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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2021)
8A | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS Community Voices Editor’s Note: Community Voices is a monthly feature in the Siuslaw News. It consists of viewpoints from people in the Siuslaw region. Siuslaw News welcomes these opinions as part of its goal to encour- age community discussion and exchange of perspectives, but they should not be inter- preted as the views of the News or its staff. Top Flight: With a Storied Aviation Career, Terry Tomeny Is Inspiring a New Generation he skipped a few classes. Lake Mercer only a few miles “I was an average col- from the ocean and their lege student but because hanger. Winette volunteered Originally published of ROTC, I had to toe the for Seacoast Entertainment July 20, 2021 line while everyone else and is now the president, Used with permission was going through the booking bands and enter- Vietnam-long-hair-hippy tainment from around the s a preteen, Terry Tomeny freak-smoking marijuana country for the community. and his father, Edward phase of their lives,” he said. They launched Tomeny “Ted” Tomeny, had no clue Aero Inc. and Aero Legends that one flight in a Cessna 172 A Natural Ability Biplane Rides, offering tours would send the youngster up In his fourth year of col- in their vintage Stearman bi- a path that would lead him to lege, he had to take a 35-hour plane, exploring the beauti- approximately 10,000 hours flight instruction course in a ful Oregon coast. Tomeny is of flying time in more than 80 Piper Cherokee to see if he now a world history buff and types of aircraft. had any ability to fly. very knowledgeable about “Flying was the coolest thing “You can like to fly, but the history of Florence, I have ever done, and to this that does not make you a Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Terry Tomeny has had a passion for aviation which he shares with his day it is still my biggest passion good pilot,” Tomeny ex- since he was a young boy. He has nearly 10,000 hours of flight time in passengers while flying over and interest,” said Tomeny, 72. plained. His instructor was a over 80 aircraft. (Photo courtesy Tomeny Aero Inc.) sand dunes and landmarks. His father worked as an ac- WASP (Women Air Force Ser- ural ability to fly. my parents were so proud. I countant and his mother was a vice Pilots) during World War Inspiring the Next Unfortunately, the owner of thought that was pretty cool.” homemaker. “We had no avia- II. Generation the little airport where Tomeny He has had “that moment” sev- tion in our family, but my dad “Ms. Virginia Sweet was in trained was killed a few days lat- eral times throughout his life, In 2017, the Tomenys and re- would do some work for a bach- her 50s and wore these big er in a crash, in an aircraft that graduating with top honors tired airline captain Sam Spayd elor who owned a Cessna 172, skirts with petticoats under he had recently flown. While from every flying school he has opened the Florence Aviation a V-Tail Bonanza, and several them. She was an excellent pilot driving toward the woods to attended. Academy, an annual, two-week other planes. One day, my dad and instructor,” Tomeny said. check out the wreckage, Don charitable event accomplished asked him if he would take me After only a few hours of in- McClean’s “American Pie,” in partnership with the Boys Hot Air Balloons and Su- up for a ride.” After one flight, struction, Ms. Sweet asked him which was recently released, & Girls Club of Western Lane personic Jets Tomeny was hooked and flew if he wanted to fly solo. played on the radio. He is a past president and County. Students are intro- whenever a flight was offered. “Today? Do you think I’m “I stood there and looked fellow of the Society of Exper- duced to the basics of aviation In high school, he excelled at ready?” he replied nervously. at the yoke [control wheel] of imental Test Pilots and is the and its history. They learn math math and science but hated lan- The air was quite turbulent; the the airplane that I was behind recipient of the Doolittle and skills that are required to de- guages, English, social studies, plane was unsteady and bob- just a few days ago, all ripped Kincheloe awards. He also re- termine fuel usage and flight and history. bing. apart.” He paused and cleared ceived the Liethen-Tittle Award, times, basic airplane mainte- “Physics, calculus, chem- “’If you can fly today, you can his throat. “Anyways, whenev- awarded to the top pilot in a giv- nance, and flight instructions. istry—I loved that stuff,” he fly any day,’ she said. “We land- er I hear that song, it brings me en class at the U.S. Air Force Test Upon graduation, students fly said. A high school counselor ed, she got out and I soloed.” back to that time.” Pilot School, among numerous with their instructor and actu- encouraged him to become an Impressed after only 35 hours ally pilot the aircraft. With a 2.9 GPA, Tomeny be- other accolades. engineer. Upon high school of instruction, the instructor lieves it is the social skills he “We find that so many kids Tomeny’s successful avia- graduation, he accepted a full called an examiner for Tomeny’s learned from being in a frater- tion career includes becoming do not have goals or visions, scholarship to an engineering 1 1/2-hour check ride who hap- nity that were most important. a commander and director for and all it takes is a little spark to college, Rensselaer Polytech- pened to be in the area. After Ready to go into the Air Force several programs at Edwards set them off of a successful ca- nic Institute in Troy, New York, fulfilling the requirements of pilot training program, he ran Flight Test Center in California. reer and happy life. So in addi- about a three-hour drive from laying out a cross-country flight into the dean of engineering, He has flown everything from tion to exposing the kids to my his hometown of Syracuse. Tu- plan, Tomeny and his examiner Carl Westerdahl, at a fraternity hot air balloons to supersonic passion, flying, we also encour- ition was about $16,000 a year took to the sky. Tomeny per- party a few weeks before grad- fighters, and he has worked for age them to follow their own so Tomeny felt extremely for- formed a few maneuvers and uation. the Pentagon and companies in- passions. We use the following tunate. “No way would we ever short, planned engine stalls, Westerdahl asked him if he cluding Lockheed Martin, Boe- saying—and it has already in- been able to afford that.” when the examiner pulled back was interested in grad school, ing, Calspan, and Eclipse. spired four years of graduates: Walking down the hallway the throttle and said, “You just which would only take one “The difference between a ‘Find something you love to do, with his parents during orienta- lost your engine—now land.” more year. Tomeny discovered manager and a leader is that a that you’re good at, that some- tion, they happened upon three Spiraling down to reduce that when he went to class reg- manager tells you what to do, a body will pay you to do, and ROTC tables. The first was an speed, then gliding toward the ularly and actually studied, it leader asks you what you think you’ll never have to work a day Air Force recruiter who asked airport without power, Tomeny was actually pretty easy—and needs to be done. You listen in your life.’ him if he had 20/20 vision. “Yes, started to get nervous, calculat- he did quite well. “We find that most of the kids and work together as a team. I do!” answered Tomeny. Then ing whether to go over or under “I think everybody should Sometimes you have to be both. have never thought about it—or the recruiter then asked if he the approaching power lines. have a time, sometime in their I think one of the biggest com- think they don’t have a chance. would like to be a pilot. “At the last moment the ex- life, that they feel they are the pliments you can have is when My belief is that if you really “Cool!” He signed on the dot- aminer said I could use a little No. 1 guy,” he said. With his someone says, ‘I will work for want it, go for it, and never, ever ted line, and that began the next power, so I went over the power parents and two sisters present you anywhere, doing anything,’ quit. Make them drag you out 31 years of his life. lines and landed. We probably at his graduation, he had that and that has happened quite a by your heels!” College was not as easy as only flew 30 minutes but he moment. bit.” high school. He liked to party a said I was good to go.” It was — Story courtesy — “I was the No. 1 graduate He and his wife, Winette, now bit, and every once in a while, confirmed: Tomeny had a nat- and the top academic guy. Boy, live in Florence, Oregon, on www.TheEpochTimes.com By Linda KC Reynolds The Epoch Times A Military Heritage Chronicles — Florence Homefront Defense Efforts By Cal Applebee Military and Vehicle Historian Special to Siuslaw News W hen researching ma- terial for historical articles, it can sometimes be a challenge to separate actual and accurate histori- cal information from urban legends and local commu- nity lore, not to mention sometimes misinformation on the internet. I started out for this arti- cle intending to cover our local community’s efforts of coastal protection during WWII, based on stories I’ve heard over the years about beach patrols and groups like the Vine Maple Sav- ages, which actually didn’t come into existence until the 1950s. I soon learned there was a lot of misinfor- mation out there, and to some degree, a lack of in- formation as well. I had heard of “The Sand Pounders” before, which was a moniker sometimes given to the U.S. Coast Guard members who con- ducted beach patrols just prior to and after our na- tion’s entrance into the war. Sometimes these were con- ducted via jeep and some- times on horseback, with the livestock provided by the U.S. Army. I had also heard of the “Tillamook Rangers” or sometimes re- ferred to as the “Tillamook Guerrillas,” as well as the “Portland Veteran’s Guard,” but had to really dig to learn about the efforts of Florence and Western Lane County. When it was anticipated the Oregon National Guard would be pressed into our nation’s defense duties af- ter the start of WWII, there was great concern about the home defense within the state itself. So the “Home Guard” concept was creat- ed at a state-level as early as 1940. I dug into the pages of the Siuslaw Oar, prede- cessor to the Siuslaw News, to learn what I could about this local effort, and really enjoyed the journey back through time. Other communities around the state created their own Home Guards. A Jan. 16, 1942, Siuslaw Oar article announced that 500 men answered the ini- tial call to mobilization for what was initially named “The Siuslaw Rifles,” with nearly half showing up at its first meeting with rifles. It would be the only autho- rized armed civilian group in Lane County. Its original mission was “to hold back a possible invasion or at least harass any enemy force.” The Siuslaw Rifles was soon organized along the lines of the state’s newly organized Home Guard concept, and eventually the count settled much low- er under 100 members. In mid-June 1942, it was mus- tered locally in Florence with a local drill demon- stration, and throughout the following months and years, regular training meetings were held. However, I found no cov- erage of actual patrols or incidents the local Home Guard encountered. In August 1943 the La- dies’ Auxiliary of the State Guard was planned and initial meeting held, al- though not much informa- tion was gleaned following that. Beyond that, not a lot of news coverage existed about the Home Guard or State Guard, depending on which source you refer to. There were other at- tempts at local coastal de- fense efforts, including an airplane spotters class tak- ing place in June 1943, pre- sumably linked to a group in Eugene. This would eventually evolve into the post-war Ground Obser- vation Corps in the late 1940s through the 1959, of which local women did in fact serve, according to area resident Steve Saubert, who recalls his own mother’s participation. In 1942, the U.S. Army announced plans to desig- nate an area along the Siu- slaw River up to Swisshome as a “Defense Area,” and in March 1943, another “Re- stricted Area” along the beaches west of Highway 101 in the Siltcoos area to be used for target practice. Other war-related cov- erage seen regularly in the pages of the Siuslaw Oar included guidelines and reminders for blackout reg- ulations, including a trial blackout exercise held in December 1942. A January 1942 article described efforts in West- ern Lane County to mobi- lize women to join the work force for replacing the men who had marched off to war. Gas and tire rationing were covered, as were scrap met- al and wastepaper drives. Multiple War Fund drives saw consistent coverage on the front pages throughout the war years as well. One aspect of the war which I found surprising- ly absent was coverage on national war events such as the Pearl Harbor attack, Doolittle Raid and VJ Day. There was coverage in late 1944 and mid-1945 about VE Day celebration plans. Unfortunately, there was a lot of coverage on home- town boys who were lost in service to their country, and rightfully so. Of course, the Siuslaw Oar was covering the en- tire Western Lane County region with its reporting, and the amazing support and response by our resi- dents at that time was as- tonishing, considering the official population count for incorporated Florence city limits in 1945 was only 605! The skeletal type of news reporting of the day gave me a much greater appre- ciation for the level of cov- erage our current Siuslaw News staff gives us today. For more military her- itage, visit the Oregon Coast Military Museum located on Kingwood Street adjacent to the Flor- ence Municipal Airport, open from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday thru Sunday, or by visiting the Museum’s website at www.oregon coastmilitarymuseum.com. The Siuslaw News Community Voices Special Section continues on A9 and A10. Read more opinions on A4.