Atticus Finch
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,718
- Location
- Coastal North Carolina, USA
I don't much like to post things of a personal matter, but this story just needs to be told.
In his first semester at N.C. State University, just weeks before America entered WWII, my father met two guys who would become his life-long friends…Jim Penland and Gale "Obie" Oberndorfer. All three were aeronautical engineering majors, so, when the war started, all three ended up in the Air Corps. Jim flew light bombers in the Pacific theater, Dad was a fighter jock, and Obie flew both fighters and bombers. After the war, all three returned to N.C State, renewed their friendship and completed their degrees. When they graduated, all three landed engineering jobs at Langley Field, working for what was then NACA, but was later NASA. Within a short time of moving to Virginia, all three settled down, and started families.
Throughout their lives, the guys remained steadfast friends. At some point, Obie and Beth left Langley and returned to Pennsylvania and then moved on to Utah. Mom and Dad returned to Beaufort where Dad began a career in business. Jim, and his wife, Byrd, stayed in Virginia and Jim eventually retired from NASA. But, though they made their lives and careers in different states, the guys remained very close. In fact, when I was a child, our three families still sometimes vacationed with one another. I well remember my first trips to the EAA Fly-In, in Rockford, being with Dad and Jim.
As the guys aged and retired, and their kids moved away, they continued to make time to visit each other. Usually, they met at Jim’s home in Virginia…I guess because Newport News was a place where they had all once lived. And, for as long as I can remember, the "Christmas Conference Call" was part of my family’s Christmas Eve tradition. After supper and before we opened our gifts, Dad, Jim and Obie would telephone each other, and maybe tip a glass or two, and laugh for a while about their old college and war stories. In his life, Dad had a bunch of friends…but I’m willing to bet that none were ever closer to him than Jim and Obie.
I haven't yet shared this on the forum, but Dad passed away on July tenth. Last night I was saddened to learn that Jim died only a month later on August 14th and Obie died the first day of this month. After sixty-eight years of warm friendship…all three guys are gone in only six short weeks.
I’m not sure that Jim ever knew that Dad had passed away. I don’t know if Mom ever made the call, and, well……it was one of the things that I kept putting off. I do know that Obie was an Alzheimer's victim, so I doubt he was ever aware that both his friends had died before him. Of course, Dad was the first to go and I’m sure he went hoping that Jim and Obie outlive him by many more years.
I think there’s a place where old pilots go when they die. I think it’s a ramshackle, old hanger on the edge of a quiet, rural airfield. Sparrows chirp from its rafters and its big, open doors creak softly in an autumn breeze. I think that shining, new examples of all history’s aircraft fill that old hanger and the happy spirits of the pilots who flew those planes come home to the hanger to dwell in eternity. There, they fly and talk and laugh and tinker…and they tell stories of back when…forever…
If I’m right, three new guys just came home to the old hanger….I just wish that I could have seen the surprise on their faces as they realized that they had all come home together.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=145069872
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=jim-a-penland&pid=144754407&fhid=4202
AF
In his first semester at N.C. State University, just weeks before America entered WWII, my father met two guys who would become his life-long friends…Jim Penland and Gale "Obie" Oberndorfer. All three were aeronautical engineering majors, so, when the war started, all three ended up in the Air Corps. Jim flew light bombers in the Pacific theater, Dad was a fighter jock, and Obie flew both fighters and bombers. After the war, all three returned to N.C State, renewed their friendship and completed their degrees. When they graduated, all three landed engineering jobs at Langley Field, working for what was then NACA, but was later NASA. Within a short time of moving to Virginia, all three settled down, and started families.
Throughout their lives, the guys remained steadfast friends. At some point, Obie and Beth left Langley and returned to Pennsylvania and then moved on to Utah. Mom and Dad returned to Beaufort where Dad began a career in business. Jim, and his wife, Byrd, stayed in Virginia and Jim eventually retired from NASA. But, though they made their lives and careers in different states, the guys remained very close. In fact, when I was a child, our three families still sometimes vacationed with one another. I well remember my first trips to the EAA Fly-In, in Rockford, being with Dad and Jim.
As the guys aged and retired, and their kids moved away, they continued to make time to visit each other. Usually, they met at Jim’s home in Virginia…I guess because Newport News was a place where they had all once lived. And, for as long as I can remember, the "Christmas Conference Call" was part of my family’s Christmas Eve tradition. After supper and before we opened our gifts, Dad, Jim and Obie would telephone each other, and maybe tip a glass or two, and laugh for a while about their old college and war stories. In his life, Dad had a bunch of friends…but I’m willing to bet that none were ever closer to him than Jim and Obie.
I haven't yet shared this on the forum, but Dad passed away on July tenth. Last night I was saddened to learn that Jim died only a month later on August 14th and Obie died the first day of this month. After sixty-eight years of warm friendship…all three guys are gone in only six short weeks.
I’m not sure that Jim ever knew that Dad had passed away. I don’t know if Mom ever made the call, and, well……it was one of the things that I kept putting off. I do know that Obie was an Alzheimer's victim, so I doubt he was ever aware that both his friends had died before him. Of course, Dad was the first to go and I’m sure he went hoping that Jim and Obie outlive him by many more years.
I think there’s a place where old pilots go when they die. I think it’s a ramshackle, old hanger on the edge of a quiet, rural airfield. Sparrows chirp from its rafters and its big, open doors creak softly in an autumn breeze. I think that shining, new examples of all history’s aircraft fill that old hanger and the happy spirits of the pilots who flew those planes come home to the hanger to dwell in eternity. There, they fly and talk and laugh and tinker…and they tell stories of back when…forever…
If I’m right, three new guys just came home to the old hanger….I just wish that I could have seen the surprise on their faces as they realized that they had all come home together.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=145069872
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=jim-a-penland&pid=144754407&fhid=4202
AF
