News for the men and women who served in the USAF and civilians who work in Government or industry in the Aircrew Life Support business.
Visit our web site at: http://www.usafals.net
There are some really exciting
times coming up in our chosen career field. We have been working to attempt to
identify and document the history behind the Aircrew Protection Career
Field. I had a long special visit this
summer from Mr. Don Bock. Don was there
along with Chief Oscar Norberg when it all started. Don left me much of his historical information files and they are
really complete. He has class start dates as well as a pile of background
information and photos. This coupled
with several audiotapes that Don and Oscar made for me several years ago has
given much insight. They talked for
several hours on the tape discussing the development and early years at
Chanute.
I have also managed to talk
with two life supporters who were in one of the first graduating classes of
AFSC 92230, Survival Training and Personal Equipment Specialist. James Emmett Jennings also provided orders
from the class start and graduation.
Both Emmett and Monroe Johnson are on the graduating orders. Monroe provided his graduation certificate
awarding AFSC 92230 on 18 Jan 1954. The
class start date was 11 Sep 1953. I was
privileged to have worked with one of the other troops who started with that
class, A/3C Earl Norcross who was stationed with me at Eglin in 1956. Both the first and second classes went to
Stead AFB, Nevada for survival training in early January 1954.
Based on the above and other documentation,
we have determined that the celebration of the 50th anniversary of
life support should occur in the year 2003!
Below you will find much more information leading to this special
celebration.
Congratulations to the two new Chief Master Sergeants, Gina Noland and
Steve Wyatt. Gina is currently
stationed with the Joint Task Force Full Accounting (JTF) at Camp Smith
Hawaii. The JTF is responsible for POW/MIA
investigation in South East Asia. Gina
is the first female Life Support Chief and I am sure the first Aircrew
Protection female Chief. Steve Wyatt
recently left the ACC staff and is currently stationed at Tinker. Steve came up through the “Thunderbirds” and
may be the first Chief that served with that special organization. Also, Mike
Freebury has put on his Chief Stripes effective 1 Dec 2002. Again, our congratulations to all and best
wishes as they meet their new challenges.
Best wishes in retirement to
Chief Terry Ache, Chief Bill Pressley, Chief Mark Jones, Chief Walt Horseman,
SMSgt Danny Keith, and MSgt Jim Craft.
All great life supporters! Jim has already signed on with Battelle and
continues to provide his knowledge and background to the Human Systems Wing. I know Danny has some projects in work and
Mark Jones has moved to Carbondale to a Lead Marketing Position with
Gentex. Mark took Skip Clawson’s
position as Skip and Joann started in their “second” retirement in Florida!
Good Luck to all!
I was very fortunate again this year to
attend SAFE in Jacksonville Florida.
While at SAFE Chief Art Wade, who lives in the area, came over to visit
and we had several great visits and dinners!
Skip Clawson, John Damron, Jerry Johnson and I thoroughly enjoyed our
time with Art! What a gentleman! Art went to Chief Bob Burris’s funeral while
we were there and provided us a review.
Bob was also special and will be missed at the 50th reunion.
Others at SAFE who some might remember were Kenny and Pearl Marks,
George and Lou Braue, Cal Crochet, Bill Harrison, Jake Yacobi, Al Loving, Randy
Epperly, Rob Darter, Rob Hudson, Gary Winchester, John Fair, Bill Wood, and
Mark Jones. John Fair is now working
with Scot Inc and has moved to Chicago.
Gary Winchester is on board with Wel Fab and glad to be back in the
business!
We are looking forward to a great big
turnout in June at the 50th reunion. Bob McElwain and KB Kinchen have some plans working and I hope to
have our history down pat and documented in a handout! I am sure that there will be much to add and
correct and I will be ready and willing to get together to make it better and
more complete. Search your files, orders, PAM’s, Zerox, graduation
certificates, photos, etc, for any information that will advance our
history. Please bring everything you've
got!
In closing, we recognize that
prior to Sep 1953/Jan 1954 there were many troops such as Charlie Kiehl, Jimmy
Cartwright, Leaster Williamson, Don Bock, Oscar Norberg and many others that
were full time “Aircrew Protection”. We have “Special” presentations for any who
led the way and attend this year’s reunion!
Cheers, Tommy
CHILI SEZ
I begin this time with the sad news of the passing of five family
members and the injury of another. A lot of you don't know William Burrell; he
is the son of retired CMSgt Sandy Burrell.
It saddens me to say that he passed away last month. William attended every reunion with his dad
and was special to the reunion attendees.
He seemed to enjoy every moment at our reunions whether he was in the
middle of everything, or just by himself.
It's ironic that other than his dad, the other person who often made
sure that William was included in everything was also taken from us this
year. That person was Bob Burris.
Bob attended
all of our reunions as well, right up until the end. He passed away on his
return trip home from this year's reunion.
After he and his wife, Virginia departed Laughlin, NV they stopped to
see a friend in Arizona and one in New Mexico.
They departed NM on 24 Sep on their way to San Antonio, TX to visit
their son. Bob went into a diabetic
coma that night in Kent, TX and didn't come out of it.
Charles
Bergman informed me that we lost a life supporter in the Rantoul area. MSgt (Ret) John Cullen, who was an
instructor at Chanute for many years in the Basic ABR and officer OZR
courses. He passed away on 11 Aug
02. John served in the National Guard
from 1949 to 1950. He served in the AF
for 26 years before retiring in 1976.
After retiring, John worked in the transportation department at Chanute
AFB for 17 years. John had many friends
in the Rantoul area and was the local Director of Military Retiree
Affairs. The Rantoul City School
central office recently employed him.
John and Bob
are gone but will live on in the history of life support. Bob Burris helped many troops during his
career, officer and enlisted alike and will never be forgotten. We're going to miss his presence, laughter
and smile at next year's reunion. His passing out of reunion hats (especially
to William Burrell) to the attendees will never be forgotten.
John Cullen
will go down in history as one who helped shaped and molded a lot of
outstanding life support troops right out of tech school. John's name will be added to the list of
instructors that we are putting together of troops who taught where it all
began, Chanute AFB, Il.
I was informed
at this year's reunion that Earnest Johnson also passed away. If you don't know Ernie, I'm sure you've
seen his face before. He was the guy
modeling the survival vest in the survival kit tech order and in our CDC
book. According to his military
assignment history (which can be found on our web site), Ernie's military
career started back in the 1940's when he was a parachute rigger. He retired in 1966 while performing duties
at HQ PACAF.
Bob Weaver informed us about the passing of Danny
Kittrell. Danny was the civilian
(retired officer) down at Eglin working the CWDE decon last year.
According to
Bob, Danny left this world on 10 Nov 02 in the Fort Walton Beach, FL Medical
Center. Tommy Tompkins stated that
Danny had been sick and in the hospital since March 02, and that when he last
saw Danny he was in great sprits even though he knew he was sick.
On behalf of
all life supporters, I extend heartfelt sympathy to the families and friends of
William, Bob, John, Earnest, and Danny.
Last, but not
least, an A1C assigned to the 75th FS at Pope AFB, NC was struck by a motor
vehicle while attending to her dog. She
bent over to pick up her dog when she was struck from the rear and ended up
landing face down in a ditch. She was
in critical condition with a severed left leg, crushed right thigh, multiple
head contusions and possible internal injuries. The last news I received on her is that she may be medically
retired if medical conditions warrant.
She can be reached at the following address:
Emily Pullman
2824 NC,
Highway 20
St. Paul,
NC 28384
75th Fighter
Squadron Life Support
2479 Surveyor
Street
Pope AFB,
NC 28308
Reunion
Our 7th
reunion was held in September 02 and was attended by several new faces. The new attendees were: Eddie Aguilar, Allan & Erma Bailey,
Robin & Sue Beal, Jim & Laura Demay, Jerry Imada, Brian & Valery
Rook, Tom & Donna Sherman, and Gloria Watts. For a complete list of attendees visit our web site. For the results of our annual golf
tournament see below.
Life Support Retirees Reunion Golf Tournament
Our 2002 Reunion Golf Tournament was a total
success. We had excellent participation
with 15 golfers teeing it up at the Mojave Resort Course. Ed MacKenzie, as always, was responsible for
the tournament set-up and his hard work insured that we all enjoyed the morning
of golf. Well Done, Ed.
Our Golf Tournament would not be as much fun
if we didn’t have a few prizes and gifts to hand out. This year, active duty life supporters were most generous in
donating prizes for our tournament. We
would like to acknowledge the continued support of CMS Rich Robichaud, HQ
USAF/XOO, CMS Beetle Bailey, HQ ACC, CMS Chris Holt, HQ PACAF, and CMS Greg
Copeland, HQ AFSOC. Also, we want to
thank the following sponsors/individuals for their continued support:
Gentex West –
Brenda Von Kleist
Scott Inc –
Rob Darter
Wel Fab – Gary
Winchester
H. Koch &
Sons – Ken Marks
This year we
fielded four teams to participate in “The Scramble”. The reverse order of finish was as follows:
Fourth Place:
John Weir, Will Oost, Bill Lynn and Jim Rooney.
Third Place:
Gary Winchester, Dave Nelson and Fred Cernetisch
Second Place:
Al Loving, Mike Rossmiller, Jerry Imada and Marie Balla
First Place: Ed
MacKenzie, Allan Bailey, Tim Farkas and Shirley Farkas
Our lady golfers, Marie Balla and Shirley
Farkas, were presented special gifts donated by HQ PACAF Life Support. Prizes were also presented to the following
individuals:
Longest Drive:
Jim Rooney and Ed MacKenzie
Closest to the
Pin: Dave Nelson and Tim Farkas
After a one-year absence, the Life Support Retirees
Perpetual Golf Award returned for presentation to a “worthy” life support
retiree. This trophy is entrusted to
the selected individual for one year and is to be returned to the Reunion the
following year for presentation to another “worthy” recipient. This year’s recipient was Al Loving. Good luck with your putting Al.
As I write this, the plans for next year’s Reunion and celebration of our career field anniversary are still being worked. However, be assured that Ed MacKenzie is working on the golf tournament. Please remember to sign up and send in your money early. Hope to see everyone next year – Jim Rooney
Reunion 2003
The year 2003 marks a landmark event for the
Aircrew Life Support career field - our 50th anniversary. Together, we're celebrating 50 years of
providing our country's military aircrews with quality life saving equipment
and training. Our anniversary year will
culminate in June 2003 with a four-day reunion and gala celebration at the
Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. The
reunion dates are 16 -20 June 2003 with the 16th and 20th being travel days. Everyone is highly encouraged to attend.
We are
expecting to see a lot of the people that could not attend our September
reunions because of school, farming chores, etc. To encourage early registration, the first 50 people to send in
their registration form will be refunded $10 of their registration fee. To see who has registered, visit our web
page and click on “Reunion”.
Unless you
make special arraignments, check-in at the hotel will not be earlier than 1500
hrs, 16 Jun 03. After checking in visit
our booth (which will be set up in the hotel lobby from 1400 - 1700 hrs) to
sign in for the reunion. The
hospitality room will open at 1700 hrs on Monday, 16 June so stop by and bring
an appetite. To guarantee reservations fill out the attached registration form
and send it in to the address indicated.
The reunion
will feature a golf tournament, a bus tour of the local area, and a special
ceremony and banquet. All events will
be informal and dress will be casual.
Active duty personnel are required to be in an appropriate uniform for
our opening activities on Tuesday morning, 17 June.
Reunion Support
I'm going to
need a lot of help with next year's reunion so I'm asking all the vendors who
were at the Life Support Workshop in Snowbird, UT this year to help out. Information on becoming a sponsor can be
found on our web site, but it's basically the same information I handed out to
you all at the workshop. All donations are needed by 1 May 2003, however, if you like, special
arrangements can be made for you to send your donation directly to the hotel,
but please let me know before you do that so that I can set it up.
We are having
a special 50th anniversary coin made up and it will be available at the
reunion. Somehow I forget who I talked to about having them made. All I remember is that it was a TSgt at the
World Wide Workshop last August. We
need to discuss the design of the coin and the quantity. If that's you please contact me ASAP!
I need
everyone to dig out his or her old military related photos and see if you have
any of yourself taken with a famous military or civilian personality. I'm putting a special presentation together
in honor of our 50th and your pictures are needed. I would also like to have some other pictures. If you are attending next year's reunion,
send me an old picture of yourself in any military uniform and a second one of
what you look like today. Both will be
included in the presentation and/or added to our web site. Please give me as much info as you can about
any pictures you send. I’ll need to
know the usual who, what, when, and where.
Several other people besides Kb and myself are
working feverishly to help put this special celebration together. I want to thank the following for their
support ahead of time: Ed MacKenzie,
Frank Provezano, and Jim Rooney.
Together we promise to make next year's reunion a most unforgettable
affair.
Stamp Fund
I received letters from Maynard Fielding and Bruce Maynard along with a check from both for our stamp fund. Maynard reports that the fishing is good in Galicia, Spain and wishes he were younger so that he could sail around the world. Other donations for stamps came from the reunion attendees who contributed over $500! Two hundred dollars came from Bob Weaver, and someone sent in a roll of 100 stamps! Thanks to all who donated this year. We really appreciate your generosity.
First
Females in Life Support
Gina Noland is
the first female (and African American female) to make CMSgt in life support,
but who were the first females in the career field? I am trying to find the answer to that question and so far most
people think Nancy Smith is one of them.
Nancy spent time at the tech school back in the early 1980's. I’ll bet she is full of war stories about
some of the first women in our career field. Sure
would be nice to
see Nancy at
next year’s reunion. Anyway, according to information I received
from TSgt Wildo, an Aircrew Life Support Instructor at Sheppard AFB, a Chanute
AFB chronology indicates that in April 1973 A1C Vickie Stevens was the first
WAF to earn the Life Support AFSC. The
first female life supporter I saw was in 1974 at McGuire AFB, but I don’t
remember her name. Think about the
first time you saw a female in life support and let me know if it was around or
before 1974. I need to know her name
and when and where you saw her before the next reunion.
Come on and
join us in Las Vegas next year. Aircrew
Life Support is 50 years strong, let's celebrate! We are hoping to see a lot of people we haven't seen since their
discharge or retirement.
I hope one of them will be you.
Bob,
A.k.a., Chili