Posted on 05/05/2002 3:21:08 AM PDT by ICE-FLYER
The 109 Airlift Wing is a unit based in Up State New York and has since the 70's been the only USAF unit to have the LC-130 aircraft. This is a heavily modified C-130 with the worlds largest ski equipped landing gear ever installed on any aircraft.
While deployed to the Greenlandic Ice Cap for the training of other maintenance personnel in the area of Ice Recovery, Master Seargent Joe Butler passed away. It appears he had a heart attack.
For over 25 years this man has worked tirelessly for his country and for the 109 Airlift Wing. It started out as work on the DEW line. Many know that the DEW line is the old Distant Early Warning line of radar sites spread out across the ice cap of inhospitable Greenland, continuing across Canada all the way to Alaska. It wasn't until the new OTH-B Radar sites came on line that these old sites were shut down. This was done in the mid 80's. Until then it was LC-130 aircraft maintained by MSgt Butler that made it possible to keep those stations running with their important radars working. The cold war was won on the backs of people such as MSgt Butler
MSgt Butler did not stop when they shut down either, because it is the USAF which now is the single point provider for all heavy lift capability in Greenland AND Antarctica today. The US Navy had a 44 year stint as the provider in Antarctica, but the newer equipment of the 109 AW and their ability to do the mission at a reduced cost to the government made it possible to end Navy involvement and thus their proud and heralded 44 year history ended in 2000 as they augmented the 109 AW for the last time.
MSgt Butler is one of the many unsung heros of the US Air Force. A quiet and strong worker whose expertise in the ski systems of the landing gear was called on many times. He has been deployed north and south dozens of times and was the primary crew chief of the aircraft that was sent in to rescue Dr. Jerri Neilson at the South Pole Station a few years back in what became one of the most reported events of that year.
MSgt Butler was a cultivator of exceptional people in the area of maintenance. He never accepted shoddy or half-way work. He was the type of man who new the aircraft so well that books about the aircraft were oft-times not even necessary to refer to when he was around.
It is un-sung heros of our country like Joe who deserve our praise and admiration. It is families like MSgt Butlers who go without their loved one for sometimes up to a month at a time so people like Joe can go to the most inhospitable place on the planet to keep a radar station, for the greatest nation on earth, up and running, fed and fueled.
May God grant great blessing on his family, his nation that he served and his unit that will never forget the day, 4 May 2002 that an LC-130H Ski Equipped hercules brought him home to the witness of over 1000 of his unit members of the 109 Airlift Wing.
Like you, I thank G-d and people like MSgt Butler for the freedom we enjoy in this country.
There are other unsung heros not mentioned in your otherwise excellent eulogy: his parent. I owe them my gratitude for raising their son to be a good American. I they are still living, it must be terrible for them: there is nothing worse than burring own children.
This is a very good way to look at it. I do wish that all American parents took seriously the part of raising good, moral, decent, hard-working American citizens.
A most impressive family too as over 150 of them will be there for him. As will about 200-400 Military members. He is to be buried with full military honors.
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