(Click on topic to read details, click on Top of Page after topic to return here) Websites Future / 2010 Reunion / Personal Crisis / Future Reunions VMFP-3 Association Special Announcement -Marc E. Iseli- July 21 2010 I would like to apologies to all Veterans who have been to this site or tried contacting me for information on the 2010 reunion. Sorry that I have not replied to you or updated this site in some time but just recently my personal life has taken a turn for the worst and I have been away from my home with no access to my emails or Internet service in several weeks. This is the first time that I have had a chance to sit down and explain in detail what is going, on which you can read below. Future of the RF-4B Phantom II Society Website For the past ten years it has been a pleasure and honor to be able to offer this website to the Veterans of VMCJ and VMFP-3 squadrons. I have made many great friends on this site and I want to thank you all for your support over the years. It takes a lot of time and much of my own personal funding to maintain this site on the Internet. I wanted to give a special thank you to those who have donated buying a t-shirt offered on this site over the past two years. Your donation has helped to keep this site up and running for at least one more year. In a few weeks I will be moving to another state and do not know when I will be back on the Internet. It was a privilege and honor to serve with you all. I wish everyone the best of luck for the future. Semper Fidelis 2010 Reunion Canceled I t is with the deepest regret that I must inform you that the 2010 Reunion has been cancelled due to the economic crisis our country is currently experiencing. I know how deeply disappointing this is to many of you and I ask for all your understanding and forgiveness at this time. For those of you who have been to this site over the past ten years know that I have worked very hard trying to keep our squadrons memory alive and have done all I can to reunite as many squadron Veterans as possible. Up until three months ago I was in contact with an official in Cherry Point and had many of the details worked out on the reunion. Three days had been set aside, one day for golf to be held at the Cherry Point Sound Of Freedom Golf Course. MCAS Cherry Point was going to provide a base tour with a possible flight line demonstration and a Banquet was going to be held at the Havelock Tourist & Event Center. The Banquet Hall, which held 250, would cost $400.00 to rent not to include the food. Golf expense was very low cost and the base tour I was told would be free. Several months ago I sent off several hundred emails with these details hoping to hear back from Veterans and I got very few responses in return. I heard more from those who could not make it due to the economy or personal obligations. I thought the interest was very low at that time. I tried contacting my official in Cherry Point and never got a response back and I am not sure if they are still working in that position. Since that time I have heard that MCAS Cherry Point which holds one of the largest air show on the East Coast has cancelled next years show due to the economy. For those of you who are serious about attending VMFP-3 reunions please read more. Future Reunions Marine Corps Aviation Reconnaissance Association, MCARA, is a great organization which I have been a member of for many years. It represents all Marine Aviation Recon squadrons from the very early days to present day. I had the privilege to work with them in planning a MCARA & VMFP-3 reunion which was held in Cherry Point 2009, see photo above. Mostly VMCJ Veterans attended and was disappointed not to see anyone from VMFP-3 show up. I am standing to the far right in the photo. I had a great time talking with and learning about the early years of the Veterans and the RF-4B. This would be a great organization to join and attend biannual reunions. If you are interested you should check out their website and join today. http://www.mcara.us/ VMFP-3 Association Since starting this website over ten years ago many VMFP-3 Veterans have asked me when will someone organize a VMFP-3 reunion. Several Veterans have already held successful reunions but nothing annually or a large scale event. I have tried my very best over the years to reunite Veterans through this site, on Facebook and have tried several time to organize a reunion. Its very hard as a single person to accomplish this without any funding at all. Although the MCARA is a great organization I have always felt that VMFP-3 was a very special and unique squadron and deserve to be represented on its own. Many Marine squadrons have associations that represent them individually. It has always been my hope that some of our Veterans with the knowledge would come forward band together and create a VMFP-3 Association. We already have a great member base with thousands of Veteran on this site and now Facebook. We are still a very young group of Veterans and I know that we have many great VMFP-3 Veterans who are retired, have business knowledge that could put this together. It is the only chance I see to hold reunions for VMFP-3 on a regular basis. Reunions could be held all over the country and give everyone a chance to attend and reunite. If there are any Veterans out there interested in this feel free to drop me a line and I can be a go between and connect you with all Veterans who are interested. I am creating a special email that I will be able to access from any computer. rf4bphantom@gmail.com Personal Crisis I t has never been my practice to talk about my personal life or get into politics on this site but feel the need to explain what has been happening to me these past two years and the future. By now many of you know that our country is in a serious financial crisis. Over 20 Million people have lost their jobs in the past two years. I have been truly bless to have had a steady job for the past 36 years and have lived a comfortable life up until now. Over the years I have survived and continued to work through several recessions but have never experienced a recession like the one we currently are experiencing now. In 2004 I decided that it was time for a change and I moved from the cold North down South where I hoped to work and retire someday. The transition went well and I had a great job and bought a home. I saw no signs of trouble in the future until 2008. One day in Sept. 2008 the housing market collapses and with out notice in one short week all of our jobs dried up and I found myself laid off for the first time in my life. I also lost half of my life savings in stocks. I have been back to work several times since then but only for a few weeks off and on. For the most part I have been living off of the remains of my life savings. W hat makes me angry the most is down South many states have a large population of illegal immigrants working many of the skilled jobs. They are not just working the jobs that Americans don't want to do, as politician would like you to believe. They are working highly skilled jobs and working for minimum wage which makes business owners more money. I have seen thousands of hard working Americans standing in unemployment lines down here and then I drive past many jobsites and see nothing but illegals working all day long. Our Government chooses to turn its back on this problem. They tell us that they are cracking down on illegals but announce it on TV the day before that they will be checking jobsites. When you drive by jobsites the next day not a single person is working for several days after that. I guess I was pretty ignorant for not know that this was going on down here before moving here. I thought I was going to be able to outlast this recession but I am running out of funds and things are only getting worst and I see no end in sight. The politicians who had no problem bailing out the greedy who started this whole thing and spending billions of our money on stupid programs, now have a problem voting to extend unemployment benefits. Unemployment here is at 12% and for every job offered there are ten people in line for it. I have come to the conclusion that it is every person for themselves. I will have to walk away from my home because the property values have dropped so low I can not even sell my home and pay off the mortgage. I am faced with losing everything that I worked so hard for over the years. I have decided to walk away from it all and move back North and start my life all over again. It is very sad to see what has become of our country today. I know that millions more Americans are currently facing the same fate. To those who are doing well and those who are experiencing the same fate as I am. I wish you all the best of luck. May God help us all. Recommended Screen Resolution 1024 x 768 Enable pop-ups to fully enjoy this site. This website is not affiliated with the U.S. Government or the United States Marine Corps in any way. This website is a copyright and the property of the Phabulous Phantom Productions and the information and photos gathered for this website are intended for the purpose of providing un-official information and entertainment for those interested in the history of Marine Corps RF-4B Squadrons and the RF-4B Phantom II aircraft.