Rett Benedict
The Catalina Mountains Satellite Chapter met on April 11, 2015, at the MountainView Clubhouse in SaddleBrooke. The speaker was General Earl T. O’Loughlin, United States Air Force (retired). General O’Loughlin entered the Air Force as an enlisted man and retired as a Four Star General. He flew 29 combat missions over North Korea, served in Vietnam and has over 7000 hours in 22 aircraft types. In addition to pilot duties, he held several maintenance and logistics positions, including Commander Air Force Logistics Command. General O’Loughlin covered a number of interesting topics including the A-10 controversy, current Air Force policies and several interesting tales of the many men and women he knew during his Air Force career.
Now retired, General O’Loughlin participates in the Friday Pilots Club, a regular gathering of former Air Force pilots. They have compiled a collection of memories and stories in a book entitled Friday Pilots, edited by Don Shepperd. It is available on Amazon.com or through Autohouse Publishing. All royalties from the book will go to the Fisher House.
Fisher House Foundation is a nonprofit organization that has established a network of comfort homes where military and veterans’ families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment. A special thanks to General O’Loughlin for an informative and entertaining presentation.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 17 at 11:30 a.m. in the East Room at MountainView Country Club, 38759 S. MountainView Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85739, phone 818-1000. The format will be lunch at 11:30 a.m. followed by a brief business meeting and then the featured speaker. The speaker will be Lieutenant Colonel Randy Olson, a UH-1 (“Huey”) helicopter command pilot, a T-39 instructor pilot and an A-10 pilot. As a warrant officer, he commanded the Super Slick Huey in Vietnam accumulating 1420 combat flying hours in one year. Subsequently he was commissioned through ROTC and served until 2000 with more than 6500 flying hours. He will talk about his helicopter exploits, experiences in training foreign pilots and three A-10 Warthog assignments and much more.
Subsequent meetings will be held on the third Saturday of each month at the same time and location; speakers to be provided at a later date.
The Catalina Mountains satellite encompasses northwest Tucson to include Catalina, Oracle, parts of Oro Valley and Marana, SaddleBrooke and Sun City.
For additional information, contact Colonel Rett Benedict at 825-7424, [email protected] or Colonel Tom Owens, MOAA Tucson President, at 760-3476, [email protected]. Check website: www.tucsonmoaa.com for information.
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a nonprofit veterans’ service association dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and to preserve the earned entitlements of members of the uniformed services and their families and survivors.