Tpr. Thomas Vacula and Francis Valentino of the Good Fellowship
Ambulance stand Outside helicopter in 1968 photograph at West Goshen Twp. Building. Inside
helicopter are Fire Chief Tony Polito, left, and pilot Joseph Gregory.
Retired Tpr. Tom Vacula said the helicopter shown in the photograph on this page
was leased out of the Philadelphia International Airport and was the forerunner of the
Department’s aviation program.
Troop J, Exton, where he was assigned, was one of the first stations involved in
the program. In order to receive federal grant funding, the Department used the helicopter
as an ambulance. Tom said he and other troopers were used as air observers and certified
emergency ambulance attendants. Tom said traffic was backed up to New Jersey when the
helicopter landed one time on the Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia to pick up an
accident victim.
The pilots were veterans of the Vietnam War and “they could land those
choppers on a dime,” Tom said. The pilot in the photo, Joseph Gregory, later was
killed flying a television news crew to the Watkins Glen auto race.
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We will ride the mountains and
valleys of Dauphin, Schuylkill, and Lebanon counties ending at Memorial Lake on the Fort
Indiantown Gap Military Reservation where there will be light food, prize drawings and
some representatives from the PA National Guard to say thank you to all the supporters.
HISTORICAL
SPOTLIGHT...
Retired Colonel Glenn A. Walp Interview: Implosion at Los Alamos
Implosion At Los Alamos is a frightening exposé that reveals failed
security, crime, mismanagement, cover-ups and corruption at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Ground Zero for America’s strongest defense against rogue nations and
terroristic entities – at least it should be.
Former Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Glenn Walp was hired by “the
lab” to investigate crime and lapsed security that plagued the lab post-9/11. Walp
uncovered the theft/loss of over $3 million in taxpayer property, including nearly 400
computers that potentially housed nuclear secrets. Certain lab leaders, concerned that public
exposure of these and other administrative and criminal debacles could jeopardize the
lab’s lucrative government contract, opposed his efforts at every turn. Notwithstanding,
Walp and his two partners remained dauntless, exposing to the world the real and present
danger to America’s nuclear secrets. Walp proposes - through well-documented facts –
that because of the lab’s failed security throughout the first decade of the 21st
century, America and her allies are vulnerable to those who may now be in possession of
America’s darkest nuclear weapons secrets.
Walp said in an interview that he wrote the book to shed light on
what happened at the lab with stolen or missing property during his tenure. Walp said he and
two colleagues worked to properly handle the cases of $3 million in stolen or missing property
including 400 computers, but they found resistance from other top lab officials. Walp said he
was wrongfully fired in late 2002. He and colleague Steve Doran were later rehired as
consultants. "I believe every American should want to know why their premier national
nuclear weapons lab, i.e. LANL, has failed to ensure iron-clad security of nuclear secrets.
... I'm trying to reach out to the people in power who have the power to change something
before it's too late." Walp, who spent 29 years with the Pennsylvania State Police and
was the chief of the Arizona Capitol Police before taking the security post in Los Alamos,
said he hopes Congress pays more attention to what is happening at the lab and is able to beef
up security, in part by providing better training. He and two of his colleagues have testified
at Congressional hearings about LANL.
CAREER OPPORTUNITY
Do you have what it takes to be a... Pennsylvania State Trooper? Learn more
"Professionalism in Law Enforcement"
Did
You Know?...
PSP-HEMC HOURS The Pa State Police H.E.M.C. Operations offices
are in Hershey, PA, 187 Police Academy Drive. Office hours may vary at times but
generally, you can reach us Monday thru Friday 8:00am to 5:30pm. Tour
Schedule
*Special Weekend Operational Hours & Events...Click here
If you are traveling from a distance, call ahead! (We are closed Saturdays,
Sundays and for state holidays, and occasionally closed if out of town doing a
show).
The
Pennsylvania State Police Historical, Educational and Memorial Center is looking for volunteers to
assist in conducting oral history interviews of individuals who have experienced or knowledge of
Pennsylvania State Police historical events.
