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From Gene Banning's notes of 8/31/00: "December 1935, left 1937, later a Col in USAF." (HELP!! Gene spells the name "Simmons". I've also seen it spelled "Simons". Anybody out there have the correct spelling of Richard's last name?) From a 1960's CNAC Personnel List: Simons, Richard, pilot Col USAF Received the following e-mail Good morning, I just found out about your web site in the book "An Airline at War". I found my father listed in the pilot section and saw information was wanted. His name is Richard W. Simons, born October 23, 1909 in Las Animas, CO and raised in West Plains, MO. He died in May 1990 in Cornwall, CT at the age of 89.5. He retired with 32 years of service from the US Air Force in 1962 as a full Colonel. Dick started his military career with the MO National Guard, attended Antioch College (accounting) in Dayton, OH for 3 years. At that time he met Orville Wright at a business group speach. He then joined the Army Air Corp and trained as a bombardier at Kelly and Randolph Air Fields in San Antonio, TX. I think this was 1931 or 1932. Upon commission as a 2nd Lt., he flew the Army Air Mail out of Atlanta for one year. He then got a lead from Jimmy Doolittle that there were flying jobs in China. Pop shipped out of Seattle, WA and went to work for Warlord Chen Jitang in Canton, China. He helped train Chinese pilots for Chen's private air force. Chen stepped down as a warlord (mid 30's) and that is when Pop transferred to CNAC. He flew the Ford Tri-motors. He left China when the Japanese moved on Shanghai and came home thru the Suze Canal, Greece, Hungary, and Germany. When he arrived home he rejoined the Army Air Corp with the rank of Major. He served at Mitchell Field and met my mother, Elizabeth Haynes. They were married (1941) and promptly stationed in the Panama Canal where he was in charge of the Anti-Submarine patrols in the Pacific and Atlantic. He was transferred to the Air Corp testing base in Orlando, FL where I was born. At the end of WWII, he was stationed in Shanghai as the Air Corp base commander. At this time is was a full colonel with command flight wings. We were force out of China in late 1948 and he was stationed at the Pentagon on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1953, he was transferred to Maxwell AFB as a student and they stayed on for another 3 years as an instructor. Next station in 1957 was SHAPE HQ in the P&P office for three years. After that he was made the Chief Liaison Officer to the Upper Mid-West Civil Air Patrol. With 32 years in, he decided it was time to retire. He then had another 30 years as a retired civilian. I have his log book, photo albums and documentation of the above and I can make them available to you Would the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum be interested in receiving these items? Rick Simons  or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore, know. Thanks! |