40+ years, CAPT Jon Vincent Shay, USN (ret) died peacefully yesterday, June 7th, 2022, surrounded by his family in Port Orange, Florida. He had been suffering from a long illness that resulted in his passing.

I served with him when he was a NATOPS instructor in 1981-1984 at VQ-4. He later became CO of VQ-4 and went on to JSOC and some cool things there. I only recently re-connected with him in the last 3 years, as we lived in the same community.

I'm keeping my ear to the wall with the Spruce Creek community, and I will pass along any information ASAP.

"One recent SHAY story - when I was living at Spruce Creek, I took Jon up in my Bell JetRanger helicopter several times. He really loved it, and related some great stories from his time at VXE-6 in Antartica. He had no formal help training, but when I gave him the controls, he flew it like he had been doing it for years. The smile on his face was priceless. He also gave me my MC check-deployment at VQ-4, when I was almost arrested by over-zealous USAF "Security Police" in Charleston!

Good times. Jon had a perspective and leadership qualities that were amazing. Miss him already."

NO information is available at this time. Randy will keep us updated