Staffer Spends Evening With The Oshkosh Irregulars, Lives To Tell Tale

by ANN Correspondent Mark Sletten

Oshkosh's siren song calls to a marvelously wide range of people and personalities with interests so far-ranging it would be impossible to list them all. Some come for the airplanes, some for the vendors, some for the air show and some for the camaraderie of years' long friendships renewed.

Firmly in the camaraderie camp, and in Paul's Park of Camp Scholler every year during AirVenture, you'll find the Kingdom of the Oshkosh Irregulars. They are a "band of renegades," according to one member, which meets annually at Oshkosh for a week-long re-acquaintance camping trip/party.

The Irregulars were formed in 1984 by Rick Marquardt and two friends. That year - and in the years since - they've congenially invited passers-by to their campfire to share stories, food and adult beverages, and the Irregulars' ranks have steadily swelled since.

While walking through Camp Scholler back to my camper one afternoon I stopped to admire a particularly well-equipped camp. There were several large tables covered with a tarp, an ingenious electrical system, a kitchen for which a chef might be envious and flags from several countries, including a curious flag sporting a flying spaghetti pot. Suddenly, a big bear of a man shouted the Irregulars' almost impossible-to-refuse membership pitch, "Come on over and have a beer!" I'd stumbled upon the Oshkosh Irregulars.

Rick told me they are "a Kingdom unto themselves" and, ambitious guy that he is, he seized the reigns of power ("nobody else would") becoming the Irregulars' first "benevolent Dictator."

"Eventually," he lamented, "I was deposed. My subjects then placed a Burger King crown on my head, handed me a toilet plunger scepter, and told me I was from then on to be their King. After a few years of that I abdicated, and the Crown Prince Scot (Rick's son) ascended." As he related this story, Rick was cooking spaghetti - I guess members aspiring to royalty in the Irregulars can look forward to a leisurely retirement…

The ranks of the Irregulars are filled with "cannon fodder" from Canada, England, Australia, Germany, France, South Africa and all over the United States, including the Virgin Islands. Becoming a subject of the kingdom is easy, "It's open to anyone who wants to come back every year and put up with our crap," according to King Scot.

The only other requirement is to report to the homebuilder's pavilion on the AirVenture grounds and hand make a wooden wing rib. Eventually, the Irregulars will use the finished ribs in the construction of a new secret weapon to be "used in the defense of Crown and Kingdom. "It's a swing-wing, supersonic, ultra-light biplane with a Newbold engine," according to Scot, "and we'll complete the aircraft as soon as someone volunteers to fly it." Intrepid test pilots take note!

Robert Lees, affectionately referred to as the group's Limey, hails from Leicester, England. Lees became an Irregular nearly 20 years ago when he was given a ride by a "loyal subject of the Crown" while hitchhiking to AirVenture. "I was standing on a highway somewhere near Chicago," said Lees with a jaunty British accent, "holding a little placard with an EAA logo and 'Oshkosh' on it. A chap called Henry from New York driving a camper van offered to give me a lift and drove me right to this camp, where I haven't really left, apart from going home once a year."

The Irregulars' oldest member, 86-year-old Bob Strehlow, was a B-17 ball-turret gunner during WWII. He's one of the Irregulars' premier story tellers, mostly because he has some great ones. For instance, during one combat sortie he climbed out of his turret for a moment to retrieve some gum and candy he'd forgotten above. When he strapped back in his seat he felt a cold draft and found two-inch holes on both sides both sides of the turret - an enemy shell had passed completely through it!

Every year at AirVenture on Thursday night the Kingdom hosts its annual spaghetti dinner and recruitment drive. Success has been spotty on recruitment, possibly because no one is able to remember who they spoke with the next day. However, they were able to form an "alliance of sorts" with another group about 10 years ago.

The "wholly-owned, subsidiary Kingdom of the Oshkosh Irrelevants" is now a part of the Oshkosh Irregulars, although they maintain their trademark name. "We are irrelevant… to everything. We have no responsibility and no accountability," according to the Irrelevants' leader Mike Dean. "You have to understand, they (the Irregulars) support us. Our motto is "drink a lot - pay for none," and if they don't support us we revolt." Apparently, like the Airline Transport Association, the Irrelevants like to have their cake and eat it too.

In order to become a subject of the Irrelevants one must "do nothing, because we do that better than anything else," said Dean, "My Dad always told me I should try to do what I do best, and I do nothing better than anyone on the planet - why should I require more of my subjects?"

Do these guys know how to party, or what? Seriously, the Oshkosh Irregulars have become a, well, a "regular" sight at Camp Scholler over the years. This is Rick's 36th year straight at AirVenture. "My boys have been coming since they were shorter than my knee. Now my grandkids come and they're taller than me. This is the strangest, most diverse group of folks you'd ever want to meet, but we have a great time!"

So if you're walking by Paul's Park and happen to see a flag with a flying spaghetti pot, look underneath it and you're sure to see a bunch of folks having a good time. And if you're lucky enough to hear someone shout their membership pitch take the time to listen -- you don't have to join, but you can at least enjoy the beer!

FMI: www.airventure.org