Just Wondering

Over the past 9 months that I've been reading many, many posts here at DG, I have found that there is a tremendously diverse background among all who are 'regular' members. There are retired doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc., who have found gardening to be their real "life-long" love.
Would it be too personal to ask if any of you are retired Navy fliers? In that vein, were any of your fathers Navy fliers? And if you go back far enough, some of your fathers may have been US Army fliers.
If you don't mind too much, I'd like to hear about you or your fathers.

No flyers in my family blmlb, am writting my bio (lol) for the 'best,worse and what did I learn forum' if interested you can pop in....

Hi blmlb ,
I'm to young to be a X anything .
But We do have a retired Navy MAN on Cannas ,
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/733450/#new
Common over and say Hi and ask him yourself .
Cheers , Kell

My FIL is a retired USN fighter pilot. He doesn't garden, he can only walk 3 steps, then he's wheelchair bound. The doctors say it's from "pulling all those g's".

My dad was a Navy man first (served on a ship though) then swapped to the Air Force when it was first created. Served his time during a couple of wars. I have lot's of military in my family actually. Just no fliers.

Same here. Ours are pretty much all Air force. FIL and BIL are the only pilots. DS wants to be a Marine though.

My Dad was a Army helicopter pilot, was with the UTT then the 1st Cav. Was grounded due to type one diabetes caused by agent orange.

The only flying I did was when they sent me out to work on remote lighthouses usally resuted in being dropped in a basket from the helocopter 4 times out of 9 into the water instead of something that could be stood on. Got old pretty quick.

The copter rides were pretty qwueel though, Then there were the Float Planes in Alaska, another story but a good one (I got to drive once in awhile).

araness, my dad grew up in Orange. Delivered newspapers there when he was a kid. He joined the Army Air Corps back in the early 40's. They shipped him to an air base in southern England where he was a pilot of a B-24, flying missions into France. He never dropped bombs, though. He was in a squadron that flew low level late nite flights over France to drop supplies and arms to the French underground. Sometimes he carried French spies who had trained in England, and then were air-dropped into France.
I guess he influenced me. I spent my time in P-3 aircraft chasing soviet nuc subs all over the Atlantic during the cold war.
araness and dyson, I have much respect for helo drivers. Helos always struck me as being flying coffins. Only one engine, and if that craps out, it doesn't glide very well.
Sharona, I admire fighter pilots. It is a job that is tremendously physically and mentally demanding. Even if you've flown in a commercial airliner, you have no idea what it would be like to be in a fighter jet. I had a few flights in a training jet early in my flight training, and I was just a back seat passenger. The instructor pilots just loved to get us new guys in the back seat. Had one flight where 2 aircraft were engaging in a simulated dogfight. They did everything they could to get us airsick. And believe me, it's not fun to throw up in your oxygen mask. And if they couldn't get you airsick, they loved to make those hard turns without warning you. If you weren't ready for it, it would whip your head against the side of the canopy, and your helmet would ring like a bell. Just a 1 hour dogfight would make you weak for the rest of the day.
Sharona, my youngest would also like to be a flyer. BUT. About 3 months ago we attended a presentation at Craig Airfield where a civilian helo company was trying to drum up students at a tuition of $65,000. We thought about it, but the cost was awfully steep. Then, 2 weeks later one of that company's training helos crashed on the beach out there in your neck of the woods. You probably read about it in the papers. Killed the instructor pilot and the student. Needless to say, my youngest is not that anxious to fly helos now.

BLM it is a small small world...

Just today I was urging my Father to joint the Distinguished Flying Cross Society (he will recieve it in a few weeks) with his reply being "oh,it's not a big deal" *LOL* he is very down to earth with these things and I believe his silver star, bronze star, purple heart, along with several Vietnamese medals are in a jumble in a jewelry box. Now let it be someone else and he's very detailed and the honors etc. When my Uncle who is a medal of honor winner died and was burried my Dad stayed on the burial details guy butt about every detail but for his own he wouldn't care a fig.

blmlb - Yes, I remember when that happened. It was awful. You just never know when something is going to happen. A friend's DH was a helo pilot in the Gulf War. His helo went down in the Med, he got everyone out, except himself. Very sad. He was found still in the pilot seat, returned home and laid to rest. I haven't thought about that in years.
araness - Such an honor for someone who has served his country! He should inded join the Society!

Araness, it is indeed a small world. My Dad would never talk much about his flying in WWII. He always passed it off as just another job that needed to be done. When pressed about it, he told us about one mission when one of his engines was shot out by flak. He told us about being able to get back home to England, scooting over the 'white cliffs' with plenty of room to spare. He always minimized all of it.
I now think that he was not really minimizing anything. I believe that he was simply remembering a "pucker factor" event that was simply to be expected at the time. And the fact that he got back OK just made the pucker factor irrelevant. I got the impression that today's scary event SHOULD be forgotten, because tomorrow he would just face more of the same.
Those guys, your Dad, your uncle, my Dad, had more backbone than I think I could have ever mustered. It is almost sad that it is a history that is so easily forgotten, and rarely taught, because those who were part of it never take credit for it.
And, maybe, for good reason. Those who survived know full well that the ones who deserve the accolades are the ones who are not here to talk about it.

I agree, Dad doesn't tell many stories even when pushed. I rarely see any type of emotion from him when it comes to that side of him, except for on odd occasions. Once when we went to the movies, I think it was Platoon or another of the sort if had one scene that must of triggered a memory or been to realistic but he got up and left. No words of explanation just left.

araness, could be that those kinds of memories are best left alone. Curiosity be I don't think either one of us is entitled to know what he knows. Unless he wishes to share. And few of them will share, probably because it would be hurtful to them, and us, as well.
I, personally, would dearly like to know, to have a real feel for what my Dad went thru, and how he handled the fear that was a part of every flight. And how he dealt with it.
I've tried to put myself in his shoes, and I've wondered if I could share my fears with my wife, or my son or daughter. I've come to realize that whatever fears I might have had would have been mine, alone. And would not be shared with anyone.
So maybe what we are left with is the proud legacy, without details. I live with that. And I am pleased that he was who he was.

During WWII my Dad was a flight surgeon with the Army Air Forces. He never talked about his service...perhaps because he had 3 girls and no boys.

Both my uncles; one my DM brother, the other my DD's brother served in WW2. Emil, Mom's brother was just eighteen when he enlisted in the Navy and shipped to Pearl Harbor. He spent 20 years in the Navy and retired. He often spoke of his experences at that terrible battle, and when he retired became very active in the Pearl Harbor Survivors organization. He also was very active in Toastmasters International. He is the gentleman who made the memorial plaque that is over the entrance of the Arizona Museum. He passed away suddenly in 1981, and I miss him very much.
Ted, Dad's brother, was among the first to land on Omaha Beach. Ted was an amazing and gentle man and never mentioned his wartime experences. After Normandy, he was driving a transport truck in Belgum and hit a land mine. Out of nine GI's, he was the only one to survive. He was hospitalized for over a year in England before he was honorably discharged. He returned to the states and went to the Peabody Conservatory, getting his degree in Music Ed. He taught Music and was a band director in the Tewksbury Ma. schools. All the kids loved him, calling Ted the " Pied Piper of Brass". Everyone adored Ted; he was a lifelong bachelor and always doing something for somebody. He left us in 1997, and not a day goes by that I don't miss him terribly. He had what all of your Dad's obviously had ....real and genuine...quiet courage, and I honor that more than anything. Les

Les, I'm pleased to hear that. Good families deserve good memories.

We laid my Uncle too rest a few years ago, I never remember him talking about his time in WWII or even for that matter exploits on the local Fire Dept. I do remember the local VFW and the salute at the services.

Seems too me the ones who are truly heroic, never notice when they are, it is a job, they perform it to the best of their ability - and the results are amazing too the rest of us mortals.

Sometimes, just sometimes, we would like to hear their memories. But they may not wish to relive the experience in telling it. I can respect that wish.

Dyson, I kinda get the impression that those who went thru WWII simply express a quiet pride and at the same time, a sincere sadness for those left behind. But neither the pride nor the sadness are ever shared.

Les, I've seen that plaque at the Arizona! My ex-H and I were stationed in Honolulu for four years, and we lived in Pearl City. We were in the Army and worked at Tripler Army Medical Center--our son was born there. Seeing the Arizona was a very emotional experience.

Hey, does anyone know who to contact about getting one of my teachers the Purple Heart he earned in 'Nam, but never got? It really irks me every time I see his scarred arm twitching from his injury, and I don't see a Purple Heart license plate on his car!

Logsdon-Young, Melissa
NSO, Staff

MOPH
321 W. Main Street
Suite 390
Louisville, KY 40202

Voice: (502) 566-4428
Fax: (502) 566-4370
vavbalou/ro/moph@vba.va.gov or nsoloumoph@yahoo.com

try contacting the MOPH and see if they can give you more info.

Thanks so much, araness! I will contact them!