BEGINNINGS
I was born on July 20, 1921 in our small brick farm house on the
family's eighty acre farm, just west of the Denver Rio Grande and Western rail
road tracks, on the Draper-Riverton cross road in Draper, Utah. I was the youngest of twelve children. Mother had four boys, seven girls and then
me. I have always been grateful that she
didn't stop at eleven.
When I was a year old I moved with my family to a big house on Seventh
East in the town of
I entered the first grade in the Draper elementary school but only
attended this school for a few months before we moved to
We moved to
For many years my father was the
Ivan and Hobert were working in Huntington
Park, California and when Mary finished her nurse's training she and Lorna
moved to California where they both went to work for the Mission Hospital in
Huntington Park.,, Mary as a nurse and Lorna in the Laundry. They rented a house near the hospital and
Lorna kept house for Ivan and Mary. Hobert was married and lived a few blocks away. Within a few months,
College and also went to
In 1930
Dad had a difference of opinion with his boss over the need to destroy some
noxious weeds on his boss's property and Dad lost his job. We then sold our home in
When we arrived in
Dad had found and bought a house for the family at
These were very difficult times for us financially. Ivan, Doris and Mary were working regularly
and Lorna worked most of the time but the salaries were small and there were a
lot of mouths to feed. They kept the
family going until Dad was able to find work as a custodian in the
In the middle and late thirties all of my older brothers and sisters
except Myla and Lois got married and moved away. We then rented our front house to a family
for $25 per month and Dad, Mom, Myla, Lois and I
moved into the house Dad had built in the rear.
We made one of the bed rooms into a living room and another into a
kitchen. Dad and I built two more bed
rooms and for the first time in my life I had my own bedroom behind our garage.
After we moved to the
It seems that we were always short of money. I cut two or three lawns each week, sold
Saturday Evening Post magazines to a regular route of customers and also on the
side walk in front of a neighborhood market.
I cut the lawn for Dad around the City Hall and in the park next to
it. I also worked as a lab assistant for
the Chemistry teacher during my last two years in high school. Myla was two years
ahead of me in school and was a good student.
She set the standard for me and we were both life members of the
California Scholarship Society.
Our family attended church regularly.
Dad was an active High Priest and taught the High Priest Class for a
number of years. All of my brothers and
sisters remained active in the Church except Ivan and Doris. They were both in the paint business and
stopped going to church in their adult life.
Mother and Dad were both very loving to me. We were never a very demonstrative family but
I knew I was loved. My tenderest memories of my childhood are memories of my
mother rocking me in her big rocking chair when I was six or seven years old
and singing to me. I remember the songs;
"I Don't Know Why I Love You But I Do,," "My Sweet Little Alice
Blue Gown," "After The Ball Was Over." Mother had a wonderful
sense of humor and could always look on the bright side of things. She had a saying for every occasion, many of
them picked up from her English mother and father. I will always be grateful for her influence
and love.
When I was a Deacon and Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood in
During two summers between high school and college and after my first
year at UCLA I worked in the California Furniture Factory in
In the fall of 1939 I entered UCLA as a Pre-Med student. Each day for two years I would take Myla and three or four other students twenty-five miles
each way to UCLA and back. The other
students would pay enough for their transportation for me to buy gas. The car often went without needed repairs,
however, and we drove many times through the middle of
During these first two years at UCLA our social life centered around
the Church club, Lambda Delta Sigma. We
met once a week at
After I had finished my
second year of Pre-Med school, I decided I didn't want to dedicate my life to
medicine but didn't know what I did want to do, so I was at loose ends. In June 1941 some US Army Air Corps
recruiters came to the UCLA campus to recruit students for the Army Flying
Cadet program. I had always wanted to learn to fly and I knew that I would be
drafted in a couple of years, so I signed up.
I had to drive out to March Field in Riverside, California to take my
physical examination. I drove out with a
long time friend, Howard Hopper because my eye exam required that my eyes be
dilated and I wouldn't be able to drive home.
I passed my flying physical except for my weight. I had always been skinny and at six foot two
inches and 125 pounds the doctor told me that I was sixteen pounds under the
minimum allowable for a waiver. He told
me to come back in six weeks with my sixteen pounds and he would pass me.
I went back home and
began to stuff myself for six weeks. I
drank malted milks every day, ate huge meals and snacked all day long. Someone told me that if I would drink a glass
of milk every hour for twenty-four hours I would gain five pounds. So I set my alarm and woke up every hour all
night for my glass of milk. Needless to say I couldn't stand to look at a glass
of milk at the end of the twenty-four hours.
On the day I was supposed
to go back to March Field, I got up early and had a huge breakfast, took three
pounds of bananas to eat on the way and Howard and I started for March
Field. When we arrived, full of bananas,
we went to the base exchange and had a big malted milk. I could hardly waddle when I arrived at the
hospital for a weight check. To my
dismay, hen I stepped on the scales, I was still six pounds short of my minimum
weight. I guess, with the war
threatening, they wanted pilots pretty badly because the flight surgeon told me
to come back at
I knew
that if I could drink a gallon of water I would gain seven pounds so I went out
and started to drink. I got so that I
could feel the weight of my stomach on my esophagus and every time I took a
drink of water I would have to go to the bathroom. I felt as if I were losing ground. In any event at
HELEN LELA VALANTINE
In the July of 1941 the whole Lambda Delta Sigma club from all of the
campuses in the
I had also been going rather exclusively with another girl who happened
to be back east on vacation with her family at this time. I broke up with her and Helen broke up with
the boy she had been going with and we both knew we were in love with each
other.
By the time I met Helen in July I had received my orders to report to Lackland Army Air Base in
Although I had lived almost twenty years before, my life really began
when I met Helen. Our love for each
other has been constant and unwavering from the first day we got to know each
other, though it took some time for Helen to realize this. Through more than fifty years of marriage,
long separations, seven children, a gaggle of grand children and great grand children, I have always known
that she loved me as I love her. We went
together for four months in the summer of 1941 and when I left for aviation
cadet flight training in November, she cried at the railroad station.
ARMY AIR CORPS TRAINING
I was to be gone for eight months and we had made no promises. I occasionally went out with girls while I
was in training but found no real pleasure in their company. Helen began dating a defense worker and he
convinced her that they should become engaged.
I still felt she loved me,
though, and when other cadets would ask me if I was planning to get married when
I graduated I would say "no but my girl friend is."
I enlisted as an Army Air Corps Flying Cadet on
I received my commission as a Second Lieutenant and my pilot's wings in
the Army Air Corps at Lubbock Texas Air Base on
We were assigned to the Salt Lake City Replacement Depot for three
weeks while my orders were being processed for a permanent assignment. We were planning to be sealed in the
We were very happy for a month and a half in our tiny basement
apartment across from Whitman college.
We spent much of our free time with a former classmate of mine in flying
school and his wife, Bob and Pat Shaw.
They were also newly married and being natives of
At the end of August the group was ready for combat. Bob Shaw was put on a combat crew and I with
a number of other copilots was reassigned to Ephrata
I joined the 307th
Bombardment Group in Ephrata and was immediately assigned as a co-pilot on a
B-24 combat crew. This group was also
getting ready for an overseas assignment and our training, was very
rigorous. We flew night and day. Ephrata was a very small town of less than
six hundred inhabitants. There were more
than six thousand of us stationed at the air base, so married housing was a bit
limited.
I had left Helen in Walla Walla until I could
find a place for her to live. I had been
in Ephrata for about a week without success when I received a telegram from
Helen saying she would arrive on the afternoon train. I was scheduled for Link instrument training
that afternoon but I went AWOL to meet Helen.
I had no place for her to stay and she had to spend the first night on a
bed in the hall of the small hotel. When
I returned to the base after getting her settled, my squadron commander
confined me to the base for a week for missing my training schedule. Helen found a house where she could sleep on
the davenport for $65 per month and spent the rest of the week there. She would come out to the base to be with me
during my free time and then take the bus back to town in the evening. After a week of this torture, I was finally
able to get off the base and look for a decent place to live.
One afternoon I was walking down
the street asking every one I passed if they knew of a room we could rent. A man mowing his lawn suggested that I ask a
lady who lived a few blocks out of town.
I found that the lady's husband had just been sent overseas and she
rented us her five room house for only $25 per month. She worked during the day, took supper with
us and lived in one of the bedrooms. We
had the rest of the house to ourselves and it was wonderful, even though we
didn't get to spend much time together because of my weird flying and training
schedule.
In September of 1942, our group was considered to be combat ready and
we received orders to
Again we were flying all hours of the night and day so it was difficult
to be together. I found a room in a
hotel for a few days but when I came back to the hotel after flying one
afternoon, Helen had checked out and I didn't know where to find her. I knew she didn't know when I would be in
town, so I could think of nothing to do but tear my hair in the hotel
lobby. About an hour later she showed up. She had found and rented a third floor, walk
up apartment in a residential section of town.
We bought a huge Big Ben alarm clock to wake me up at the odd hours I
needed to get up for flying and moved in.
By this time Helen was a couple of months pregnant with our first child
and all of the cooking odors from the first two floors would find their way
into our apartment. Consequently, she
was uncomfortable much of the time.
TWENTY-NINE MONTHS IN THE PACIFIC WWII
Early in October of 1942 the 307th Bomb Group received
orders to fly to McClellan Army Air Base in
I was assigned as a co-pilot on a B-24 Liberator, four engine
bomber. All of our pilots and crew
members were very inexperienced and unprepared for the rigorous flying and
combat experience that was ahead of us.
Most of the pilots in our 307th Bombardment Group had less than eighty
hours of multi-engine experience since graduating from flying school. This inexperience proved very costly. Shortly after arriving in
We arrived at Hickam Field on the
In December of 1942, we began training for an attack on
The plan was to assemble above the clouds and fly to
The instructions for the penetration of the overcast over Midway were
confusing and the formation never got together.
We all arrived over the target within a few minutes of each other, just
before mid-night. With our lights out we
couldn't get together so we bombed the island individually. This probably confused the Japanese gunners
more than if the attack had gone according to plan. We were fascinated by the tracers coming up at
us. It was the first time we had been
shot at and it all seemed unreal. We
were more afraid of running into another B-24 than we were of the Japanese
gunners so we dropped down from our assigned bombing altitude of 8000 feet and
dropped our bombs at 2000 feet. In spite
of the confusion, none of our planes were lost on this attack, though a
reconnaissance flight that went out the next day to assess the damage never
came back. I flew as co-pilot with Les
Scholar on this mission.
I also flew as co-pilot with Les Scholar on two fifteen and a half hour
missions from Canton Island to photograph and bomb the Japanese installations
on Tarawa. There were no other planes
on these missions. We crossed the
equator and the international date line on these two long flights.
In April of 1943, I was checked
out as a first pilot and given a crew.
All of the combat crews from the 307th Bomb Group were
transferred to the 11th Bomb Group which had just returned from
On
We were scheduled to remain at
I found a small depression which the natives had dug around a seedling
coconut tree and started digging with my hands and helmet. By morning, I was in the bottom of this hole
and there were four others in the hole with me.
The sticks of bombs would be dropped at about one hundred foot
intervals, starting on one side of our bivouac area and ending on the other. After
counting the explosions as they approached our area, it was always a
relief to hear the next one burst on the other side of our hole. One bomb hit
about twenty yards from where I was dug in.
It hit an ammunition truck and killed the two men on the truck. Shrapnel from the bomb and parts of the
truck, including body parts, flew over our heads through the palm trees and
landed on the other side of our hole.
There was a brief pause in the bombing and our Squadron commander
called a meeting near the church to assess the damages. Before he had a chance to say a word we could
hear another wave approaching and the meeting broke up by common consent as we
all dove for cover.
Our crew chief, Master Sgt.
James Deardon, spent the night on the beach of
the lagoon, digging and cursing the generals for getting us into this
mess. When morning came, he found that
the two generals in command were in the next fox hole and had been digging
along side of him during the bombing.
This was a terrifying experience and I often thought of this night as
we dropped bombs on the Japanese islands of the Central Pacific.
This raid was a complete success from the Japanese point of view. They completely destroyed our capability to
attack. Our bombs and much of our
support equipment were destroyed. The next day we re-fueled our airplanes and flew
back to our bases in
On 28 June 1943, we were to bomb the Japanese phosphate plant on Nauru
from Funafuti. I was scheduled to be the
number three plane in the lead element of a six plane flight. We were taking off at night with a maximum
load of bombs and fuel. The first plane
took off and crashed back in the ocean and exploded. We quickly reorganized the formation with the
number two plane, flown by Lt Holland of the 26th Sq., scheduled to
lead. He took off then I took off and
four other planes followed. The next
plane also crashed into the ocean
immediately after take off. After the
second crash, they canceled the mission.
Four airborne planes returned and landed but Lt Holland and I didn’t receive the cancellation message and we continued on course to
We had been having trouble with our bomb bay doors creeping part way
closed which would open a limit switch and not let the bombs fall. Since it was no fun to go over the target the
second time in order to drop the bombs, we had wired around the limit switches
so that the bombs would drop even if the bomb bay doors were part way closed.
On this particular mission the bomb bay doors crept part way closed on the bomb
run and we dropped a load of fragmentation bombs through the partially closed
doors, tearing the doors part way loose from the plane.
We were attacked by five Zeros
and the bottom turret gunner was only partially effective, because every time
he would turn around to the front the gun barrel would hit the flapping bomb
bay doors.
In order to protect our underside from the Zeros we dropped down to a
few feet above the ocean and flew at this altitude until the Zeros broke
off. When we got back to
We bombed
Our plan was to take off from Midway in the early morning, circle the
other island of the Midway atoll and join up with two other squadrons from the
Group and all fly together to bomb Wake.
We took off on time and circled the other island but the other squadrons
were delayed and because of fuel considerations, we couldn't wait for them. Lt
Schmidt, flying as wing man in the second element, had to turn back because of
engine trouble. We took off on course
for Wake Island with our squadron formation of five B-24s. As it turned out, we were the only ones to
reach the target that day. The other
squadrons were turned back by weather which we had been able to penetrate.
When we arrived over Wake Island and started our bomb run, we could see
a swarm of Japanese Zero fighter planes climbing to intercept us. We penetrated the anti-aircraft fire without
any damage and dropped our bombs on the runway and aircraft bunkers. As soon as we cleared the island we were
jumped by twenty-five or thirty Zeros.
We had a running battle with the fighters for about thirty minutes. During that time, a Zero coming up from below
rammed “Cabin in the Sky”, the lead
plane of the second element, and it crashed in the sea. The plane on my right wing flown by Lt.
Thompson, had a twenty- millimeter explosive shell explode in the instrument
panel, severely wounding the pilot and knocking out all the planes engine
instruments. The co-pilot pushed the
wounded pilot out of the way of the flight controls with one hand and flew the
plane with the other. He had no
instruments so he pushed the throttles forward and got ahead of the formation.
About the same time, the plane on my left wing had an engine shot out
and because he was flying on three engines he fell behind the formation. The pilot on this plane was Joseph Gall. We later learned that one man had been killed
and two others badly wounded. One of the
wounded men later died in a hospital on Midway.
The remaining wing man, Lt.
Dwyer of the 98th Sq., in the second element was in good shape and
two good airplanes, his and mine, tried to protect the planes that had been
hit. After the Zeros broke off, we
gathered our formation back together and flew for seven hours back to
Midway. Three of the four planes landed
without incident but the plane with the one dead and two wounded men aboard
couldn't get his landing gear down and landed on it's belly. No one else was injured but the plane was
destroyed. This plane was the
"Daisy Mae," The plane in which I had flown to the Pacific from
Hamilton Field in
During forty combat missions, I lost five airplanes who were flying on
my wing and the only damage to my airplane during all of these forty missions
was one small 7.7mm hole in the bottom of our plane on this raid on
When we returned to
Another mission out of
Now to get back to the mission over Maloelap. With Les out of the formation, that left only
two planes in my flight. The pilot of
the second plane had also eaten a number of the fresh eggs and he got sick and
began to throw up right after take-off.
He had a capable co-pilot, however so they decided to continue the
mission.
When we reached Maloelap, the first flight went
over the target and dropped their bombs without too much difficulty. We learned later that a ninety millimeter
shell had come up through the open bomb bay doors of one of the planes in the
first flight, through another open door into the back of the airplane and out
through the roof of the plane, directly over the heads of the two waist gunners
and exploded harmlessly several hundred feet above the
plane.
I then led my flight of two planes across the target and we dropped our
bombs. As we cleared the target, we were
picked up by a dozen or so Zeros so we tried to close up with the first flight
for our mutual protection. our tail gunner then told us that one of the planes
in the third flight, The “Dogpatch Express” flown by Lt.George Smith, had been badly hit by anti-aircraft fire
and was falling behind the formation.
The Zeros were on him like a pack of wolves on a wounded deer.
I made a three sixty degree turn
with my flight and got in formation with the stricken airplane to try to give
him some protection. At the same time,
the leader of the first flight, Lt. Warren Sands, made a turn in the other
direction and brought his formation of three planes up on the other wing of the
plane that had been hit. Apparently an
anti-aircraft shell had exploded inside the cockpit, killing the co-pilot and
the top turret gunner. There was blood
all over the cockpit. Two engines on the
right side were out, one of which was on fire.
We fought Zeros and tried to encourage the stricken pilot at the same
time. His crew men were throwing out all
extra weight in the hopes that the plane could fly on the two left
engines. I had practiced flying on two
engines on one side and knew that it could be done but with all the panic and
no help from his co-pilot or engineer, it was too much for the pilot to handle
and he finally ditched the plane about ninety miles south of Maloelap. The plane
sank in about thirty seconds. It
appeared to us that some of the crew were in the water so we dropped our life
rafts as close as we could to the crash site.
The Zeros were machine
gunning the debris from the crash and any survivors. We were trying to discourage this with the
few guns we had on our two planes. We
were still under attack by the Zeros and there were times on this mission when
I could see a hail of tracers coming between my airplane and the plane on my
wing.
The other flights had left by this time because of lack of fuel. I stayed around for a few more minutes
circling below the clouds at low level, until the Zeros left to return to Maloelap.
Finally my wing man, 1st lt. Charles Pratte,
had to leave also and headed for
This technique is now used for
many of our high speed aircraft and on the space shuttle to slow down on
landing.
This crew was later lost in late 1944 on a low level mine laying
mission out of Guam over Chichi Jima in the Bonins. The best
information I have is that they were hit over Chichi Jima
and bailed out over the
I landed on
We then started an expanding square search for our little island. On our
second right angle turn of our square search we saw some faint lights a few
miles away and we were soon back on the ground after being gone for nineteen
hours with seventeen hours in the air.
We didn't have a single hole in our airplane when we examined it after
landing.
This was our last mission from
My squadron Commander, Captain John J. Deasy,
soon came down with Tuberculosis and was sent back to the States for hospitalization. I was made the, Squadron Commander on
The 42nd Bombardment Squadron history, “The Panther” written by our squadron historian, Kenneth Crothers reported: “One
item of importance during the month (of April 1944) was the assumption of
command by Capt. Jesse E. Stay. Capt.
John J. Deasy had been hospitalized for observation,
and was later returned the States for further treatment. Capt. Stay, being senior pilot of the
squadron, was well equipped to become commander, in as much as he had
participated in almost every strike carried out by the organization since May
1943.”(p.24)
We trained crews and flew sea search missions from January, 1944 until
October, 1944, at which time I was told to build up my own squadron and get it
ready for combat again.
We had taken
The
One loaded his plane with 64,000 pounds the next with 65,000 pounds and
I loaded mine with 66,000 pounds.
The first two planes got off the
ground and over the hill okay, so I took off behind them. As I lifted the plane off the ground and
started to bring my landing gear up, it stuck half way momentarily and created
extra drag.
There were three radio men in a tent about a hundred yards off the end
of the runway. I knocked their ten foot
high antenna down as I flew over their tent.
As I was struggling up the hill, just above stalling speed, I also
knocked the top out of a palm tree with one of my wheels and later found out
that I had also knocked the brake line off so that I lost most of my hydraulic
fluid and had only enough brake pressure for one application of the brakes.
We continued our mission and dropped our bombs over
We were getting ready for the
campaign against
We would fly from
My last eleven missions were over
The Squadron History reports: “The
greatest loss to the squadron was that of the Commanding Officer, Captain Jesse
E. Stay. Captain Stay was with the
squadron for nearly two years, beginning in April 1943, and was C.O. longer
than any other man in the squadron’s
history. He took part in practically
every mission flown by the squadron since its arrival in
“As flight leader, he flew against the Marshalls,
Gilberts, and Nauru, from the Ellice Islands. In his capacity as commander he accepted the
mining project, which others had turned down, and led the unit to a superb
record in its execution.
“Capt. Stay was missed by the members of the squadron who remained
behind to carry on.”(p.35)
I arrived at McClellan Air Base in Sacramento on a Friday night. I only had my tropical uniforms with me and
they told us we couldn't leave the base until we got some new uniforms when the
PX opened on Monday morning. I called
Helen in
My plane landed at
I know that there were men who were much more righteous than I who were
killed in the war but I also know that I was greatly blessed and
protected. Before I entered flying
school my dad advised me never to take off in an airplane without saying a
prayer for my safe return. I always did
this. and found great comfort in it.
Though I dreaded the combat missions and felt great fear on the way to
the target, I was blessed that I never felt panic. I was always able to think clearly over the
target and make the right decisions.
When I consider the other crews who were lost out of my same formations
and the men who were killed, I know that I was being looked after and
protected. I hope I can be worthy of
this protecting care.
A record of my forty combat missions is included at the end of this
chapter. In all, I was involved in World
War Two for almost two and a half years during which time I flew over eleven
hundred combat hours on bombing and sea search missions. I received two Distinguished Flying Crosses
and eight Air Medals for my World War Two service.
My father died in
November 1943 while I was overseas and I was not able to come home for his
funeral. My mother lived until July 1960
and died while we were stationed in
I received word of her
death through the Red Cross on the day she was buried so I couldn't attend her
funeral either.
Our first assignment after returning from the war zone was to a B-24
combat crew training group at
In June 1945 we were sent to Command and
Needless to say, there was no housing in
At the conclusion of this ten week course, Helen and Sharon took the
train back to
Prior to leaving Tonopah for
received orders to attend Command and
When I arrived back in
Tonopah I was fortunate to be assigned to live in a duplex on the base. This base housing was of temporary wooden
construction covered with tar paper but it was so much better than anything else
in Tonopah that we were delighted to get it. I fixed it all up on the inside
and was going to drive to
I went to the Base Commander the next morning and asked for a leave of
absence to be with Helen and Sharon. I
will always be grateful to the officers over me for their kindness in this
instance. I was told to take off and the
paper work would follow. I cleaned our
things out of our house and was on my way to
When
I was assigned to a-fighter-interceptor squadron at Ontario Air Base
and learned to fly P-38's. I was only there for a few months, however
when I was sent out to Kingman, Arizona to receive thousands of World War II
surplus airplanes and turn them over to the civilian run Reconstruction Finance
Corporation for disposal.
All of the B-24's from my group on
While I was at Kingman on temporary duty, the base at
I was at Kingman for about six weeks and then was assigned to the
Organization and Manpower office at March Air Force Base. In this capacity I was sent to
When I returned I was assigned to the Organization and Manpower office on
the General Staff of Twelfth Air Force at March Air Base. Helen was still living in
In the meantime I had been given the opportunity to apply for a regular
commission in the Army Air Corps and I was in the first group of reserve
officers integrated into the Regular Army after World War II.
When Helen came home from the hospital we bought a home in
UCLA
Since I had decided to accept a regular commission and make a career in
the military I didn't know how I would be able to go back to school and finish
my formal education. Then one Saturday
in July 1946 while I was serving as duty officer for Twelfth Air Force
Headquarters, I saw on the Adjutant's desk some papers offering those officers
who had recently been integrated into the Regular Army an opportunity to go
back to college for up to two years to complete a degree.
That very day was the last day
applications would be accepted for the coming school year. The Adjutant had not told us about the
program. I immediately went to the
While going to school at UCLA I had the first opportunity to serve in
the Church since I joined the Army. I
was called to serve in the Elder's Quorum Presidency as second counselor to
President Ralph Chalker in the Westchester Ward. I enjoyed this service very much and learned
a great deal.
One morning in February 1948 I got up at
I rushed over to the hospital (From Westchester to
I graduated from UCLA in June 1948.
General of the Army Omar Bradley was our commencement speaker. He was one of the great generals of World War
II and a fine gentleman. He said we have
not learned to live with the power we now have.
"We know more about killing than we do about living. Our greatest challenges are social and
economic, not military."
PENTAGON
After graduation I was assigned to the office of the Secretary of the
Air Force, office of Information, in the Pentagon. In 1947 the military services were integrated
under a Secretary of Defense and the United States Air Force was formed from
the old U.S. Army Air Corps. Secretary James
Forrestal was the first Secretary of Defense and
Secretary Stuart Symington, later a Senator from
I had served as a press officer in the Office of the Secretary of the
Air Force for about six months when Secretary Forrestal
organized a joint news room in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in order
to get control of the Services who were fighting their battles in the
press. I was placed in charge of the Air
Force desk in the Joint press room. For
about six months there were two officers from each service serving in the joint
operation. Then the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs was formed and the whole
press operation from each of the services was brought into this office. I was left in charge of the Air Force Press
Desk but now I had ten other Air Force officers under me. The Army and Navy had similar groups in the
Joint Press room.
I served there until May of
1951. During this time we were concerned
with the formation of NATO and General Eisenhower was appointed Commander of
the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers (SHAPE).
I attended the ceremonies in the Pentagon where this appointment was
announced. Someone said this
headquarters was like Venus De Milo--lots of SHAPE but no arms. We were concerned with the demilitarization
after World War II, and also with flying saucers. I wrote the press release saying that the Air
Force was discontinuing the investigation of Flying Saucers because we had
found no evidence that there was any substance to the reports. The public wouldn't let us quit and even
today, years later, the Air Force is still plagued with this nonsense.
I was assigned to cover the White House press conference each week and
was present when President Truman announced that following an attack on
General Douglas MacArthur was relieved of his
command because he had publicly disagreed with President Truman concerning the
conduct of the Korean War. President
Truman was committed to a limited war and General MacArthur
said "There is no substitute for victory."
While I was working in the Pentagon, we were living in
One day in May, 1951, while I was at work at the Air Force press desk
in the Pentagon, I received a telephone call from our Bishop, Miller Shurtliff, asking me if I would be interested in spending
the next four years at BYU in
Judy had been born on
We had to leave
We moved to
good friend until his death in the late 1970,s.
The next four years were like an Air Force assignment 'in the
Church. The ROTC experience probably did
not do much for my Air Force career but it proved to be a great blessing for me
and my family.
AIR FORCE ROTC-BYU
These were happy years for us.
The ROTC program at the "Y" was successful. We started the program in the summer school
of 1951 with 100 cadets and three instructors.
That fall we enrolled over 1000 cadets and for the next two years we had
approximately 1800 cadets enrolled each year, The "Y" supplied
hundreds of officers to the Air Force during the next four years and graduates
from this program have continued to be a leavening influence in the Air Force
to the present time.
I tried to teach the cadets that they would make better officers and
serve their country better if they lived in accordance with the principles of
the Gospel than if they did not. Jay Ballif, who served as Provost and Academic Vice President
of BYU,.was the top cadet Colonel one year. Joe Christensen, former President of the
During our stay in
Our second son, Larry was born on
Gregory was born on
This was before the days when
this was common and he had failed to clear this with the hospital. A big red headed nurse kicked me out of the
delivery room and made me wait outside in the waiting room. I am sorry that I have never been able to
witness the birth of any of our children.
We love Greg with all of our hearts, as we do all of our children. We have been greatly blessed with good
children and we are proud of each one.
In June of 1955 we completed
four years of duty at BYU and were assigned to the Air Command and
While we were in
Our Southern neighbors were very friendly and kind and we also made a
number of close friends in the Branch.
For a while, I served as the teacher of the investigators' class. This was the first time I had ever been asked
to teach and it was here that I learned the principles of the Gospel. I taught out of Elder LeGrand
Richard’s book, "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder"
and a small book called "The Essentials of the-Gospel.'
Greg had Pneumonia when he was about six months old and had a fever of
103 degrees. They cured him with
penicillin for which we were very thankful.
Larry was a very active two year old in
STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND
Upon completion of this course, we were assigned to the 307th Bomb Wing
of the Strategic Air Command in
In
While the Air Echelon was in
On the way home from England, a C-54 transport plane with fifty of our
ground crew on board was lost in the Atlantic and we had all of their families
to notify. Then a few weeks later, a
National Guard T-33 jet trainer ran into two B-47s parked on the ramp
refueling. All three aircraft were
destroyed. The pilot of the T-33 and two
crew chiefs were killed and the re-fueling pits caught on fire. I wondered what kind of an outfit I had
joined.
After things settled down I was assigned as wing executive officer for
a couple of months before I was sent to
Upon completion of flight
training I returned to the base at
During the last year at
While we were in
I kept this job until I received orders to go to the
We arrived at Maxwell Air Force Base in August, 1959 and were given
quarters an the base. These were old
permanent barracks which had been converted into duplex apartments. We had all of the facilities of the base
available to us. This was the only time
in our Air Force career that we lived in government quarters. It was good to meet some of our old
As we neared the completion of
About a week later our orders were changed. I was promoted to Colonel and we received
orders to the Sixteenth Air Force Headquarters at Torrejon
Air Base, near
We were very happy about the promotion and the change of
assignment. We thought our furniture was
on the way from
We spent three very happy years in
minutes in the case of a Russian attack.
I am convinced that these bombers on continuous alert and those on
alert in the
We had an active Church group in
While in
During the summers of 1961 and 1962 we took three weeks off each year
to tour
Timo traveled
with us on our first trip because he was only one month old and still nursing
but we left him in
Timo was born
on
While we were in
President and Sister Kimball stopped in
Elder and Sister Tanner visited
Elder Peterson visited with
his wife on assignment for a District Conference. He brought the film "Windows of
Heaven" but we talked him out of showing it and asked him just talk to
us. People had come to conference from
the three bases in
While President Tanner was in
President Tanner and I visited the North American desk of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. The official in
charge had been stationed in
PENTAGON-AGAIN
We left
The next day I took a bus to
We lived in a trailer camp for a week or so while we looked for a house
to buy. We finally settled on an
unfinished new home in
My assignment in
Near the end of August I flew back to
The task of our office at Bolling was to make
information plans and set informational goals for the Air Force's external and
internal information programs and then to evaluate their effectiveness. I was working in the office one day when we
heard the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in
terrible news.
After
After returning from
During this period we were involved in the war in
I had the opportunity to visit
In November of 1966 I was assigned to the office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) where I served as Deputy Director of
Defense Information. In this capacity I
shared in the responsibility for directing the Department of Defense
organization concerned with relations with national news media representatives,
magazine and book publishers and authors, and entertainment television and
motion picture producers. I served as
Acting Director of Defense Information for six months without a Deputy.
I retired from the United States Air Force
While I was working in the Pentagon from 1963 to 1968, we lived in
We were happy there. Randy,
Linda and Judy graduated from
I was called to serve as Scout Master in the Woodbridge Branch for two
years and then was called as Branch President where I served until we left
While I was in the Pentagon I took classes after hours from the
In September 1968 I retired from
the Air Force as a Colonel after 26 years and 10 months of service. We sold our house in
CHURCH
On our way to
Then we drove to
In Laie we lived on Naniloa
Loop across the street from the
While we were there Judge Whitaker who founded the motion picture
studio at BYU, came to Laie with a production crew to
produce the Church film "Johnny Lingo". Judge had been my Deacons' advisor in
Huntington Park Ward and he asked me to come back to BYU and work as his
Assistant Director of Motion Picture Production. We had three children attending the “Y” at that time so we decided to accept his offer.
We left
I worked as Judge whitaker's assistant until he retired in 1974. At that time I was appointed Director of the
Department of Media Production where I served for the next nine years. Our task
was to produce films, film strips and video productions for the Church and the
university. To augment the studio income
and help pay our overhead we also produced a number of prize-winning
educational and motivational films which we sold to businesses, schools and
other universities.
Some of the films which were produced at the studio while I was
Director were: "The First Vision", "Where Jesus Walked",
"The Restoration of the Priesthood and the Organization of the
Church", "Morality for Youth", a series of biographical
interviews with Church leaders including Ezra Taft Benson, N. Eldon Tanner,
Mark E. Peterson, Le Grand Richards and Joseph Anderson.
Some of the educational and motivational films were: "Uncle
Ben", "The Gift", "The Mail Box”, "John Baker’s Last
Race" and others.
This was a rewarding and exciting time.
We worked closely with the General Authorities on the Church productions
and had many spiritual and faith promoting experiences.
During our years in
COMMENTS WRITTEN IN THE SEVENTIES
The last eight month period
has been the most richly rewarding period of my life. Having been ordained a Bishop and called to preside
over the BYU 44th Ward in May 1970, my life has been filled with experiences of
a spiritual nature which have brought me closer to my Father in Heaven and
convinced me that He takes a hand in our lives and blesses us when we do his
will.
Even though I am now able to
spend less time with my family, the Lord has strengthened us and there is a
stronger spirit of unity and a greater knowledge of the love our Heavenly
Father has for us in our home than ever before.
Our boys go to church in our
home ward while I preside over a married campus ward. Judy attends church in a campus ward for
single students living in this area. As
the result of this division, I seldom have the opportunity to go to church with
my family. This has bothered me because
I greatly miss going to priesthood meetings with my sons and to sacrament
meetings with my wife and children. I
was afraid that the boys would lose interest and, to some degree at least,
cease being diligent in the performance of their church duties. The Lord has blessed us, however, and in fact
just the opposite has taken place. The
testimonies of our children have been strengthened, and without me to rely on
they are, on their own initiative, performing their duties faithfully and
diligently. I am very proud of them.
We have had some wonderful
experiences as we have tried to follow the guidance of the Prophet and hold our
family home evenings. Recently Larry was
leading the discussion and he suggested that we take stock of our family readiness
to enter the
§
We all love each other.
§
We all have a strong testimony
of the truthfulness of the Gospel.
§
We all love our Heavenly Father
and want to please him.
§
We all have a desire to live
righteous lives and to be worthy of the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit.
We concluded that with all the big pluses we have, it would be
foolishness to let the minor negative things keep us from our goal.
We have been blessed with good children who are not rebellious and who
love the Lord. our family unity has improved and our love for each other has
greatly increased. The relationship
between husband and wife and father and mother in our home has become more
loving and tender. We are working more
with a singleness of purpose than ever before.
My greatest blessing in life is the sweetheart who has become as much a
part of me as my very own heart or mind.
Another blessing in my life is the opportunity I have to work in the
production of motion pictures and film strips for the Church. Besides the great satisfaction that comes
from seeing our productions affect the lives of people for good, I have the
opportunity to meet, on almost a weekly basis, with some of the General
Authorities of the Church. During this
past week, for example, we presented a proposed film strip on the law of the
fast to the Presiding Bishopric and Elder Romney of the Council of the
Twelve. Later that afternoon, we showed
a new movie on family home evening to Elders Romney and Monson. Elder Monson chatted with Judge Whitaker and
me for several minutes after the showing and gave us suggestions for improving
the picture.
Later in the week I was called into the office of Elder Monson, where
he was meeting with Elder Bruce McKonkie and a
Brother Rose, Executive Secretary of the Church Missionary Committee. Elder Monson talked about the requirement for
missionary films and asked for suggestions on a film showing pre-baptism
fellowshipping, conversion and post-baptism fellowshipping. We expect that we will be asked to make this
film or film strip during the coming year.
A few months ago Scott Whitaker and I were invited to spend the morning
in Elder Boyd K. Packer's home in Midvale, to discuss his ideas for a motion
picture to teach the members of the Church about family home evenings and to
motivate them to hold family home evenings regularly. Elder Packer suggested that when I account to
the Lord for my stewardship, He will likely be less concerned with how well I
have done as Bishop than He will about how well I have performed my duties as a
husband and father. He stressed the
urgency of the requirement for the fathers in the Church to put their houses in
order and be ready to meet our Savior.
He mentioned that the family is the fundamental unit of the Church and
the only unit of the Church which will go with us into the eternities. In these threatening times, he pointed out
that if all the families were organized and functioning as units of the Church
under righteous patriarchal priesthood authority, the rest of the Church could
be destroyed or made ineffective and the work of the Lord would continue to go
on in the homes of the Church.
After three hours of counsel, we all knelt in Elder Packer's family
room and this member of the Council of the Twelve prayed for divine assistance
in the production of this,film so that it might help
to strengthen and unify the families of the Church in righteousness.
In the BYU 44th ward, where I serve as Bishop, live some of
the choice spirits children of our Heavenly Father. Every meeting is a rich spiritual experience. I am gaining much spiritual strength from my
association with these fine young married people. My own testimony is increased as I counsel
with them and receive their confessions and learn of their great desire to do
good.
This afternoon, in Fast and Testimony meeting, we had 194 present. A few of these were not members of our ward
but were the family and friends of a couple in the ward who blessed their new
baby. Still, with a ward population of
204, the attendance today is indicative of the spirituality of the ward.
We always have 100% of our home teaching and visiting teaching done and
our attendance at Relief Society and Sunday School is regularly 70%-80% our
goal for this school year is to have one hundred per-cent of the families in
the ward receiving the blessings of holding family home evenings regularly.
As they stood there, this afternoon, bearing their testimonies and expressing
their love for one another, I thought how applicable verse 19 of the second
chapter of Ephesians is to the members of this ward:
"Therefore ye are no more foreigners and strangers but fellow
citizens with the Saints and of the household of God."
The unity and fellowship in the ward is wonderful The great challenge
will be to strengthen the individual members of the ward so that they will be
able to stand on their own, when they leave this cloistered environment, and be
towers of strength in their own right.
1972
On the afternoon of
It was a thrilling spiritual experience to spend the evening with Elder
Monson as we determined who my counselors should be and Elder Monson issued
their calls. He took time out of our
deliberations to speak to the Stake leadership meeting. We finally called Bishop Monte S. Nyman of
Edgemont II Ward to be my First Counselor and Dr. Harvey J. Fletcher of the BYU
Mathematics faculty as my Second Counselor.
On Sunday April 30, we were sustained at the general session of stake
conference and set apart after the session by Elder Monson. The power of the Priesthood was evident in
the manner of Elder Monson's actions in the reorganization of the Stake. He also set apart, as Stake Patriarch, the
former Stake President, Wayne B. Hales.
The Spirit of the Lord was evident in his blessing.
I was not released as Bishop of the BYU 44th Ward when I was called to
be the Stake President. The Brethren
were considering making the campus wards into branches so that young counselors
would not have to be ordained High Priests.
Because of this consideration, my replacement as Bishop was not approved
for three months. I had the privilege of
serving as Bishop and Stake President for that three month period. It happened that my temple recommend expired
during this time and I couldn't resist the unique opportunity to interview
myself and sign my recommend in all three places, as recipient, Bishop and
Stake President.
1975
I have had many rich and rewarding experiences as the President of the
BYU Sixth Stake, though I miss the close association with the members that a
Bishop enjoys. I felt very close to my
counselors and the members of the stake high council and the other stake
officers.
While serving as Stake President I was privileged to work with five
different counselors. Harvey J. Fletcher
was released after a few months of service for personal reasons and Robert C, Seamons was called to serve in his place. President Seamons
had served as a stake president in La
I had the privilege of assisting Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then Acting
President of the Council of the Twelve, in setting Brother Seamons
apart.
We had an appointment with
President Kimball at
I feel that my life is just beginning, that all that has gone before is
prelude and preparation for the work the Lord has yet for me to do. I pray that I will find favor in His sight and
be spiritually and intellectually ready for each new day, that my character
will be strengthened so that I can overcome my weaknesses and be worthy of the
blessings which the Lord gives me in richer abundance each day.
In 1975 Brother Monte Nyman was released as a counselor in the stake
presidency and called to be chairman of the committee preparing the course
material for the study of the Book of Mormon in the Gospel Doctrine classes of
the Sunday School. He is one of the most
competent scriptorians I have known. He is on the religious instruction faculty at
BYU.
At the same time, Brother Robert C. Seamons
was released as a counselor in the stake presidency and called to be the
President of the Oregon Mission.
To replace these brethren, I was given the authority by the First
Presidency of the Church to call and set apart
Last Friday, September lst, we celebrated the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the Motion Picture Production Department at
BYU. President Dalin
Oakes conducted the program and Elder Gordon B. Hinkley of the Council of the
Twelve was the main speaker. I
participated in the program with Dave-Jacobs by narrating a film presentation,
looking back over the twenty-five year history of the Department.
During the ceremony we honored
Judge Whitaker, Frank Wise, Scott Whitaker and Robert Stum
as the early pioneers in Church film making.
Following the program we had an open house at the studio.
Elder Hinkley was very gracious and spoke of the great value to the
Church of the films produced at the studio, past and present. He invoked the Lord's blessings on all of us
who are engaged in this work. Elder
Hinkley has been closely associated with us in the production of the
August 30.1978
This morning I was called up to
After my retirement from BYU we bought Linda's and Darrel's house at
We had planned to move on the first of the year 1984. Just before Christmas I received a call from
Elder Asay of the Seventy. He asked me if we would be able to serve a
mission if I were called and if we could leave in two weeks. We, of course, agreed to go if called and he
hung up.
We were packing to move to
We moved to
We arrived in Rosairo on a Wednesday and
there was a Stake Conference program on my desk for the following Sunday with
me as one of the speakers. We struggled
with our Spanish for the three years we were in
Our mission experience was very special. Tim went to
During our three years we had about four hundred and fifty missionaries
and we learned to love them all. It is
still a joy to receive news of their accomplishments, their temple marriages
and their children. At one time almost
half of our missionaries were Spanish speaking.
We had missionaries from
The Rosario Argentina mission included the provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Corrientes, Formosa
and Misiones, with a couple of small branches in the
northern edge of the Province of Buenas Aries. This included the north east section of
We didn’t break any records for baptisms but our
missionaries worked hard. At the
direction of the Area Presidency we concentrated our efforts in strengthening
the established stakes, trying to increase membership with emphasis on
families. Most of our converts were
humble working class people and most were of Indian descent. There was a popular evangelist movement
throughout the country but the wealthy and influential people were generally
content in the Catholic Church which was the official church of the government
of
We had a very special experience in April of 1985 when all of the
mission presidents and their wives from all over the world were called back to
It was a thrill to hear Elder
Bruce R. McKonkie, who had set us apart for our
mission, give his last address to the Church just a few days before he died of
Cancer. He knew he was dying and his
sermon was an affirmation of his faith in the Savior.
On Monday after the General Conference, We all gathered in the Assembly
Hall for a final message from Elder Boyd K. Packer. Following his message about a hundred
missionaries from the MTC marched in from the back of the Assembly Hall singing
"Called to Serve" under the direction of Janie Thompspon. Janie had accompanied our ROTC chorus in the
early fifties so it was a special thrill to hear this stirring song sung under
her direction by this very special chorus of young missionaries.
Following this meeting we all went to the upper assembly room of the
During our mission were blessed to be associated with a number of our
wonderful general authorities. Elders
Theodore Tuttle and J. Thomas Fyans were our Area
Presidents and their counselors included Elders Osborne, de Jager,
Call and Brewerton.
In addition we had an Area
Conference in Rosario and Elders Oakes and Maxwell, of the Council of the
Twelve,, came and stayed in the mission home for a couple of nights with their
wives. Elder James Foust of the Council
of the Twelve also visited the Mission Home.
We also had the opportunity to participate in the dedication of the
I don't know what I said but the
We finished our mission on the First of July 1987 and left
While we were in the airport
waiting for transportation, Helen's purse was stolen with our airline tickets
to the
We arrived in
While we were on our mission we had rented our home in
I have really enjoyed being free from going to work every day. We have been kept busy with church work and
family. We have enjoyed being close to
Sharon and Judi and also to Linda while she was living in
In the fall of 1990 Helen and I were called to serve as stake
missionaries working with the Spanish speaking group of the Seventh ward in our
stake. Our assignment was to help
administer and strengthen the group and to support the full time missionaries.
In April of 1991 a Spanish speaking branch was organized and I was
called to be First Counselor in the Branch Presidency. The Stake Presidency wisely called a young,
Spanish speaking brother as Branch President.
Helen was also called to work in the Spanish Branch as a counselor in
the Primary presidency. She has taught
the eleven year olds, lead the singing and conducted the sharing time and
generally blessed the lives of these young children. They all love her, naturally.
.
In September of 1990 we were also called to be ordinance workers in the
On
On
This region includes the
Huntington Park West Stake (Spanish Speaking), The Los Angeles Stake, The Santa
Monica Stake, The Inglewood Stake, The Lawndale Stake, and The Torrance North
Stake where Darrel Danielson was stake president before moving to
Tennessee. I was also assigned to work
with the
I have been greatly blessed by
our Father with a sure knowledge that He lives and loves me. This has been manifest to me, not only by the
way He has guided and blessed my life in so many ways that should be evidence
enough for any man, but more surely even than this, by the quiet, certain
assurance of the Holy Spirit. I have
always believed the Gospel to be true and have tried to live accordingly. Nevertheless, I have had many weaknesses and
have made many mistakes. I am grateful
that the Lord has let me live now for over seventy years.
I believe I am making progress but I can still see the need for many
improvements. With the knowledge I now
have, my main goal is to sanctify my life and put my house in order so that I,
with my beloved Helen, our dear children and grand and great grand children,
will all stand approved in the eyes of the Lord and be worthy to return again
to the presence of our Father and with him partake of eternal life. I pray that not one of our family will be
lost to His kingdom.
As we enter this month of July 1992 and look forward to our family
reunion and to the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of our wedding and
the great honor of being able to perform the sacred sealing ordinance for our
dear granddaughter, Jenny, my heart is full of happiness, love and
thankfulness.
This not the end but a new beginning.
"The past is prologue."
To be continued!
2002
Up-date
It
is now
During this time I have had a number of health problems but thanks to the miracle of modern medicine the doctors have been able to fix my problems and I have been able to continue to be active and have been able to serve in a number of Church callings with only brief interruptions.
After serving as a
Regional Representative for almost two years I was released in January 1994
because of health. I had been suffering
with arrhythmia for a number of years but in 1993 it was diagnosed as atrial fibrillation and I was hospitalized for a few days
four different times that year. Elder
John Groberg, our Area President, felt that I should
be released. We had begun serving as
ordinance workers in the
My service as a sealer has been a particularly rewarding and fulfilling calling. What a joy it is to officiate in these sacred ordinances and to see the happiness of couples and families being joined together for eternity. I guess I have performed the sealing ordinance for the living and the dead several thousand times in the last ten years and I am still awed by the love of our Father in Heaven as evidenced in the blessings sealed on His children in these ordinances. My greatest joy has come, however, by the great honor and privilege I have had to seal sixteen of my own grand children in the bonds of eternal marriage during the past decade. How grateful I am that I have been able to continue in this calling up to now.
After I had been in the hospital four times in 1993 for arrhythmia I suffered a small stroke on January 5th of 1994. Helen and I had been shopping in our local Mervyn’s department store. We had purchased a couple of pillows and I was carrying them in a plastic bag which I dropped on our way out of the store. Helen picked them up and gave them back to me to carry and I immediately dropped them again, without noticing. She carried them out to the car and I tried to unlock the car by putting the keys in the window. Then I dropped the keys. Helen knew something was wrong so she picked up the keys, put me in the passenger seat and drove home.
I felt very tired and confused but otherwise untroubled. Helen called the emergency room of our local hospital and they told her to bring me in immediately. Because of her concern and quick action, I was in the emergency room and under treatment within a half hour after I dropped the pillows for the first time.
After all of the examinations and the diagnosis of a stroke they kept me in the hospital for five days, put me on Coumadin to thin my blood and a beta blocker drug to control the fibrillation. My cardiologist knew that the stroke could have been caused by a small blood clot caused by the atrial fibrillation but he suspected it could have been caused by some other condition so he scheduled further tests.
On February 16, I had an angiogram which showed that my left carotid artery was ninety percent blocked with plaque. It was very possible that some of this plaque had sloughed off and been carried to my brain, causing the stroke. On March 4, They sliced open my carotid artery and scraped out the plaque. I went home three days later with a four inch incision on my neck stapled together, like Frankenstein, with metal staples.
The beta blocker
caused me to have low blood pressure and a slow pulse so I often felt weak and
faint. On
I now feel great, and with the exception of a couple of days between pace makers when I felt weak, and a couple of bouts with carcinoma on my nose, (once treated with radiation which left me unable to smell and later removed by plastic surgery with a half inch diameter patch taken from my neck to cover the hole), and a couple of polyps zapped by laser in my colon, and the fact that sometimes I can’t remember my own name, I almost feel like a kid again. I enjoy working in the yard and around the house and riding my bike four miles on most days.
So far I have been able to continue serving in
my Church callings. On
We spent three
wonderful years in the
Our work consisted of managing the work of the temple which included calling and training and supervising the work of a staff of over eleven hundred ordinance workers, receptionists, veil workers and thirty or more sealers.
In addition the members of the presidency were usually invited to speak at the Sunday stake conference sessions of the seventy six stakes in our temple district. We were away on speaking assignments two or three Sundays of each month.
Five of the stakes in our temple district were Spanish speaking. Helen and I had the major responsibility for training a group of Spanish speaking ordinance workers, receptionists and sealers to serve the members of these five stakes. We also had to give the instructions in Spanish to members receiving their own endowments. In addition, I was usually called on to speak in the chapel services for these stakes. We made many close friends among the Spanish speaking temple workers and in these five stakes.
Our calling in the
temple presidency was for three years.
We were released after three years and two months on
I was soon called back to serve on the Stake High Council with assignments as advisor for Public Affairs and advisor for the single adult ward in the Huntington Beach California Stake. I was Stake Director of Public Affairs for two years when we called Sister Sharon Klecker to that position and I continued serving as advisor
.
The Huntington Beach Eighth ward was one of
the few single adult wards left in the Church outside of the university campus
wards. The Eighth ward served both the
After the division, the two wards continued to grow and each ward now has over three hundred members. Young adults have moved into our two stake boundaries from other areas in order to be members of these wards. The members of these wards must be active in the Church so the members are, for the most part, the cream of the crop. There are social activities every week and there are many temple marriages resulting. It is a joy to work with these fine young people.
I am also grateful
to still be able to fill weekly sealing assignments in the
On
Retired Brigadier General Lassiter, one of the emeritus members of the Seventy was the speaker. He was a Staff Seargent in the AFROTC in the early fifties. We encouraged him to apply for officer training and he was accepted in the Air Force Flying Cadet program. He had an illustrious Air Force career and retired as a Brigadier General at the request of the brethren to accept a calling as a Seventy.
The next morning, Bernie Fisher and I accompanied the current commander of the AFROTC in a convertible in the Home Coming Parade. Following the parade we attended a tail gate party prior to the football game with the BYU and the Air Force Academy.
At the game Helen was escorted to the President’s box and Bernie Fisher and I were introduced to the crowd during the opening ceremonies which included the BYU band playing the “Star Spangled Banner” and a two jet fly-over. We then joined Helen in the President’s box and wathced BYU beat the Air Force Academy 34 to 20.
As we approach our sixtieth wedding anniversary I want all of you who read this to know that true love grows stronger with the years. I love dear Helen more each day. I pray to be worthy of her and to be worthy of the eternal blessings which have been sealed upon us together. I don’t have to wait for Eternal Life and “never- ending happiness.” This life is part of Eternal Life and I can’t imagine being happier in the eternities than I am now with Helen at my side. I will include with this history some of my expressions of love for her which I have written from my heart over the years and which are truer now than ever before.
I also don’t have to wait for the eternities to have “joy and rejoicing” in my posterity. I have learned a lot about our Heavenly Father’s unconditional and never- ending love for his children through my love for my own children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I pray for you. I love each one of you and nothing you will ever do will make me love you less.
I pray that we will be a unified, strong and righteous family and that we will all be together forever in our Eternal Father’s kingdom. I have great faith that this will be.
THE CHILDREN
As
of 2002
My history would not be complete without some serious comments about
our children, our major and most important accomplishment. I am tremendously proud of.each
one of these dear souls placed in our care by a loving and generous Father in
Heaven. I love them more than life and
would sacrifice anything for their welfare.
I have honored my ancestors and have tried to be a worthy descendent but
more important than this I want to be a worthy ancestor and patriarch of a
righteous posterity. The Lord has guided
me to my beloved companion, to whom I give all of the credit for raising our
children to be good and to live in accordance with gospel principles.
We have also been blessed that our children have married good and
righteous people who have added greatly to the stature of our family.
Keith is a world class physicist working in high tech national defense
areas .He has served faithfully in his Church callings, including being a
Bishop and a Counselor in the Stake Presidency.
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Randy is a paragon of generosity, goodness and virtue. I am certain that he is much loved by our
Heavenly Father as he is by us. He is
always reaching out to the poor and down trodden of his world. Every other person is his neighbor and he is
their good Samaritan. He married Becky
Holt and brought her great intelligence and abilities into our family. They have been outstanding parents of six
exceptional children. So far they have
one grand child. We love and honor each one.
Randy is now serving his sixth year as a Bishop.
He has worked for Ford Motor
Company since graduating from BYU with a degree in mechanical engineering. He is now a Resident Engineer, supervising a
group of other engineers in solving
warranty problems.
Linda married Darrel Danielson during our move to
She could not have chosen a more
perfect companion than Darrel. They are
truly one in their goals, desires and in the conduct of their lives. We love and honor them and their eight
outstanding children and ( to date) twenty grand children.
Darrel has always worked hard to provide for his family. He graduated from BYU after they were married
and got his MBA in night school while working full time as an accountant for
Western Airlines. He worked for Federal
Express in
He has served as a Bishop three
times, as a Counselor to two Stake Presidents, and as a Stake President
twice. Linda has served as a Stake and
Ward Young Women’s President among other callings.
Judi has always been an outstanding achiever. She is exceptionally intelligent and has put
her intelligence to good use to bless
the lives of others. She
married Douglas Moore while we were in
Doug has been a patient and able husband and father. After they were married, he worked in a law
office while going to law school. After
receiving his law degree and passing the
After they had six children Judi
enroled in medical school and recieved
her degree as a DO. She had her private
practice in Alta Loma for a few years and then joined in a partnership with an
MD in
They are both loving and kind
and their six children have learned to love from their parents. As of this
writing they have seven grand children.
We love them all and we feel their love for us.
Larry also married Joyce Cutler while we were in
Larry has always been pleasant
and personable. He is intelligent and
capable and is a good and righteous husband and father. Joyce has a matching personality and
abilities. They are outstanding parents
of seven children and are raising an outstanding family. They now have three grand children. We love
them all.
After graduating from BYU Larry got his MBA from
Marcie, their first
child was born in
Larry served as Bishop of a ward
in
Greg has been a very special son who is striving earnestly and successfully
to be an all around good person, husband and father. He is a good provider for his family and
always puts their interest first in his life.
He truly loves his family.
He also married in
Greg graduated from BYU and then got his MBA from the