MEETING INTERESTING PEOPLE

Somehow I made it to a local MOAA chapter luncheon some years ago. I didn’t know anyone, but soon followed a member to one of the back tables, where we started to get acquainted. He was alone, well dressed and dignified, apparently glad to have my company, looking tired and even hungry. He soon told me he was a member of the chapter, but didn’t seem to know anyone well.

Before long, in the course of the conversation, he told me he had been a high school teacher in Burlingame, CA for more than 30 years, then retired, and was enjoying life. Actually he looked like a high school teacher, with the horned-rimmed glasses and all. Since I had been an Army basic training instructor, I was interested in his work and asked about his teaching experiences. He told me he taught wood and metal shop classes, but also an aviation class.

Now, that was different. A high school shop teacher also teaching an aviation class. I asked him about it and he described all kinds of aviation related topics he taught his students. And he got excited, and was soon telling me how United Airlines at the San Francisco International Airport maintenance facility supported him and his students, donating money and materials.

At one point I asked him if he was an aviator and he told me he was, with service during WWII. I asked him where he learned to fly and where he served. He told me of a couple air facilities in Texas and elsewhere, and how, upon earning his wings, flew an aircraft to Florida, then south of there, across the Atlantic, through the Middle East and on to India, finally arriving in China.

I asked him what kinds of aircraft he flew and he told me fighters. Later he told me specifically it was the Curtiss Tomahawk P-40B. Then it started to dawn on me, and I asked him if he was a part of the American Volunteer Group, General Claire Chennault’s organization of the Burma/China theater, commonly known as the Flying Tigers, and he said that he was. Amazing.

I took a close look at the officer and just wondered what people would think if they knew the wood/metal shop teacher had been a member of the Flying Tigers, even shooting down Japanese aircraft many years ago.

I knew at that moment I was in the company of some very interesting and accomplished officers and their ladies, and I decided to join the chapter and enjoy some wonderful conversations in the days to come.

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