Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Scca on August 17, 2016, 07:40:01 AM
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...was a great man.
Since I met my wife I have only known her father as "crazy Richard". He had a stroke over a decade ago, and has never been right since. We took a trip to his house, now that he's in a home, to clear out years of accumulated junk. Think hoarder lite levels of crap. Anyway, on a shelf in his office, I found a bunch of odd little boxes, when I opened them I was astounded. While I knew he was an Army pilot in Vietnam, retiring as a bird colonel, I wasn't fully aware of all his accomplishments.
After finding the medals below, I found out he did some pretty cool things. He was the base commander at Stuttgart for a while. Flew the first Huey Cobra to Fort Rucker, and was one of the first cobra instructors. It seems he wasn't always crazy...
Here is a list of medals that I found
(http://half-fastmotorsports.com/medals/list.JPG)
And a couple of pics of some of the medals I found
(http://half-fastmotorsports.com/medals/medal1.JPG)
(http://half-fastmotorsports.com/medals/medal2.JPG)
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:salute
I hope they take good care of him at the home now that he can't care for himself.
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So far they have. If he wasn't so obstinate it would be better. His dementia makes him a little violent at time.
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Wow, pretty impressive - DFC and all the rest. I too hope he's well cared for. I can relate a bit to the obstinacy, my father too is in the early grips of dementia and Alzheimer's. I'm afraid what it'll be like if and when it gets worse.
It's incredible how quiet some older gents can be about their service - and that's impressive service from your father in law IMO. Last time I was in the hospital the older gentleman in the room next to me was a Mosquito pilot in the RCAF, Bill Williamson, and flew for Sikorsky for years after that as a test pilot in some of the early helicopters. I would bust his balls about being named "William Williamson" to make him laugh, and in trade he'd tell me stories about flying back then, it was fantastic, I wish I'd recorded them all. Very dignified in his final days, he was fortunate to not have a hint of any mental degenerative diseases.
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It's incredible how quiet some older gents can be about their service
He was actually quite the opposite. He was VERY proud of his service, and the worse his dementia got, the more he talked about it. I think it was because it was something he remembered.
He always wore an army ball cap where ever he went. He would just wait for someone to mention the hat, and off he'd go. Any conversation he had eventually circled around to him being in the service. He didn't go into a lot of detail about specific missions, but openly admitted to using that hat to attract attention.
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He was actually quite the opposite. He was VERY proud of his service, and the worse his dementia got, the more he talked about it. I think it was because it was something he remembered.
He always wore an army ball cap where ever he went. He would just wait for someone to mention the hat, and off he'd go. Any conversation he had eventually circled around to him being in the service. He didn't go into a lot of detail about specific missions, but openly admitted to using that hat to attract attention.
LOL, good for him! :salute
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Share with us how he got his DFC please.
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Share with us how he got his DFC please.
I will if I find out. His dementia is is pretty advanced so asking him might garner an answer like "I flew Queen Elizibeth to get an ice cream cone". :frown:
I do know it was awarded Dec, 1966
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If army, then likely a helicopter flying into a hot LZ multiple times to save soldiers.
Or.......maybe a L19 bird dog FAC who decided to fit bazookas to his plane and kill enemy vehicles.
Or.....maybe a bronco pilot.
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If army, then likely a helicopter flying into a hot LZ multiple times to save soldiers.
Or.......maybe a L19 bird dog FAC who decided to fit bazookas to his plane and kill enemy vehicles.
Or.....maybe a bronco pilot.
Given the date, he was a Huey gunship pilot. Going with hot LZ.
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http://valor.militarytimes.com/search.php?term=Distinguished+Flying+Cross
Here is a searchable database. If you want to just copy and paste the citation without his name, I'd really be interested in reading it.
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http://valor.militarytimes.com/search.php?term=Distinguished+Flying+Cross
Here is a searchable database. If you want to just copy and paste the citation without his name, I'd really be interested in reading it.
Already looked there. His name isn't in there. :(