AFEES NEWSLETTERS ARE NOW SENT BY EMAIL: Most of our members now receive a digital AFEES Newsletter sent as an email attachment. If you do not have an email address please contact the Membership Secretary with your latest postal address so you can be sent a printed copy. See the Contacts page on this website for his or her email address.
Past AFEES newsletters and publications commemorating reunions can be found below as pdf files. Click on the links to view them. New issues are added following publication. Earlier issues have been scanned by the webmaster and added to this page. However, he would welcome help in locating missing issues in order to scan them as well. See the list below for those that are missing. During most years the pattern was for newsletters to be published three or four times per year, e.g., in March, June, September, and December. By 2021 this had declined to one issue. The webmaster, Bruce Bolinger, can be contacted by email at bcbolinger at comcast.net and his mailing address is 229 Success Mine Loop, Grass Valley, CA 95945, USA.
Special credit should go to the past and current editors of Communications for the hard work of assembling the issues:
- Harry A. Dolph: January 1988 or earlier – June 1994 (see this issue for obituary) (see photo of Harry Dolph and Gil Millar compiling info on AFEES members and helpers at https://airforceescape.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/February-2007-2.pdf)
- Larry Grauerholz: December 1994 – December 2012
- Elizabeth McDade and her editorial committee of Jerri Donohue and Richard Shandor: January 2013 to November 2017
- Colin Daley: Beginning in 2021
Also credit should go to the late Mary Akins who gave the webmaster her collection of Communications from the 1990’s and Lynn David, Margaret Frick, Michael LeBlanc, and Richard Shandor who shared copies from their collections. And to Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ruwell, Academy Archivist and Chief, Special Collections, McDermott Library, U.S. Air Force Academy, who provided copies of newsletters from the McDermott Library collection. Credit is also due to Mary Shier for sharing her copies for scanning of the rare publications, “We shall never forget 1969” and “Shelburn U.S.A. 1976“, truly unique documents. Thanks also to Margaret Fricke for her tremendous assistance in indexing.
Note that two of the entries, the 1967 Thank You Dinner and the 1974 Comète-AFEES event, are not newsletters as such but are included to show what AFEES was doing those years.
Two issues of the newsletter have what appear to be errors in page numbering. These errors seem to have been the result of printing or assembling problems because they are as they appear in the copies scanned by the webmaster. If anyone has his or her or own copy of one or more of these issues, the webmaster would like to know if the page numbering problems appear there as well. The issues are as follows:
- Summer 1993, pp. 3 and 4 are missing (these pages are missing in one or more other copies of the issue as well and may never have been printed)
- May 1999, the pages are wildly out of order but all present
The webmaster does not have the following issues and would like to borrow them in order to scan them. A prompt return is guaranteed. They are: Any issues for 1985 or earlier and Spring 1992 (if it ever existed). Please contact the webmaster at bcbolinger at comcast.net. Issues that have been scanned or are electronic copies are in red.
Indexing was finally completed on August 18, 2022. An issue that has been indexed will have the notation “(INDEXED)” next to the link to the pdf file. To connect to one or the other of the indexes, click here. The notation “(INDEXED)” will always refer to the indexing of the names of evaders, helpers, and “other subjects.” Indexing of place names, includes only the 2010-2017 issues.
Some evaders and helpers will not appear in the indexes because they were not mentioned in any of the newsletters. Researchers should also check the page entitled AFEES Membership Lists and the directories and lists that appear there.
–May, 1964–
Operation Bonaparte Reunion, May 15-16, 1964, Buffalo, New York (INDEXED)
–1967–
AFEES Thank You Dinner, Sept. 16 1967, Niagara Falls, NY (INDEXED)
–1969–
We shall never forget 1969 (INDEXED)
1974
–1976–
Shelburn USA 1976 Part 1 (INDEXED)
Shelburn USA 1976 Part 2 (INDEXED)
Shelburn USA 1976 Part 3 (INDEXED)
Shelburn USA 1976 Part 4 (INDEXED)
For more on the Shelburne Line, click here.
–1986–
RAFES (Canadian Branch) Sept 1986 – part 1 (INDEXED)
RAFES (Canadian Branch) Sept 1986 – part 2 (INDEXED)
–1987–
San Antonio, TX. May 1987 (INDEXED)
–1988–
Summer 1988 parts 1, 2, 3 (INDEXED)
Summer 1988 Communications part 4 (INDEXED)
Summer 1988 Communications part 5 (INDEXED)
WINTER 1988 (with missing pages added) Communications (INDEXED)
–1989–
Spring Communication 1989 part 1 (INDEXED)
Spring Communication 1989 part 2 (INDEXED)
–1990–
–1991–
Winter 1991 (with missing pages added) (INDEXED)
–1992–
Spring 1992 needed
Missing pages 21-24, Summer 1992 (INDEXED)
–1993–
–1994–
Winter (December) 1994 (INDEXED)
–1995–
–1996–
–1997–
–1998–
–1999–
–2000–
September 2000 (FALL) (INDEXED)
December (WINTER) 2000 (INDEXED)
–2001–
–2002–
–2003–
December 2003 (WINTER 2003-2004) (INDEXED)
–2004–
–2005–
–2006–
AFEES membership list August 2006 (INDEXED)
–2007–
–2008–
–2009–
Sept. 2009 (INDEXED)
December 2009 (INDEXED)
–2010–
March 2010 (INDEXED)
December 2010 (INDEXED)
–2011–
March 2011: 2011 3 March Spring issue (INDEXED)
June 2011: 2011 6 June Summer issue revised (INDEXED)
September 2011: 2011 9 Sept Fall issue (INDEXED)
December 2011: 2011 12 Dec. Winter Issue (INDEXED)
–2012–
March 2012: 2012 3 March Spring Issue (INDEXED)
June 2012: 2012 6 June Summer issue (INDEXED)
September 2012: 2012 9 Sept Fall issue (INDEXED)
Winter 2012/2013: 2012-2013 Dec-Jan Winter Issue (INDEXED)
–2013–
March 2013: 2013 3 March Spring Issue (INDEXED)
July 2013: 2013 7 July Summer Issue (INDEXED)
December 2013: December 2013 (INDEXED)
–2014–
March 2014: 2014 3 March Issue (INDEXED)
December 2014: 2014 12 Dec Issue (INDEXED)
–2015-–
March 2015: 2015 3 March Issue (INDEXED)
(Only one issue was published in 2015)
–2016–
February (Winter) 2016: Winter 2016-2 (Feb) Issue (INDEXED)
(Only one issue was published in 2016)
–2017–
November (Winter) 2017: NOV 2017 AFEES Newsletter_FINAL 01 FOR EMAIL (INDEXED)
(Only one issue was published in 2017)
–2018–
(No issue was published in 2018)
–2019–
(No issue was published in 2019)
–2020–
(No issue was published in 2020)
–2021–
2021 AFEES Reunion Registration Newsletter (INDEXED)
(The article, “Mission 13: A Downed Pilot’s Escape from France”, that appears in the 2021 issue, is now also available as a separate page on this website, where it is also indexed. Click here to view it.)
Is there a confirmed number of evaders who escaped via All the Escape Lines (so a total figure)?
Thanks
I know of no confirmed number for all evaders who escaped via all the escape lines. This is not surprising considering the difficult conditions under which the lines had to operate and the repeated penetrations of the lines by double agents, requiring surviving members of the lines to regroup and start up new lines. Even if someone were to add up the best estimates for the better known lines, there are lesser known lines for which there is only skimpy information.
Bruce Bolinger
Webmaster
Is anyone aware of a List of WW II Caterpillar Club Members?
See the following page on this website:https://airforceescape.org/commemorative-organizations/caterpillar-club/. There are links there that may be of help.
Bruce Bolinger, webmaster
There are two pages missing in the Winter 1988 Communications (pp 6 & 7). Are they missing in the original print? Thank you.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Pages 6 and 7 are missing from the original printed version that I have. I suspect that the omitted page numbers were the result of a page numbering error, which has occurred in a few other issues. Since there is no article or other feature in pages 1-5 that is continued to a page 6 or 7, I can’t be sure. I have made a note of the missing pages in the introductory remarks on that part of the website.
Bruce Bolinger, Webmaster