McGarvey’s to honor service members
Annapolis tavern will make plaques for extensive collection of flight crew helmets
Over its nearly half-century history, McGarvey’s Saloon and Oyster Bar in Annapolis has acquired an impressive collection of flight crew helmets.
The 30 or so helmets line the top of the bar in the tavern on Market Space. They’re from the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines. A few belong to emergency services. Some have special logos; others have call signs emblazoned on them like “Cha Cha” or “The Bull” or “Dragon One.”
As the establishment gears up for its 50th anniversary next year, management is seeking information on individuals who donated flight crew helmets to celebrate their service and Annapolis’ military history.
On Tuesday, Forest Landa, the bar’s manager, put out a call to action in hopes of collecting the stories of the men and women who donated their helmets.
“I was looking at these and thinking, ‘Gosh, these look so cool,’” Landa said. “You’re just looking at these helmets and it’s just a cool decoration for the bar. I wanted to take it a step further and say, ‘Hey, look … these are people that flew, that fought for this country that live these lives and deserve to have some sort of storytelling.”
Plaques will be made to include the name of the individual who donated the helmet, where and how long they served, and the model aircraft they flew.
Landa is asking for either the individuals who have donated their helmets or close family or friends to those who have donated to reach out to Flanda@ mcgarveysannapolis.com.
“Part of what I want to do here [is to show that] “50 years here was not built by the staff, it was built by the people who trusted us [and] continue to come back,” he
said.
Helmet donations began when Capt. Michael Ashford owned the restaurant but there are no records of who the donors were. Ashford opened the bar in 1974 and ran it for 41 years. In 2016, it was sold to three former midshipmen: Kevin W. Havens, Henry J.
MacLaughlin Jr. and Christopher Sean Hannon.
“I didn’t have any files to go back on. I didn’t have contact information for people. So, I kind of was just running in the dark and trying to find a way to get in touch with these people,”Landa said. “We have so much military history, so much history of Annapolis in general in this bar, and I really wanted to pay homage to that.”