From age seven Bobby Russell has been fascinated with
airplanes and flight. He was living with his family on a dryland farm in Weld
County, when a crop sprayer landed
his Piper Cub on a nearby road, then taxied and took flight while Bobby watched
in amazement. At nineteen he left farming and joined the Navy with high hopes
of becoming a jet pilot. Here are his words about that time and that decision, “I
joined the Navy to fly airplanes. In 1962, if you had a college degree or had
completed two years of college and passed a test you went straight to Pensacola.
If you had less than two complete years of college but passed the test you went
to Boot Camp, then to Pensacola. I
was in the last group which meant that I belonged to a Boot Camp company but
never attended any classes. My days were spent being a go-fer supposedly
getting on-the-job training as to being an officer.”
A few weeks into Boot Camp that plan changed when he
attended a lecture given to all Boots by Big Bad Dude Maxie Stephenson,
Underwater Demolition Teams. “He stood up on the stage in his starched greens
and told us he wasn’t interested in making men out of us but if any of us were
already men he was willing to talk.” Five days before Class 29 started RD
checked into the Boots Barracks on the Naval Amphib Base, where his Navy tour
as a UDT water warrior was a drastic change from his dream of Navy jet pilot.
In 1975 RD used his G.I. Bill benefits to attend Colorado
Aerotech in Broomfield, Colorado,
where he studied Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics. RD bought himself a used VW
bug from Mike Sandifer, put a crushed Budweiser can between the engine
cover, “trunk lid”, and frame to allow more air flow around the engine, and
drove that bug back and forth to Broomfield
five days a week for the next year and a half.
It was there he met Jim Nance, about
whom this story is written. I was reminded of Jim today when I saw crabapple
trees in full bloom in our town, and came home to check on the health of our own
crabapple tree, our “Jim Nance” tree, planted when Jim died in the 1980s.
Seeing it healthy and blooming I started to reminisce …
Jim Nance was a Texan
and an Air Force B-52 bomber pilot in Viet Nam
while RD was a Coloradoan and Navy UDT-11 frogman. I imagine they had lots to
talk about as they compared experiences and learned to fix airplanes at
Aerotech. They had more in common than the military, both loving good food and pretty women.
I recall RD telling me that soon they were a group of five or so
students who ate lunch together each day and learned about one another’s lives.
Jim and RD graduated at the top of their class in 1976, licensed A&P
Mechanics, and good friends.
Soon after graduation Jim moved his family to Fort
Collins and became a part of the local airport crowd. He
also became friends with our friends Bill West and Jack Archibald. We liked
Jim’s wife, Susan, and remember her saying, “I’ve never eaten a bad meal out.”
RD and Jim shared an interest in experimental aircraft and
made two trips back east to attend the Experimental Aircraft Association, EAA,
annual fly-in. Jim drove his van and they had fun adventures going and coming
home. On one of those trips a neighbor woman of Jim’s asked if she could hitch
a ride to see a relative and he said, “sure”. RD was surprised to arrive at
Jim’s and find the woman sitting in the back of the van on a lawn chair!
And
one year on their return to Colorado
they stopped at Jim’s sister’s home in Iowa
and were treated to a wonderful homecooked meal, a very welcome respite from
all the hotdogs in their cooler.
Jim became the Fort Collins Veterans’ Service Officer and
helped many veterans with their issues. He was really good at that job. But Jim
had a bad heart, and struggled with weight control and high blood pressure. He
was planning a big trip to the Gulf where he planned to put in his boat and do
some sailing. He was at Poudre Valley
Hospital getting his health checked
out to make sure “all systems go” prior to his trip, ready to be released, when
he suffered a fatal heart attack. I don’t remember the exact year but I know he
was too young to go.
Thank you Jim Nance for your friendship. RD and I remember.
We hope you are flying high above the clouds. The Navy men say “Fair Winds and Following
Seas”. I believe the Air Force men
say “Blue Skies and Tailwinds”.
