• The mission

I, along with a valued international team, are looking to fund the preparations on PBY Catalina to safe flight in Spain, in European airspace, to cross via the northern Atlantic route to the United States West Coast.

• Motivation

I want say or ask, what does the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum founder do after the museum approaches a 30 year anniversary of founding the aviation museum concept with the U.S. Navy in 1996, where the aviation museum now enjoys a successful presence in Pearl Harbor?

I would like to operate American-made PBY Catalina, bringing it from Spain to the U.S. West Coast, Pearl Harbor, and points west in the Pacific.

The idea is to visit and commemorate, through the physical presence of the iconic PBY Catalina, key anniversaries and certain historic events

• Founding the museum

I masterminded / founded the effort with our U.S. Navy to utilize a vintage hangar and tower on former Naval Air Station Ford Island for an aviation museum that would showcase the aircraft, both Japanese and American, of the Dec. 7, 1941, and later WW2 aircraft.

I also named the museum most reasonably, Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.

After almost 10 years as a seaman, I ended up living and working in Hawaii, and it occurred to me what I really thought I would like to see in Pearl Harbor was the aviation part of Dec. 7, 1941, in the form of actual WW2 aircraft, some of which were actually considered “extinct” at the time.

To put a long story short, I drafted a letter to the U.S. Navy, Pearl Harbor Command, during holidays of 1996, asking if the Navy of it could be possible to utilize the 1940s Hangar 79 and tower on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor to house an aviation museum.

To my surprise, the Navy answered my letter with interest in establishing an aviation museum in historic hangar 79 dated Dec. 26, 1996.

As it is said, the rest is history !

• Meeting DICK GIROCCO

Dick Girocco’s return to his epoch place in the history of Dec. 7, 1941, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, had a major impact on me, as the Founder of Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. 

Through Dick’s modest Dec. 7, and beyond, accounts, and his wit ever so sharp, he filled in many historic “voids” one would never be able to imagine after so many years and all the various documentaries and interpretations.

When I 1st met Dick, I was working in Hangar 79 on something, and mostly, I kept a slug of tools in my van for such work. Back and forth, in and out of the hangar to get to my tools, I noticed an old guy sitting in his car, in the morning shade of Hangar 79.

After about the 4th or 5th trip to my van, I finally went up to that old guy, and noticed on his license plate that it said Pearl Harbor Survivor on it.

I walked to to his driver side window and said, “hello, I see by your license plate that you are a Pearl Harbor Survivor, and because you are parked here, on Ford Island, you must have had something to do with what happened here, and not over with the battleships.”

Facing the mountain (mauka) range, he thumbed over his shoulder and said, “I was in Hangar 54 when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7. I saw the 1st bomb of the entire attack on Oahu come down and hit across from where I was.”

I could not believe my ears. I introduced myself as only the museum Founder, told him where to park his car and that I will set him up place to be inside Hangar 79, out of the sun, and that he is welcome anytime he wants to come.

Living in a community west of Pearl Harbor, Nanakuli, from then on for several years, Dick drove himself 4 times a week to Hangar 79, and sat for about 4 hours a day to tell his story, and other stories, and answer questions when he could. 

Dick and I became good friends, and as the aviation museum didn’t possess his beloved PBY Catalina, I took it upon myself to find and purchase a PBY, on my own, and bring it to Pearl Harbor before anything happened to Dick.

My Son, Allen, found a PBY just put up for sale in Spain. We jumped on a flight to Spain as soon as we could  to survey the plane and found it to be in fantastic shape for its age.

Bringing the news back to Hawaii and Dick, he was in disbelief!

As time went, I purchased the plane through some complicated negotiations, keeping Dick informed with every bit of news I could tell him.

As my Son, Allen, and my Father, started to spend several months a year out of several years in prep work, Dick was endlessly hungry for ALL and ANY info on our PBY.

After running both engines, and an initial taxi test, we were able to start thinking about flight.

Then Covid happened. And Covid was particularly heavy in Spain.

Because Dick went on to be a PBY Flight Engineer after Dec. 7, he knew what and how we had to work on our PBY. 

Today, Dick is still part of our team as he is physically not with us. His name will be honorably placed on our team plaque to be mounted in the plane.

Dick was a friend of mine, and I am so honored to have know him. He contributed greatly to the history of PBYs and life before, during, and after Dec. 7, 1941.

• The power of passion

Upon arriving on my 1st voyage to the Port of Honolulu, there were mandatory service items to accomplish in the tugboat engine room before the crew could go ashore. This voyage lasted about 9 days, one way, so everyone was ready to get off the boat on a late afternoon.

My goal when I stepped off the boat, was to see Pearl Harbor. Before night fell, I was able to get to the shoreside of Pearl Harbor. At 19 years old, I was excited to finally visit Pearl Harbor, it was somewhat anticlimactic to me. The Arizona and visitor center was well established, and I appreciated being able to see what I could see.

On the weeks long return from Hawaii to the Northwest, I spent much time during that voyage, and many future voyages, reflecting on my initial visits to Pearl Harbor.  What I wished to see in Pearl Harbor was something more in the way of Dec. 7, 1941. A type of history interpretation that might include and enhance what was already established for the USS Arizona. But what could that be?

I always had an interest in WW 2 aircraft due to my Father’s similar interests and livelihood in the late 50s and early 60s, as I was a toddler, standing next to him on the truck seat as I went to work with him on occasion in the back of old air fields in Southern California.While he worked on surplus PBY Catalinas and B-25s, I was allowed to climb in and out of the planes on my own.

Years later, I came to live and work in Hawaii, after having engineered a fleet of ocean going tugboats from Point Barrow in the Arctic, the Berting Straight, Berring Sea and most ports, harbors, and rivers, all the way to San Diego, California, Hawaii and Tahiti.