More:
Pilot, under water vid and plane pic
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/jul/28/raisin-helldiver/
He was born April 11, 1923, in the tiny community of Winfree, Texas. His mother died when he was 9, and his father was left to raise nine children on the meager income earned from selling whatever fish he could catch from the nearby Trinity River.
Eventually, the father realized he couldn't provide for the entire household. So he sent some of his children, including 11-year-old E.D. Frazar, to live with relatives.
After conflicts arose between E.D. and his caretaker aunt, he struck out on his own with some clothes stuffed into a cardboard box. He stayed in a rice field where farmers had built a small shed to shelter their animals.
“He told me that he walked into town daily to find work and get whatever food the staff at one of the hotels could sneak to him,” Richard Frazar said.
Leaders of the local Lions Club became aware of E.D.'s situation and asked if anyone could help. Club member Leonard Ansel and his wife, Lela, agreed to adopt the boy because they had no child of their own.
They raised E.D. and eventually celebrated his graduation from high school, then sent him to a military junior college in Kerrville, Texas. A physics teacher there taught students how to fly airplanes, and that sparked E.D. Frazar's love of aviation.
In 1943, Frazar combined his passion for flying and his sense of national duty by enlisting as a naval aviation cadet. He trained in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Pensacola before being transferred to San Diego.
After World War II ended, he left the active-duty Navy in December 1945.
In honor of his adopted parents, E.D. Frazar named the first of his five children Richard Ansel Frazar. He went into ranching and then worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture until his death at age 56.
Growing up, Richard Frazar heard his father profess a lasting fondness for flying Navy aircraft.
“He missed being in the skies,” Richard Frazar said. “My dad was a very, very patriotic person. He was just part of that whole generation of people who didn't hesitate to serve their country.”
