Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings, and participating in parades.
In the late 1940s, when I was a young teen growing up in Alabama, my step-father was a World War 2 veteran who grew up in the rural area around Russellville, Alabama. Each year on Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was called then - all in that rural area would gather at a local church, have an "All Day Singing & Dinner On The Ground" to celebrate God's blessings, and then they would decorate all the graves in that small cemetery.
In those days my big thrill was sampling all the great food which was spread on tables, truck and wagon beds, and anywhere else the local ladies could spread their finest table clothes and display their culinary masterpieces.
But Memorial Day also elicits strong memories of events which brought me to begin the journey of building a Memorial Web Site for a pilot in our 311th Fighter-Bomber Squadron. 1/Lt. Robert A. Ford, Jr. was killed on March 11, 1957, when the F-86 he was flying crashed.
The crash was caused by a maintenance error. Bob Ford was ferrying an F-86 jet back to Osan Air Base. The plane had gone through maintenance at the Mitsubishi Maintenance Center at the Komaki Air Base, Nagoya, Japan. Maintenance had installed 200 gallon wing fuel tanks on the plane - which had been configured with mounting hardware for 150 gallon tanks.
Let me just preface this blog with an update: On Christmas Day, 2009, Libby Ford was promoted to heaven and is buried with the love of her life, Bob Ford, in Arlington National Cemetery, the United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia / Washington, D.C.
Libby lived long enough to see their granddaughter, Laurie, receive her Ph.d. and become a Forensic Scientist in Louisiana.
Recently, Libby and Bob's son,Robert A. "Chip" Ford, III, joined his mom and dad in the presence of God.
And one last side-note: In 2014 I received a message via The Korean War Project 311th FBS Page. Air Force pilot, John DuPriest, came to Korea just two months after Bob's death and a month after I had rotated back home to America. Bob's aircraft was assigned to John, but he was not told of the history:
In the late 1940s, when I was a young teen growing up in Alabama, my step-father was a World War 2 veteran who grew up in the rural area around Russellville, Alabama. Each year on Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was called then - all in that rural area would gather at a local church, have an "All Day Singing & Dinner On The Ground" to celebrate God's blessings, and then they would decorate all the graves in that small cemetery.
In those days my big thrill was sampling all the great food which was spread on tables, truck and wagon beds, and anywhere else the local ladies could spread their finest table clothes and display their culinary masterpieces.
But Memorial Day also elicits strong memories of events which brought me to begin the journey of building a Memorial Web Site for a pilot in our 311th Fighter-Bomber Squadron. 1/Lt. Robert A. Ford, Jr. was killed on March 11, 1957, when the F-86 he was flying crashed.
The crash was caused by a maintenance error. Bob Ford was ferrying an F-86 jet back to Osan Air Base. The plane had gone through maintenance at the Mitsubishi Maintenance Center at the Komaki Air Base, Nagoya, Japan. Maintenance had installed 200 gallon wing fuel tanks on the plane - which had been configured with mounting hardware for 150 gallon tanks.
Let me just preface this blog with an update: On Christmas Day, 2009, Libby Ford was promoted to heaven and is buried with the love of her life, Bob Ford, in Arlington National Cemetery, the United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia / Washington, D.C.
Libby lived long enough to see their granddaughter, Laurie, receive her Ph.d. and become a Forensic Scientist in Louisiana.
Recently, Libby and Bob's son,Robert A. "Chip" Ford, III, joined his mom and dad in the presence of God.
And one last side-note: In 2014 I received a message via The Korean War Project 311th FBS Page. Air Force pilot, John DuPriest, came to Korea just two months after Bob's death and a month after I had rotated back home to America. Bob's aircraft was assigned to John, but he was not told of the history:
Reply To Message 47692 From: John DuPriest
Subject: 311th Fighter Bomber Sqdn
Wonder of Wonders!! I served in the 311th from May 1957 - May 1958. I was assigned F-86 #24748! I have several photos of it with my crew chief and depicted on my helmet which I still have. . . I know some will say; "But Bob was killed in a crash." Entirely possible since we did not always fly the Bird assigned to us - Inspections, servicing periods, etc. Anyway, Ole 748 was mine. I wish I had known about Bob then, I would have flown a little prouder if that is possible. F-86 drivers were absolutely obnoxiously proud!
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Hi John, You are right that Bob Ford was not killed in the plane he flew, FU-748. Bob was overdue to rotate home, but because he was assigned to go back to college to get his Master's degree and his classes did not begin for another 60 days, he was held over in Osan. He could have been rotated home and allowed a bit more leave before starting school - but the Air Force decided he was better off sitting on his hands in Korea.
Since he did not have regular flight duty he and Major Andy Anderson flew two planes to Mitsubishi in Japan to be refurbished and they were to fly two others back that had already gone through the Mitsubishi plant. When they got there, the plane that Major Anderson was to fly back was not ready - so Bob came back alone.
Coming back, he did like many other pilots and requested from the K8 (Kunsan) tower permission to make a high speed, low level pass. Unknown to him, the people at Mitsubishi had installed mounts for 150 gallon fuel tanks - but, actually put 200 gallon tanks on that plane. So in his high speed, low level pass - the g-force yanked the tank off one wing causing him to flip over at just 500 foot off the deck.
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FROM "ETERNITY" TO HERE - AN ARTICLE OF APPRECIATION
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 5:24 PM
From: Bill Gray
Hi to all my Friends,
My long, long time Friend and high school classmate, Jimmy Moore, sent the following article to me. This is just an excerpt from the article:
Reading that article, immediately my thoughts went to an Air Force pilot I served with in Korea, in 1956-57. 1/Lt. Robert A. Ford - "Bob Ford" to all who respected and admired him - died in the crash of an F-86 jet fighter plane on March 11, 1957, while serving his country in Korea - in the "war that was not a war" - in the war that, to this day, has not been resolved, for no peace treaty has ever been signed.
The war stopped on a "cease fire" in 1953. But, technically, it is still a war in which America has been involved since 1950. Does anyone believe that we can have "peace" with the "nuclear bomb threatening" North Korean regime even today?
The reason my thoughts went back to my fellow serviceman, Bob Ford, when I read this article - is that, for almost fifty years, Bob Ford's widow, Libby, and his family, have been trying to get our government to give them closure, by giving them an uncensored copy of the accident report which took Bob's life in 1957 - and some acknowledgment that Bob's life was not wasted in vain.
In 1999, Libby Ford sent a request to the Korean War Memorial administrators asking that Bob Ford's name be listed on that memorial. Her request was denied because Bob was not killed between 1950 and 1953.
On September 11, 2003, a friend sent me an e-mail which contained a URL link to a new web site, the Korea War Project. This is a web site run independently of any government organization by two brothers who want to honor their father and others who served in our "war that was not a war."
It was about 3:00 AM and I was ready for bed. But, I went to the web site out of curiosity. I found my Air Force organization, the 311th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, and began to browse through the Message Page. Just as I was about to stop for the night, a name jumped out at me - 1/LT. ROBERT A. FORD, JR. KIA. Below is the message I found on the Korean War Project web site that night:
My Friends, her message was posted on September 11, 1999. I found it on September 11, 2003, exactly four years to the day after it was posted. And this should make you will recall another infamous day, September 11, 2001. Was this divine providence or not? You decide for yourself. For me it was.
The next morning I called Libby Ford, who lives in Virginia, and we began a friendship which has led to me doing a memorial web site for Bob Ford. I invite you to visit this web site - and say a prayer for this family:
Then, I ask you to forward this e-mail to your senators, to your congressmen and congresswomen, and to your president - asking them to give this family the closure they have sought for almost fifty years.
Between 2003 and today, I have written a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force, two letters to President Bush, and a letter to First Lady Laura Bush. The Secretary of the Air Force just sent us back to an Air Force Colonel in New Mexico who had initially put us into this Military "Catch 22" Loop. The two letters to President Bush have just been ignored.
The office of First Lady Laura Bush did respond, saying that they were going to forward our request to the appropriate agency. That agency turned out, once again, to be the Pentagon - which, once again, put us back into the "never-ending Military Catch 22 Loop."
In other words, regardless of the hoopla and honors we will see this Memorial Day weekend, regardless of all the praise and rhetoric we will hear from our national leaders for our military people and their families - families such as the Ford family, a family which paid the ultimate sacrifice in 1957 - are forgotten!
This Memorial Day, If you really want to honor our fallen military heroes - then ask our leaders to honor those who fell many years ago, those whose families are still seeking closure. Yes, let us honor those families. Then, I will believe your rhetoric about honoring our military men, women, and their families of today. For, these of today - will, soon, be those forgotten men, women, and families of tomorrow.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day - and a glorious Memorial Day,
Bill
FROM "ETERNITY" TO HERE - AN ARTICLE OF APPRECIATION
Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 5:24 PM
From: Bill Gray
Hi to all my Friends,
My long, long time Friend and high school classmate, Jimmy Moore, sent the following article to me. This is just an excerpt from the article:
From 'Eternity' to Here
By Peggy Noonan
Updated May 25, 2006 11:59 p.m. ET
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122512827011872633
Americans didn't always appreciate our soldiers the way we do today.
"The first note was clear and absolutely certain. There was no question or stumbling in this bugle. It swept across the quadrangle positively, held a fraction of a second longer than most buglers hold it. Held long like the length of time, stretching away from weary day to weary day. . . . This is the song of the men who have no place, played by a man who has never had a place, and can therefore play it. Listen to it. You know this song, remember?" ("From Here to Eternity" - a novel by James Jones, page 213)
For novel readers who care about war, and warriors who cared about novels, a great memory is the picture, seen in tens of millions of imaginations, and finally in a film, of Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt playing taps at Schofield Barracks, 25 miles from Honolulu, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, in James Jones's great novel, "From Here to Eternity."
It was published 55 years ago and sold three million copies, and it is on my mind today because I'm thinking about the taps we will all hear this Monday, Memorial Day, at ceremonies and in cemeteries throughout the country. When I hear it I'm going to think of what my father always said when he heard taps. "Play it, Prewitt," he'd say. Because that character was like men he'd known in the American army of World War II.
Reading that article, immediately my thoughts went to an Air Force pilot I served with in Korea, in 1956-57. 1/Lt. Robert A. Ford - "Bob Ford" to all who respected and admired him - died in the crash of an F-86 jet fighter plane on March 11, 1957, while serving his country in Korea - in the "war that was not a war" - in the war that, to this day, has not been resolved, for no peace treaty has ever been signed.
The war stopped on a "cease fire" in 1953. But, technically, it is still a war in which America has been involved since 1950. Does anyone believe that we can have "peace" with the "nuclear bomb threatening" North Korean regime even today?
The reason my thoughts went back to my fellow serviceman, Bob Ford, when I read this article - is that, for almost fifty years, Bob Ford's widow, Libby, and his family, have been trying to get our government to give them closure, by giving them an uncensored copy of the accident report which took Bob's life in 1957 - and some acknowledgment that Bob's life was not wasted in vain.
In 1999, Libby Ford sent a request to the Korean War Memorial administrators asking that Bob Ford's name be listed on that memorial. Her request was denied because Bob was not killed between 1950 and 1953.
On September 11, 2003, a friend sent me an e-mail which contained a URL link to a new web site, the Korea War Project. This is a web site run independently of any government organization by two brothers who want to honor their father and others who served in our "war that was not a war."
It was about 3:00 AM and I was ready for bed. But, I went to the web site out of curiosity. I found my Air Force organization, the 311th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, and began to browse through the Message Page. Just as I was about to stop for the night, a name jumped out at me - 1/LT. ROBERT A. FORD, JR. KIA. Below is the message I found on the Korean War Project web site that night:
MESSAGE NUMBER: 4627 -- EMAIL POSTED: 1999-11-09
FIRST NAME: Elizabeth (Libby) - LAST NAME: Ford
COMMENTS: 1/Lt. Robert A. Ford, Jr. was killed in Korea on March 11, 1957 after being extended over in Korea longer than he was supposed to serve, due to the fact that he had been accepted to attend the University of Illinois to get his Masters Degree. They didn't know what to do with him before school started, so they held him over there longer than he should have been there; consequently he was killed because of a faulty plane he was flying.
My Friends, her message was posted on September 11, 1999. I found it on September 11, 2003, exactly four years to the day after it was posted. And this should make you will recall another infamous day, September 11, 2001. Was this divine providence or not? You decide for yourself. For me it was.
The next morning I called Libby Ford, who lives in Virginia, and we began a friendship which has led to me doing a memorial web site for Bob Ford. I invite you to visit this web site - and say a prayer for this family:
1/Lt Robert A. Ford Memorial Web Site:
http://www.BOB-FORD-MEMORIAL.com
Then, I ask you to forward this e-mail to your senators, to your congressmen and congresswomen, and to your president - asking them to give this family the closure they have sought for almost fifty years.
Between 2003 and today, I have written a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force, two letters to President Bush, and a letter to First Lady Laura Bush. The Secretary of the Air Force just sent us back to an Air Force Colonel in New Mexico who had initially put us into this Military "Catch 22" Loop. The two letters to President Bush have just been ignored.
The office of First Lady Laura Bush did respond, saying that they were going to forward our request to the appropriate agency. That agency turned out, once again, to be the Pentagon - which, once again, put us back into the "never-ending Military Catch 22 Loop."
In other words, regardless of the hoopla and honors we will see this Memorial Day weekend, regardless of all the praise and rhetoric we will hear from our national leaders for our military people and their families - families such as the Ford family, a family which paid the ultimate sacrifice in 1957 - are forgotten!
This Memorial Day, If you really want to honor our fallen military heroes - then ask our leaders to honor those who fell many years ago, those whose families are still seeking closure. Yes, let us honor those families. Then, I will believe your rhetoric about honoring our military men, women, and their families of today. For, these of today - will, soon, be those forgotten men, women, and families of tomorrow.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day - and a glorious Memorial Day,
Bill
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