Those in My Family Who Served

[dustymars]

My Dad was drafted into the Army in April 1944 and then served in WWII with the 28th ID, 109th., Reg., from July 1944 until after the end. Major battles in the Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.




I served in the U.S. Air Force from March 1, 1960 until March 1, 1968 (8 years and 2 days) as a Staff Sargent (E-5) then added that to 12 years as a Federal Employee with the U.S. Naval Observatory for a total of 20 years and 20 days as a GS-12.   As it was I served in SEA for a couple months in 1963.  In late August through mid-October I was in Vietnam for a brief time, long enough to off-load a C-123 simulator and transport it west into the delta and jungle where we installed it at some out of the way air strip.  Everyone, including us, were in civilian clothes, so you can guess what operation that was.  While there were some evil sneaky guys in black pajamas they were peaceful for the most part.   The real shooting was started later on, so I was not in combat area, so to speak, so I never claimed to be a Vietnam Vet, at least not a combat vet and then after all, I was in the Air Force.  I really doesn't matter that much for most people but combat vets take issues with non-combat vets claiming stuff.




My brother, David W. Beish, served in the U.S. Navy from around 1962 until 1966 aboard the destroyers   Hull, Trethan, Buckley and Black.  Will fill in details later.


My son enlisted in the Navy in November 1988 and went to boot camp at Orlando, Florida. He later went to Aviation Electronics Technician "A" school and Advanced First Term Avionics training at Millington, Tennessee where he was promoted to Aviation Antisubmarine Warfare Technician Third Class. His first duty station was at Cecil Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida beginning in 1989, then to training at Damneck Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia during 1991. He then was stationed on Diego Garcia from 14 February 1992 until March 1991 and later served abord ship in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was then transferred to Merimar Naval Air Station, San Diego, California on 21 March 1993. The next Navy assignment was to Agana Naval Air Station, Guam on 29 May 1993 and returned to the states on 15 April 1995 to NAS San Diego, California (Aircraft Carrier Kittyhawk). Don and his family were then sent to NAF Atsugi, Japan in August 2000 and returned to NAS San Diego, California in April 2003 (Aircraft Carrier Nimtz).

He attended Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) and graduated on May 5, 2000 as an Ensign. Later was deployed to the USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) and was assigned as the Assistant Maintenance Officer and Admin Officer. He was deployed for a 6 month individual assignment to Afghanistan in support of combat operations during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Returns several more times to the middle east and retired as Lt. Commander after 23 years in the USN on March 1, 2011.


 
 
 
 
 

[UCAV]

A big Thank You, to all those from your family who served.

[dustymars]

Hum, can't edit my post, so an addition to my brother's bio:  David served in the US Navy from 23 July 62 to 22 July 65 active duty. Then 22 July 68 reserve.

[gregm]

My Dad's Dad served in France during WW 1. Another relative was also in France, in the Artillery. He came home with a limp.

Dad enlisted in the Army Air Corps at 19 in early 1941. Early 1942, he was accepted as a Corporal into Pilot Training and got his wings in Sept, 1942 as a 3-striper. At the bottom of a Logbook page, in his handwriting was "Next up, Basic and then Advance Training and then on to Tokio!" Very Gung-Ho back then.

His first cousin flew 35 mission as Pilot on B-17s over Europe. Would never talk about that.

My uncle was a US Marine in the mid-late 50s. Looked like a movie star in his uniform!

Dad retired in 1965 after 24 years as a Major, USAF. I still have his Logbook of his 16 years as a pilot. I was born at RAF Burtonwood while he was flying mostly C-47s around the UK and Europe in the '50s.

I was a year or two too late for Viet Nam and my vision kept me from flying in the military. Still ended up flying for the airlines and flew with many Viet Nam pilot Vets over the years. Some wild stories from the guys!

"I flew C-7 Caribous in SE Asia. They were all black with no markings. Flew only at night with all the lights off. That's all I can tell you........."  1989

"I got shot down in a Navy OV-10 Bronco flying close support up and down the Mekong. Actually, I was shot down and ejected, twice." At a Vietnamese Restaurant on an airline layovers in the late 80s, after our cute waitress walked away from our table, Pete leans over and says. "Pal, she looks somewhat familiar. I think that I had her Dad in my gun sights once, back in '70!"

"I flew 100 missions in F-105s flying Wild Weasel missions over North Viet Nam."   Look up 'Wild Weasels'. Balls of steel right there.

"I was in the infantry in VN until I was wounded." "Where were you hit?" "I got shot in the ASS if you must know!" 

"I flew S-2Fs off of carriers in VN. We got the guys to mount two .50 cals to the fuselage just so we had something to shoot at sampans with!"

A USAF friend of my Dad's was a B-52 pilot. He got orders to go to Ft Rucker to be trained on Hueys. First mission in VN, he was shot down.

A guy I flew airliners with, flew O-1 Bird Dogs FACs out of Thailand. "One of the guys brought a small boat and an outboard back from an R & R in the Phillipines. We'd fly a mission or two in the morning, then spend the afternoon spearing fish and lobsters out of that little boat."
 

[dustymars]

gregm, Over the 30 years in my flight simulator career several pilots I knew were shot down and killed in Vietnam.  Mostly B-52 crew, but one former Buff driver was sent to fly F-105’s and was killed after ejecting. The last words he said to me was, I’m too F’ing old for this.”   I knew a few F4E Wild Weasel pilots but only one that was shot down; he survived and flew for Eastern for years.  I worked at Eastern for 16 years.  While chatting with some former Eastern Airline pilots on Facebook (about the simulator world) we got to talking about Capt. Charles Donald Albury, one of our simulator instructor pilots who would drop in early mornings when I was doing a pre-flight and chat with me for while.  He was better known by a few as Major Charles Albury (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Donald_Albury), co-pilot on the B-29, Bockscar, that dropped the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki August 9, 1945.  Small world, huh? 

[gregm]

Thanks for that Albury info! Lots of crossed paths with he and my Dad as Lt Dad also moved to Coral Gables after the war! I mostly grew up south of there in Perrine. Right there with Eastern and National at MIA!

A good buddy of mine was an EAL A-300 FE in the late 80s. He's getting checked out as a new B-777 Capt after almost 30 years at United.

In 1991, I was flying 737s for Midway Airlines based at MIA. They got rid of them and we all had to transition to the DC-9/MD-80. You never saw a sadder group of guys in our DC-9 Ground School that was held at the Pan Am Training Academy on 36th Street in Miami!

We had to do DC-9 Sim before we moved on to the MD-80 so there I was, late at night, sitting in an Eastern DC-9-30 Sim, going through the drills to later take my check ride in that same Sim. No doubt, you know exactly what I'm talking about!

Albury later died in Orlando and lived in 'Hunter's Creek'. A nice neigborhood that was just a mile or two from Tupperware's HQ where my wife was a VP!

[dustymars]

We lived in Cutler Ridge for 24 years, just off Franjo.  Funny, Capt Albury was IP in our old DC9-30 simulator.  When I worked nights he would come in early and watch me pre-flight the sim and talk.  I knew his name but in the 16 years there never connected him with that B-29.  I only found out at his retirement party in the old Hartley Building when they announced his credits. 

An interesting note: the old DC-9 simulator had a Link GP-4 computer on it that I had removed from an F4E simulator on Davis-Monthum AFB, Arizona in 1970. I worked as an engineer for Link then. This computer was refurbished and sold to Eastern Airlines to be used on the DC-9.

Remarkably, it was still in operation in 2001, as I saw it during a visit to Flight Safety too see some old friends there. It had been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week since 1965. That is 36 years!   We made good computers in the 1960’s. 

 Hated giving up the simulator business after 30 years but really lost my appetite for airlines, unions and weird working hours.  When Eastern went out on strike I quite and hired on with the Federal Government only three miles from home at the U.S. Naval Observatory.  Working hours great, I was my own boss and was back in engineering again.   My simulator career bio:  https://dustymars.neocities.org//MyCareer.pdf
 
 
 

[gregm]

Thanks! I read all 31 pages!!

1) When Major Dad retired from 24 years in the USAF, we moved to his home town of Bloomimgton, Illinois. At age 42, he did his last two years of college at ISU AND got his Master's Degree............. in 24 months!

While in 7th grade there, we did a Field Trip to Chanute. They took us into a big Sim and I asked, what kind of plane is this? The guy held up a model of a C-119! "My Dad flew those in the Air Force", I proudly said!

2) Dad's last assignment in the AF was was a joint command at Torrejon, AB in Madrid. "DCA-SIA" which stood for, "Defense Communications Agency - Spain Italy Africa". How I still remember that after 55 years is beyond me! My older sister took correspondence classes from U of Maryland while we were in Spain.

3) I went to Cutler Ridge Junior High, not far from your house! Palmetto HS after that.

4) I've flown CAE and other Sims over the years. Got my 737 Type ride in one of Boeing's original Sims! "Old Sparky" we called it! That was at Aero Services on the SW corner of MIA in 1993. I did Fokker 100 Sim at American in Dallas (for another airline) and that Sim was a blast! Did an outside loop over Chicago one night! 

5) I later taught 737-200 Ground School and Sim for Air Tran and I really enjoyed sharing my 6,000+ hours in the 737 with my students.

My AirTran Ground School and Sim students ranged from an older AC-119 guy to many ex-Eastern guys at the very end of their careers. Had a U-2 guy that I got to know quite well. He went to Northwest and is now about to retire from Delta. Some WILD stories from him after our midnight-4am Sim Period at Dalfort in Dallas!
 
 
 

[Faded Eagle]

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.
 

[dustymars]

Thanks! I read all 31 pages!!

1) When Major Dad retired from 24 years in the USAF, we moved to his home town of Bloomimgton, Illinois. At age 42, he did his last two years of college at ISU AND got his Master's Degree............. in 24 months!

While in 7th grade there, we did a Field Trip to Chanute. They took us into a big Sim and I asked, what kind of plane is this? The guy held up a model of a C-119! "My Dad flew those in the Air Force", I proudly said!

2) Dad's last assignment in the AF was was a joint command at Torrejon, AB in Madrid. "DCA-SIA" which stood for, "Defense Communications Agency - Spain Italy Africa". How I still remember that after 55 years is beyond me! My older sister took correspondence classes from U of Maryland while we were in Spain.

3) I went to Cutler Ridge Junior High, not far from your house! Palmetto HS after that.

4) I've flown CAE and other Sims over the years. Got my 737 Type ride in one of Boeing's original Sims! "Old Sparky" we called it! That was at Aero Services on the SW corner of MIA in 1993. I did Fokker 100 Sim at American in Dallas (for another airline) and that Sim was a blast! Did an outside loop over Chicago one night! 

5) I later taught 737-200 Ground School and Sim for Air Tran and I really enjoyed sharing my 6,000+ hours in the 737 with my students.

My AirTran Ground School and Sim students ranged from an older AC-119 guy to many ex-Eastern guys at the very end of their careers. Had a U-2 guy that I got to know quite well. He went to Northwest and is now about to retire from Delta. Some WILD stories from him after our midnight-4am Sim Period at Dalfort in Dallas!
 
 
 



 

Jezz, 31 pages, I have to cut down n the Margaritas when I write    Hey, my son retired from the Navy in 23 years as a LCDR.   He wanted to fly but I gave him an F4C sim ride for a carrier landing and he backed out   He and our daughter were at Cutler Ridge Junior High 1979-80 and she was 5 years behind him.    

At Chanute we learned maintenance on that C-119 and the last B-36 sim.  I hopped a ride on a C-119 sometime back in 1962, then a couple trips on C-124’s.  Loud and shaky aircraft.  My first simulator work was a C-130A on Okinawa.   

Was at American Airlines installing a B747 sometime in the late 1960’s.  CAE was our primary competitor when I worked at Link.  They eventually bought Link from Singer-Link.  I never liked working on their simulators.   

Aero Services was owned by a guy named Vito; I did some work for him after the Eastern strike. Many of my technician coworkers were WWII Army Air Force guys. One flew B-17’s and another was shot down in a B-24.  Wow, old school sim techs.