Hunger sent city man to Air Force
Trending
YOUNGSTOWN -- Richard Chilton gave a simple reason for starting a military career: "I was hungry."
The Roanoke, Virginia, native lost his father as a baby and his mother struggled to support four children.
"To keep warm we had to walk a railroad track and pick up the coal," Chilton, now 86, said from his West Side home.
He always had been interested in flying and even was a member of the Civil Air Patrol, an Air Force auxiliary that conducted search-and-rescue missions, so the day after he turned 17, he joined the Air Force.
Basic training in 1954 was at Sampson Air Force Base in Geneva, N.Y. Then he attended school in Wichita Falls, Texas, to become a mechanic. He studied on the B-36 bomber.
"On a football field, each wing tip would overlap the sidelines about three feet and the nose would be at one goal post and the tail would be at the other," Chilton said about the massive planes.
After two years at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, he was transferred to Tripoli, the capital of Libya. A sergeant informed him, "It's on the south part of the Mediterranean Sea. It's 18 months and you're going to hate all 18 of them."
The temperature often was in triple digits with planes sitting in direct sunlight, making it impossible to walk on the wings in the daytime.
He said his next assignment was Headquarters Command at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., an entry point for foreign dignitaries.
"On the weekends that we didn't have a parade, we practiced," Chilton said.
After that was Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. "Nice place but it's expensive."
On payday, he would drive to his favorite saloons and be back on base in four hours.
"Now I've spent all my monthly pay so I'd sit in the barracks for 30 days and wait until I'd get paid again," Chilton recalled.
He volunteered for Midway Island as an adviser to the Navy. Known as Military Air Transport Service, Chilton said the initials really stood for Might Arrive Tomorrow Sometime. The island was isolated, so during down time, "all you could do is go fishing."
The salt water made his uniforms rot.
"After three or four months, a sleeve would come off, a collar would come off," Chilton said.
His next eight years were with Strategic Air Command.
"You kept a flyaway kit, spare parts and a suitcase with seven days of clothes. They would knock on your airplane and say, 'You ready to go?" Chilton said.
It generally was top secret so he didn't know where he was heading or how long he was staying.
In 1965, he met Ann. They married the next June.
In 1967, she was expecting their first child when he received orders for Vietnam. Chilton's son was 18 hours old when he had to leave. He was stationed in Thailand, 30 minutes from North Vietnam, during the Tet Offensive, when North Vietnam and the Viet Cong launched a series of attacks.
One day a Thai pilot was leaving for a mission. His engine kept cutting out. Chilton pleaded with him to abort but he said he had to go. "He started the engine and I jumped off the wing or he was going to take me with him. He went down the runway and took off. The engine quit and he went down and burst into flames."
In 1968, Chilton returned to the U.S., eventually becoming a flight engineer.
"You get $100 extra a month and you don't have to twist wrenches. I raise the gear. I lower the gear. I raise the flaps. I lower the flaps. I give them power settings," Chilton recalled.
He recently joked to a pilot's wife that "all they do is steer."
His final two years were at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton. He was a unit training NCO.
"I had a desk job," he said.
Upon retirement in 1974, he was employed at Sears in Springfield, Ohio, as an auto mechanic, stating, "one bolt's as good as another."
He was there 10 years until significant heart blockage forced him to stop, although eventually he worked part-time at another Sears in Texas.
The Chiltons moved to Youngstown in 2009 to be near Ann's sister. He stays busy by playing bingo, saying, "I win enough to wonder whether I want to come back or not" and practicing his guitar.
Chilton said he liked working on planes. Asked to sum up his experiences, he said simply, "All in all, I enjoyed the Air Force. There's rough spots in any job, but that's pretty much it."
xxxxxx
NAME:Richard Chilton
AGE: 86
RESIDENCE: Youngstown
SERVICE BRANCH: Air Force
MILITARY HONORS: Air Force Commendation (Vietnam), National Defense Service Medal, Vietnamese Campaign ribbon, Outstanding Unit Award
OCCUPATION: Retired from Air Force and Sears
FAMILY: wife, Ann (married almost 57 years), children, Jeffrey (deceased), Lisa and Joseph; eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren
EDITOR'S NOTE: To suggest a veteran for this series, which runs weekly through Veterans Day, email Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com.