Loose, Chester S.
The Chester S. Loose Bio – – aka Baron Von Loose; Gumper
This bio is split into three distinct periods – – Before the AF, the AF Period and the Post AF Period.
Before the AF–I was born in Bowling Green, Ohio – – – a small college town of around 35,000 in NW Ohio. This is where I “grew up”, where I played, studied and worked before heading off to Vance AFB. Both of my siblings were Special Needs children and my parents owned & operated a large rental business. I consider my parents to be parental heroes – – after being on this planet for more than 78 years I can honestly say I’ve not run across a set of parents who made so many sacrifices and through sheer determination overcame immense adversity and hardship. While in high school I lettered in football playing on an undefeated team my senior year – – first string on offense & defense. While living at home, I worked at the rental business and during the summers had a job at the local municipal airport – – this is how and where I acquired a special interest in flying. I graduated from BGSU in 1966 with a degree in Business Administration.
The AF Period — May 68 to May 69 Vietnam – – Vung Tau Line C-7 Driver
May 69 to Apr 72 Mather AFB Line Pilot Nav Tng School
Apr 72 to Jul 73 Mildenhall RAF Instructor/FltExaminer
Jul 73 to Jul 75 Ramstein AFB USAFE IG Team (T-29)
Jul 75 to Aug 77 Rickenbacker AFB Sec Police Operations Officer
Aug 77 to Jan 79 Little Rock AFB 50 TAS Line Pilot
Jan 79 to Oct 84 Little Rock AFB 513 TAW ALCE
Oct 84 to Oct 88 Chesterfield, VA USAF-CAP Liaison Off
Oct 88 to Aug 91 Rickenbacker AFB USAF-CAP Liaison Off
From this summary you can see that my actual flying career was pretty much devoid of any high drama & adventure. Along the way, however, I did fly below the rim of the Grand Canyon twice, flew alongside Dick Scobee (Commander of the ill-fated Space Shuttle STS-51 mission) and flew (as a “guardian co-pilot”) throughout Europe and the Middle East for a future four star general (James E. Hill). While stationed at Mather AFB I met and married my wife Judi, who worked at the hospital as an AF nurse. We’ve been married for almost 52 years, we have two daughters and six grandchildren. After many change of addresses, we finally “unpacked our bags” for the duration and have lived comfortably for over 35 years approximately seven miles W. of Lancaster, Ohio. I retired in 1991 (Lt Col) with almost 25 years of service.
The Post AF Period—During the period 1991 to 1994, I worked for Lowe’s. I fully retired in 94 enabling me to better help/support my aging parents who lived in BG, about 150 miles from Lancaster. It was the least I could do for parents who had made such great sacrifices for me and my siblings. Currently, Judi and I have a daughter who lives a stones-throw from us and another daughter who resides in Sarasota. We usually drive to Sarasota in the fall of each year to visit Jennifer & her family – – we rent a double-wide in a +55 retirement community. Aside from living the good life, we practice a pretty mundane life style. My wife, daughters and grandkids all call me Gumper – – my chosen name (since Grandpa wasn’t going to square with me). When the Ohio weather is agreeable, Judi and I can occasionally be seen galavanting the countryside on our Cam Am Spyder. Most of the time I keep quite busy – – woodworking, editing music, stock market, talk radio, biking (the pedal type) and working on/enjoying my HO model railroad empire, The Chesterfield, Lithopolis & Wapakoneta MRR. My auto tags look like this – – FWF 6804. These were issued to me out of pure coindence – – can you say strange? I make heavy use of two computer programs, one of them is a Microsoft Office alternative which I strongly recommend for anyone wanting to free themselves from the shackles of MS – – it’s called FreeOffice made by SoftMaker. I like it much better than MS Office and it’s very user friendly. The other program I use a lot (for anyone interested in audio/music editing) is called Audacity. As a final thought I can’t believe the direction our country is headed in – – – we are being destroyed from within. Well, guys, just to let you know I’ve enjoyed reading the posted bio(s) from my 68E classmates – – – but as Porky Pig would say – – That’s all Folks!