My Favorite Veterans

Today is Veteran's Day, a day when we honor all of those men and women who served in the Armed Services of our country.  I would like to personally honor the five men in my life who were thus dedicated.

A. E. "Scotch" Rawlings
My grandfather was a Dough Boy in World War I.  He never spoke much about his experiences in that war until the end of his life when he suffered from dementia.  Because he didn't recognize his sons anymore, he felt free to share experiences that were so terrifying that he'd kept them hidden from his family for over 60 years. 

Grandpa was a barber by trade and for part of his service, he served as Aid de Camp to a general - sort of a military valet.  He saw and heard a lot that he never revealed.  He took those confidences to his grave.  He remained a great patriot. 

He and my grandmother, Corinne Rawlings, raised two sons who were also great patriots.  Everyone called my granddad and the sons "Corinne's three boys."

G. Barney Rawlings
My parents had just gotten engaged when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  In response to that act of aggression, they moved their wedding date up and were married in January 1942.  He enlisted in the U. S. Army and applied for pilot training in the Air Corps. 

Dad's plane, "Skipper"

Pilots' training was an arduous process.  Over the course of the years it took. close to 90% of the original applicants "washed out."  How proud Dad was when mother pinned on his silver wings at the completion of his training!  He was assigned to the 306th wing as a B-17 bomber pilot - the Flying Fortress.  He flew 35 missions over enemy territory.  I was born while he was still stationed in England.

Dad maintained he flying status and his affiliation with the Air Force Reserve.  In August 1958, he broke the sound barrier in an F-100F Super Saber and was admitted to the Mach Busters Club.  He was called back to active duty during the Korean War and served a year at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, NV.

During all those years as a reservist, he served his two weeks' active duty each summer at the Pentagon in the office of the Air Force Chief of Staff.  He traveled all over the world in that capacity, although the family usually didn't know where he was until they had all safely returned.  Like his father, he was often privy to information which he kept confidential all his life.

He retired from the Air Force on April 29, 1982, his sixtieth birthday, as a full colonel.  He was called out of retirement a few years later, given his first star, and assigned as commander of the Army National Guard Recovery Squadron based out of McCarren International Airport in Las Vegas.  Their job was to ready the civilian airport ready to accept military planes should Nellis be destroyed during an attack.  When he re-retired years later, he had earned his second star as a Major General.

He died of cancer in May, 2008.


James W. Rawlings

My Uncle Jim - Dad's brother - served during the Korean War.  He served in the Air Force as an F-86 pilot in the 59th Fighter Interceptor Squadron stationed in Goose Bay, Labrador (1950-54).   He remained committed to love of country his entire life. 

 

In 1986, he was appointed by President Reagan as U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe (1986-1989). He then served as the Executive Secretary of the United States-Zimbabwe Business Council until he retired in 1992. 

 

Uncle Jim died of the effects of stroke on November 1 of this year.

 

Carmon D. Buntin

Carmon also served in the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1962.  He was stationed in Libya, North Africa, at Wheelis AFB from 1959-1961.  This was, of course, before the Qaddafi regime.

When he returned to the States, he was stationed at Nellis AFB, which is where I met him.  We were married in 1962.  He died 20 years later on August 28, 1982.

Richard L. Danielson
Richard served in the USAF for 10 years from his graduation in 1957 to 1967.  He was stationed in Germany, France, and Italy during that time.  He was in Italy during the revolutionary war in the Congo and was sent to Africa to help set up a portable power station to expedite the evacuation of several hundred Europeans in that nation.

Richard and I had both been widowed when we married in 2004.  He died four years later of cancer.

Carmon was discharged just before the Viet Nam war erupted, but Richard served in the midst of the Viet Nam years.  Although he never served in Nam, he did tell me once that he and his fellow soldiers could not walk down a street off the base in the military uniforms without being heckled, harassed, even spat-upon.  This was particularly the case here in the United States.  That was a shameful chapter in our history for many reasons, not the least of which was the way Americans treated American military personnel.  It is a chapter I pray will never be repeated.

 

Text copyright November 11, 2013, Gebara Education

 

Picture of eagle and flag from Facebook

All other pictures from my private family collection