Those in My Family Who Served

[dustymars]

My grandfather was a captain for Eastern flying the B707-720 out of Miami until he hit mandatory retirement in the early-mid 70s.  Who knows, you might have crossed paths with him.

On the subject of nukes, I had the opportunity to have a fascinating chat with Albury's old boss, Brig Gen (ret) Paul Tibbets, the former commander of the 509th Composite Group and the command pilot of the Enola Gay when it delivered the first crowd-pleasing "Thank You" note for Pearl Harbor.  Some amazing history there...and so much sacrifice by them and millions more like them that our coddled entitled snowflakes take for granted while they squeal about burning it all down.

I'm retired from flying and big into simulators myself now...you'd be amazed what you can do with a good desktop PC these days.  I taught in simulators as an IP in the Air Force...what I have running in my basement rivals the sims we used to train on when I was flying in the AF.
 

 

Wow, the old B720 was one of the last analog simulators Eastern had, along with the real old Electra.  I started at Eastern in 1973. I suppose your grandfather flew later aircraft at Eastern?  I’ll bet I did cross paths with him. Col. Tibbets was a wing commander at McDill AFB sometime when we lived in South Florida, can’t remember the dates, by he was promoted to Brig Gen before retiring.  It seemed like he was a full Coronel for a hundred years, at least from 1944 until the 1970’s.  I for one am glad they dropped those bombs; my father was in training for the invasion of Japan in August 1945.    I worked simulators for 30 years, but had to give it up in 1989.  Still miss them; one job in the airline business was enough for me.   

[dustymars]

My grandfather was a captain for Eastern flying the B707-720 out of Miami until he hit mandatory retirement in the early-mid 70s.  Who knows, you might have crossed paths with him.

On the subject of nukes, I had the opportunity to have a fascinating chat with Albury's old boss, Brig Gen (ret) Paul Tibbets, the former commander of the 509th Composite Group and the command pilot of the Enola Gay when it delivered the first crowd-pleasing "Thank You" note for Pearl Harbor.  Some amazing history there...and so much sacrifice by them and millions more like them that our coddled entitled snowflakes take for granted while they squeal about burning it all down.

I'm retired from flying and big into simulators myself now...you'd be amazed what you can do with a good desktop PC these days.  I taught in simulators as an IP in the Air Force...what I have running in my basement rivals the sims we used to train on when I was flying in the AF.
 



 

Wow, the old B720 was one of the last analog simulators Eastern had, along with the real old Electra.  I started at Eastern in 1973. I suppose your grandfather flew later aircraft at Eastern?  I’ll bet I did cross paths with him. 

Col. Tibbets was a wing commander at McDill AFB sometime when we lived in South Florida, can’t remember the dates, but he was promoted to Brig Gen before retiring.  It seemed like he was a full Coronel for a hundred years, at least from 1944 until the 1970’s.  I for one am glad they dropped those bombs; my father was in training for the invasion of Japan in August 1945.    

I worked simulators for 30 years, but had to give it up in 1989.  Still miss them; one job in the airline business was enough for me.   
 
 

[gregm]

Yep, we called that old 737-200 Sim, "Vito's Crash Box"! Aero Services, then, was about on the area of MIA (the SW corner of the airport) where Capt Dad's USAF Reserve unit was based. He was re-called as Active Duty Reserves for Korea and just stayed in until 1965 when he retired at 42.

While based at MIA, he flew C-119s, C-47s, C-46s, SA-16s and TB-25s! That was until he was grounded (no fault of his own) in late 1957). It was always very fun for me, 30 years later to line up on RWY 9 Right to land when flying back from the USVIs in my Midway 737......... knowing that he had landed on that same strip so may years earlier! He died at 57 from lung cancer just a month after I had soloed out at Tamiami Airport in early 1979.

If you did any driving around the airport at MIA, you'd have seen the NW "Corner" of the airport, otherwise known as 'Corrosion Corner' because of all the old propliners flying cargo out of there.

http://www.michaelprophet.com/MiamiCC.html

[dustymars]

During my Eastern years a few of our sim techs worked part time for Vito, including me.  I drove by Corrosion Corner every working night or day for 16 years and it was a good name for that area.  

The guy who owned the Pilot House Bar across from EAL was a mechanic in Corrosion Corner; he was only a few who worked on prop engines.  I also knew the manager for Southeast Airlines fairly well.  First met him in 1963 in SEA when he was part of Air America.   

One night, from the Hartley building, I saw that Connie carrying Christmas trees crash into a neighborhood across from rwy 9R.  Big fire. Then one night we were up in that building when an old 720 came barreling down 9L,sailed by the big hanger and had not rotated. Yeah, in the ditch it went, so we drive out to watch some brave engine mechanics run out and turn off each engine running full throttle  -- from the cowling!
 

[dustymars]

Happy 100th. Birthday Dad, wherever you are.