Bill Packard will be the guest speaker at the next meeting of the Hope Historical Society, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, at the Hope Fire Station, Camden Road, Hope.

The evening will begin with a potluck supper at 6 p.m. (bring your own utensils, and a dish to share). There will be the Annual Members Meeting after the meal, and then the guest speaker. 

In early 1971 a twenty-year-old Bill Packard was deployed with Naval Construction Battalion 40 to a remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The mission of the battalion was to build a runway to support a communications station. He will share a slideshow presentation of the construction challenges faced to construct a base in the middle of nowhere with no backup of supplies and resources.

While this was and is a military facility, the focus of the presentation will not be military, but rather on the construction challenges, the lifestyle, and the accomplishments of the Seabees, a dying breed in the Navy.