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INSTRUCTOR
PILOTS
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Many former
students credit the Primary training received at Spence and their
Primary flight instructors as key factors in their success that
followed. Here are some of the many Spence Instructor Pilots who
helped give thousands of fine young men a flying start in their
aviation careers - - the way we were.
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Eugene Keil
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Pete Pederson
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Edwin Gail
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Walter Viator
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Henry Caudill
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Robert Pitts
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Henry Gray
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Eldon Shore
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C. R. Gillespie
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Harold Boroughs
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Harold Hughes
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Carl Gibson
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John Bricker
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Ray Clayton
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Kemp Holden
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John Everett
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Julio Alonzo
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Back Row (L to R) -
Swenson, L. Williams, T.
Williams, Cribbs, Chapman,
Watson, Winkelman, Eisman, Owen, Turzanski. Front Row (L to R)
- Francis, R. Carver, Campbell, Havill, Pierce, E. King (Flight
Commander), Oberholtzer, Lester (Asst. Flight Commander)
Class 60E - Polecat Flight
- 1959
Instructors - Back Row (L to R) -
Haines,
Young,
Walsh,
Weeks,
Braswell, Johnson, Freeman (Flight Commander), Tillman,
Whiddon, Himmelien, Gargaly, Montgomery, Stueben. For enlargement
of 60E picture click
here.
Flight Commanders
Neal Savoy
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Ed Paschall
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Arnold Lester
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Bob Rose
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Roy Windham
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Fritz Mengle
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Ash Grimmett
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Ed King
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Bob Weaver
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Dave Hackney
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George Freeman
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Ed Roderick
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Jim Pierce
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June Macon
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Robert Jenkins
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Jim Green
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Matt Pelling (51-55)
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Sam Austill (55-57)
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Les Locke (57-61)
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NOTE: If you have pictures of Spence
Instructor Pilots and/or
Flight Commanders not included above, taken during their time at
Spence, please let me know
so we can add them to the gallery.
World War 2 Spence
Instructor
Pilots
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Arnold Lester
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Brax Batson
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John Bricker
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Elmer Paquette
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Arnold Lester, Brax Batson and
John Bricker all
instructed in the Advanced Training program at Spence during WW2.
Lester and Batson graduated from Advanced Training at "Spence Field" in
Class 44-B and were immediately assigned to Instructor Pilot duties at
that same location. Bricker's WW2 class number is unknown at this
time. Later all three were among the first flight instructors
hired by Hawthorne School of Aeronautics when Spence was re-opened in
1951. Lester advanced to the position of Flight Commander,
remained with Hawthorne until the base closed, and was responsible for
the training of several classes including the first and the last T-37
classes trained at Spence. Batson advanced to Flight Commander
early in the program and to Squadron Commander in 1957, the position he
held until leaving the Spence program in July, 1959 to become Director
of Training at the new Hawthorne US Army Primary Flight Training
Program at Lowe Field, Ft. Rucker, AL.
Elmer Gordon Paquette, pictured above as an Aviation Cadet, was also a
Spence graduate in Class 44-B and was assigned as an Instructor Pilot
at Spence after graduation. Picture contributed by his son, Kap,
who was born in the Spence Field Hospital on Christmas day, 1944.
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