Don Gibb, AFA1NY/WA2VSL, became a silent key on Friday July 7th. Don was 92 years old. A graveside service will be held in Don's honor at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Donald's name to Hospice of Lancaster, 685 Good Drive, Lancaster, PA 17604. Don was probably the oldest MARS member since Bro Stone who was also 92 when he passed away.

Don Gibb came to Air Force MARS after an impressive 27-year career in the U.S. Navy. How that happened is a story in itself.
He had enlisted in the Navy in 1933 to escape the privation afflicting rural Nebraska during the Great Depression. He was offered two assignments, ship’s cook or radio operator. “Since the former job generally called for 5.a.m. reveilles,” explains Don, “I became a radio operator.”
In World War II he served as Communications Officer of the destroyer USS Melvin (DD680) in the battle for Leyte Gulf. The Melvin sank one of Japan’s battleships in that engagement. Later he was Electronic Emissions Control Officer at NORAD.
Gibb retired in 1961 with the rank of Commander. He was living near McGuire AFB NJ at that time. “There was a fine radio station installed at McGuire, but no operators,” says Gibb. Some of the Base Support Team belonged to the same ham radio club as Don “so we checked out the equipment, kept in touch with AIR at Andrews AFB, attempted to train some flight line types to operate radio, etc. It was there I joined AFMARS and explains why not Navy-Marine Corps MARS.”

John Ferguson, AFF1C, Region One director officially retired Don's MARS call sign, AFA1NY, in honor of all of Don's made to MARS over the years. Don will be sorely missed by his fellow MARS members and the MARS community as a whole. RIP [Credits: The obituary from Dick Mowery, AFA1UN. The bio is from the US Army NETCOM MARS Newsletter]