Retired Air Force Captain – VETERAN, Dies at 95

HERBERT RAMO

Herb and his wife were active Shooting Star chapter members.

Retired Air Force Captain – VETERAN. He served both during the Korea War and recalled for the Cuban Missile Crisis active in his community, loving family man, 95 Herbert Lloyd Ramo, passed away on October 2, 2023, at his home in the borough of Chatham, NJ. He was 95 years old. Herb was born at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark on September 20, 1928, to the late William and Jean Ramo. He resided in Irvington for 40 years, graduating from Irvington High School in 1946 and Rutgers University, New Brunswick in 1950.

Herb Ramo was a retired Captain in the U.S. Air Force, serving during the Korean War. Herb was also recalled during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

(December 3, 1918 – February 7, 2021)
Decorated WW II Veteran and Chapter 195 Member

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Robert “Bob” Vaucher, 102, passed from this life on Sunday, February 7, 2021 at home with loved ones bedside. Bob was born December 3, 1918 to Reynold and Ellen “Nellie” (née Wolfe) Vaucher on a citrus ranch in Mission, Texas. Lt Col Vaucher was a decorated WWII veteran who made unique contributions to the development of military aviation and the course of history while serving as a heavy-bomber pilot and wing, mission and air commander in the Army Air Corps from 1940 to 1946. He served in the primitive hinterlands of Panama, India, China and the South Pacific, lost men who had placed their lives in his hands and knew others well who, after being shot down, were tortured, starved and beheaded by the Japanese. Upon returning home, Bob transformed what could have been an ordinary life into an extraordinary one by building it on the bedrock of personal integrity, principle, and authenticity.

He settled in Bridgewater in 1949, raising a family, pursuing lifelong his love of aviation, becoming an innovative leader and designer in the metal working industry for 42 years and continuously serving as an active church and civic leader for over 70 years.

Bob’s aviation interest began as a young boy when Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927. There were three great aviation visionaries who influenced him: General Henry “Hap” Arnold, General George Marshall and General Curtis LeMay. Arnold foresaw the airplane becoming an important military instrument and around 1934 started guiding youth into aviation through the “Flying Club of America.” Bob joined by mail and got a badge, a model airplane kit and newsletters to learn to fly.

The Army Air Corps required a college degree, so off he went to Edinburg College, now The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. When Arnold started a pilot training program for students, Bob, two other boys, and a girl signed on, learning how to fly and getting a pilot’s license with two college credits to boot. A few months later, he graduated and immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps. On April 25, 1941, he became a commissioned officer with a pilot rating, class 41C. He was assigned to the elite 2nd Bomb Group at Langley Field, VA where he served under General LeMay. He was then transferred to the new Westover Airfield in Massachusetts, training to become a heavy bomber pilot. Bob flew his first combat mission on December 9, 1941, two days after Pearl Harbor, and his last on September 2, 1945 when he led 525 B-29’s in a show of force over the Japanese surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri in the Bay of Tokyo. During 46 months of active service, Lt Col Vaucher flew a total of 117 combat missions.

Lt Col Vaucher accomplished many WWII aviation firsts. He introduced the first radar equipped U.S. bomber, the LB-30, into combat in April, 1942. Subsequently, he flew upwards of 1,000 hours of combat patrol to protect the Panama Canal in LB-30s, B-17s and B-18s in a wide range of weather, including a hurricane, without incident. In July 1943, he piloted the first B-29 Superfortress bomber, delivering it from Boeing to the Air Corps. General Hap Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Corps, personally commended Vaucher for successfully piloting the first test of the B-29 at the then unprecedented altitude of 38,000 feet. He flew as aircraft commander on the first B-29 strategic combat mission against mainland Japan on June 15, 1944 and also on the longest non-stop WWII combat mission on August 10, 1944, a 4030 nautical mile, 18 hour 50 minute roundtrip between India and Sumatra, flying the aircraft well beyond the official maximum range. In January 1945, he developed and implemented an improved cruise control system for the B-29, which increased bomb load by nearly 50 percent, resulting in fewer sorties to accomplish the same results. On May 29, 1944, he was the air commander leading 454 B-29s, the longest in trail assembly of bombers in history, in an attack on Yokohama, Japan that in terms of destroyed target area was the most effective air mission of the war.

He attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, becoming Operations Officer of the 462nd Bombardment Group, 58th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force, nicknamed the “Hellbirds.” Most notably, Lt Col Vaucher’s final mission was on September 2, 1945 when he was the United States Air Corps Commander of the “Show of Force,” leading 525 B-29s accompanied by hundreds of naval aircraft over the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay as General MacArthur signed the instrument of unconditional surrender.

He was honorably discharged from active duty in June 1946 and remained in the reserves until 1962. Bob’s lifetime love of flying and passion for aviation included owning general aviation aircraft, maintaining his civilian pilot certification until age 82, serving on the NJ Department of Transportation Aviation Advisory Board, as president of the Blue Sky Flying Club and as a member of the Air Force Association’s Shooting Star (NJ) chapter.

In 2013, Bob was inducted into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and was recognized for this achievement by Representative Leonard Lance during proceedings of The 113th Congress, House of Representatives (Congressional Record). In 2014, he was formally accepted as an eligible nominee for enshrinement into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Somerville Hangar of the Quiet Birdmen, a secret society of elite aviators, in 2017 and served as grand marshal of the annual John Basilone Memorial Parade in Raritan, NJ in 2019.

In September 2020, Bob served as honorary air boss for the Arsenal of Democracy Flyover of the nation’s capital in honor of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. While there, he was awarded the coveted Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award in recognition of over 50 years of aviation flight experience and a newly re-issued FAA Commercial Pilot license, complete with every type rating of the aircraft he flew during WWII. At the event, he flew for his very last time, in Doc, one of only two B-29’s still flying, to his delight and that of the crew and onlookers.

Bio sourced from Bruce C. VanArsdale Funeral Home obituary.

Preacher and Fighter Pilot, Dies at 97

Dean Hess, a flying preacher who unwittingly bombed a German orphanage during World War II and six years later helped rescue hundreds of Korean foundlings endangered by Communist troops converging on Seoul, died on Monday at his home in Huber Heights, Ohio, near Dayton. He was 97. His death, after a short illness, was confirmed by his son Lawrence. As a young minister of the Disciples of Christ Church, Mr. Hess preached his first sermon at 16 and flew a Piper Cub as he hopscotched from parish to parish in the Midwest. But after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he decided to enlist in the Aviation Cadet Program.

The church elders were incredulous. But he recalled telling them: “If we believe our cause is just and necessary, how in all conscience can I ask others to protect it — and me — while I keep clean of the gory mess of war?” His wartime exploits — he flew more than 300 combat missions over Europe and Korea and retired as a lieutenant colonel — were immortalized in an autobiography, “Battle Hymn,” and a movie of the same name. (“Wing and a Prayer” was taken.) He was played by Rock Hudson.

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Chapter 374 President

High Point Chapter 374 President, Chaplain Richard “Doc” Ball, was admitted to Newton Medical Center, Newton, NJ, on 4 Sept 2014. His condition turned critical within 24 hours. He was placed on life support with his sister Patty, niece Heather, and friend/legal counsel Roger Thomas at his bed side. Sadly, Richard passed away over the weekend. The family has decided not to have a service. Richard will be cremated at the wish of the family. Your prayers and kind wishes are of great comfort to his family.

Massachusetts Guard pilot

The Massachusetts Guard pilot killed in an F-15C crash Wednesday, August 27, 2014, was Lt. Col. Morris “Moose” Fontenot Jr. A decorated combat veteran with 17 years of experience flying planes, he died in the remote Virginia mountains flying the single-seat plane to New Orleans for a radar system upgrade when he crashed Wednesday morning. Officials say he reported an in-flight emergency before losing radio contact. The investigation into the cause of the crash is expected to take several weeks.

Fontenot, 41, of Longmeadow, Mass., was a 1996 Air Force Academy graduate. His active-duty career included deployments to the Middle East, and he earned honors including the Meritorious Service Medal. He had also served as a squadron commander in several locations and had assignments in Japan, Idaho, Florida, Alaska and Washington, D.C.

In Virginia, more than 100 local, state and federal officials as well as volunteers were involved in the search for the pilot before officials announced Thursday night that they had found evidence he did not survive. Investigators said the jet hit the ground at high speed, leaving a deep crater and a large debris field in a heavily wooded area adjacent to a mountain in the George Washington National Forest. Col. James Keefe, commander of the Westfield-based fighter wing, said the death was announced “with a sense of profound sadness.”