Military Aviation Museums
The following is a compilation of military aviation museums in the region.
Celebrating 100 years of Naval Aviation in America, The Daily Transcript pays tribute in 2011 by celebrating the extraordinary business success stories of San Diego’s naval aviators. Contact us at contact@sddt.com to get more involved.
Capt. Byron Joseph remembers vividly one night when his Navy training paid off. He was working as a San Diego police officer and was shot in the shoulder while trying to arrest a suspect.
Flying was in Ross Davis' blood. His father was a pilot in the Army Air Corps, and his mother and sister were flight attendants. But despite this foundation for flight, Davis did not consider it a real possibility until college.
During Lin Walton's first check flight at Naval Air Station Pensacola, he said his instructor did something that made him throw his hands in the air.
Editor's note: In honor of the centennial celebration of naval aviation, The Daily Transcript will be running a series of articles focusing on naval aviators and their leadership and management skills. The following is another article in the series.
When Capt. Mike Warriner first joined the military, he thought it would be a fun thing to do for a few years after college. Twenty-eight years later, he is still a Navy man.
A small naval organization based in San Diego has worked to change the Navy's culture from one of consumption to one of conservation, according to current and former leaders.
When Rear Adm. Russ Penniman, the reserve deputy commander and chief of staff for U.S. Pacific Fleet, spoke last year to a business class at Norfolk State University, he told them the nation's financial community should have adhered to the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment. If people in real estate and on Wall Street behaved in the ways Navy men and women did, he said, things would be a lot different today.
When Jack Ensch retired from the U.S. Navy, he applied his military skills to a somewhat unexpected field: baseball.
During his tenure in the U.S. Navy, Bruce Boland, rear admiral (Ret.), served in locations around the world. Since his retirement in 1987, he’s applied his military skills to supporting San Diego, from the private, to government, to community sectors.
For much of his career as a naval aviator, Capt. John Pettitt (Ret.) had to rely largely on himself. He flew single-seat jets, like A-4s, A-7s and F-18s, making him not quite a lone wolf, but hyperaware of his own surroundings and responsibilities.
Rear Adm. Tom “T.C.” Cropper now serves as commander of Strike Force Training Pacific, which means overseeing a staff of 70 and coordinating joint training exercises involving thousands of people.
Henry J. "Jim" Bedinger likes to serve those who serve. Whether it's through his work at Navy Federal Credit Union, or with about a half-dozen military-oriented nonprofit groups, he tries to make life easier for soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen.
Col. Marvin "Keith" Hollenbeck spent 22 years as a Marine Corps pilot, serving in both World War II and the Korean War, and flying missions to China in between. After retiring from the service, he built a career at the Chula Vista-based aeronautics manufacturer Rohr Inc., and made his home in San Diego.
Cmdr. Shaun McAndrew is used to being the only woman in the room. In her class of 1,100 students at the Naval Academy, less than 100 were women. When she moved on to flight school in Pensacola, Fla., the female representation was equally as sparse. And when she was sent to San Diego for her first fleet tour, she was the only woman from her class assigned to her helicopter squadron, HSL-43.
Since leaving Marine Corps aviation, Ingo Hentschel has continued to climb. He first looked for jobs in the flight industry, but the recession in the 1990s meant there were none to be found. He worked his way through the ranks again to become Cox Communication's vice president of field operations for San Diego, Orange County, Palos Verdes and Santa Barbara in 2008.
Mark Emerson, RADM (Ret.), may have retired a year and a half ago, but he's still working in tandem with the Navy in his new private-sector role with Northrop Grumman.
Rear Adm. Pat McGrath splits his time between work as a deputy district attorney for San Diego County who heads the family protection unit and as deputy commander of Naval Air Forces.
John Frager, now the executive managing director of office services for the Americas with commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis, knew at an early age that he wanted to join the U.S. Navy and be a pilot, inspired by his father, Jack Frager, who flew an F-9 Cougar.
The chair of the U.S. Naval Academy's Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law and a permanent military professor of leadership at the school, it's Capt. Steve Trainor's job to teach midshipmen a quality that is often believed to be inborn -- something you either have or you don't.
Jimmy DiMatteo, Capt., became a naval aviator in 1988 and since then has held positions including F-14 Tomcat pilot and commanding officer for TopGun's Adversary Squadrons VFC-13 and VFC-111. He's also logged nearly 5,000 flight hours in fighter aircraft and has received awards like U.S. Navy's Strike Fighter Pilot of the Year and Adversary Pilot of the Year. And for the past 17 years, he's been doubling as a restaurateur.
William Driscoll, Cdr., USNR (Ret.), believes in the power of teamwork. When he was on active duty as a Navy Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), it was a matter of life and death.
Rear Adm. John "Mac" McLaughlin is retired from the Navy, but still spends his days on the water as the president and chief executive officer of the USS Midway Museum, the decommissioned aircraft carrier turned museum on San Diego's waterfront.
The following is a compilation of military aviation museums in the region.
While skills and experiences learned in the Navy enhance servicemen and women's civilian careers, the gap between military and private sector jobs can feel cavernous, a panel of naval aviators said last week.
Aug. 31, 2015 -- Reporter Carlos Rico caught up with family members of the USS Ronald Reagan, who saw their loved ones off and wished them well, as the aircraft carrier departs for Asia. The Reagan will now be permanently stationed out of a U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan.
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