Valley County, IDGenWeb Project | |
Col. Theodore R. “Ted” Dale, Ret. USAF, 93, of Alexander, Ark., made his last flight on Sept. 9, 2011, passing peacefully at his home surrounded by love.
Burial took place at New Prospect Cemetery at Peeler Bend near Benton, Ark.
During his 30-year military career Ted logged over 4,500 hours in 33 unique aircraft including the Boeing B47 Stratojet Bomber and the B17 Flying Fortress.
Ted was a U.S. Army Veteran of World War II, and a U.S. Air Force Veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Late in life new love came to Ted when he married Dee Brazil Dale, formerly of McCall, on Sept. 26, 2004. Ted and Dee traveled extensively, volunteered generously and lived life to the fullest.
Dee introduced Ted to McCall and her Aspens condo. After Dee retired from Arkansas Hospice in 2006 the couple bought a Savannah Ridge cabin and spent their summers and part of fall and winter there.
Through Hugh and Cindy McNair, Ted met many of the “geezer” pilots in McCall and enjoyed flying with Hugh and seeing the beauty of Idaho from the air.
Ted was an officer and a gentleman in every way and was loved and cherished by his many friends, colleagues and fellow airmen.
He was born March 12, 1918, in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, the seventh child of 10 children of Alfonso and Mary Stafford Dale.
He graduated in 1941 with a degree in Education from Ohio State University and received a U.S. Army Reserve Commission as a second lieutenant in field artillery.
Ted enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 1, 1941, near the beginning of American involvement in World War II, and served for two years in the European Theatre.
In 1943 he transferred to the Army Air Corps and trained as a pilot on the B-17E Bomber. He was assigned to 835th, flying three bombing missions before the war ended.
His next assignment was to the Army of Occupation as squadron commander at the U.S. Air Base in Erlangen, Germany.
In 1948, after Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, Ted flew the C-47 Skytrain (“Gooneybird”) “24/7” during the Berlin Airlift supplying food and supplies to the now-stranded West Germans.
Ted married Ilse Hirschmann on March 26, 1948, in Germany. To this union were born two beautiful daughters, Cherry Dale Daugherty and Terry Dale Lutes.
From 1951 to 1953, Ted was assigned to Joint Task Force 3 to document the atomic bomb tests in the Eniwetok Atoll (Marshall Islands) in the Pacific Ocean. The documents Ted only recently declassified.
Ted was ordered to Osan Air Base in South Korea in July 1953 and assigned to the Fifth Air Force, flying the B-26 Night Intruder, a twin engine bomber. Among Ted’s most dangerous missions was the flying of “time and distance” nighttime, low-level bombing and strafing missions.
During the Military Armistice Commission hearings, Ted was assigned as chief administrator for all commission meetings.
He was responsible for transmitting minutes of the meetings, about 40 pages each night to the office of the President of the United States.
Ted was then assigned to the Strategic Air Command as wing commander and was stationed in the U.S. to fly the new B47 Stratojet throughout the Cold War for 11 years.
Ted’s Air Force career culminated with his service as base commander of the Little Rock AFB, Jacksonville, Ark., retiring in 1970.
After 30 years in the Air Force, he became a real estate broker, retiring in 1982.
He is survived by his wife, Dee Brazil Dale, Alexander and McCall; daughters, Terry Lutes and her husband, Leroy, of Blue Springs, Mo., Mary Dougherty and her husband, Bob of Jacksonville, Ark.; six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be sent to the Michael V. Aureli Arkansas Hospice Perpetual Endowment Fund, c/o the Arkansas Hospice Foundation, 14 Parkstone Circle, North Little Rock, AR 72116 (www.arkansashospice.org).
Copyright Notice:
All materials contained on these pages are furnished for the free use of those engaged in researching their family origins. Any commercial use or distribution, without the consent of the host/author of these pages is prohibited.