Our October Volunteer spotlight doesn’t work a traditional docent schedule. Meet James C. Mayhew. Jim works as a special response team member. These individuals are on call to work large museum tours, special events, and act as substitute docents in times of need.
Jim was born a raised in Indiana and joined the United States Navy in 1974 right out of high school. He completed boot camp in San Diego and specialized training in Millington, Tennessee.
His next stop was Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. There, his company acted as a second line of defense behind the US Marine Corps Guards. He spent most of his off-duty time fishing and even extended his time there to a year and a half.
His next assignment was NAS Cecil Field, Florida with VA-174 as a plane captain on A-7 Corsairs and then as an instructor at plane captain school. His next stop was VP-30 In Jacksonville, Florida for P-3 Orion Flight Engineer School. He stayed there for about two years before being assigned to VP- 5 and VP-24 for most of the 1980s and early 1990s.
In his final years, he was flying crew on Beechcraft C-12’s and T-39 Sabreliners at Pensacola. He did three years at NAS Pax River doing rotary wing research and development. He was assigned to an SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter squadron at Mayport, Fl when he retired from the US Navy in 1995.
Since retiring, his main hobby, in addition to traveling, is what he describes as “junking”. Junking is actually finding undervalued antiques and other items at thrift stores or flea markets. He had been so successful with this venture he had to buy two warehouses to store all his finds. In addition to the museum, he also volunteers with the American Legion, DAV and VFW posts Forty and Eight. He has held local, state and national positions with these organizations.
Your best bet to meet Jim would be joining a large tour group on a weekday, and we thank him for his military service and volunteering his free time with not only HAM, but his other military organizations.