Retired Fairchild officer pays a visit

Published July 17, 2007
By By Tech. Sgt. Larry W. Carpenter Jr.
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Retired Maj. Malcolm A. Stewart reflects on his years as a pilot in Heritage Park here in the presence of two of the many aircraft that he has flown throughout his illustrious career, the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, also nicknamed "Gooney Bird" and the Douglas A-26 Invader.

Major Stewart returned to Spokane, Wash. to attend his 68th high-school reunion. While in town, he also paid a visit to Fairchild, a place where he was stationed as the public relations officer from 1956 to 1960.

A jack of all trades, the major has accomplished many things in his life: retirement from the military, 20 more years as a parole and probation officer in the state of Washington and how can he can forget, being a pilot.

Major Stewart got his fancy for flying at a young age from his father who was a first lieutenant in World War I, serving as an observer/bombardier.

"My father was also an advisor to a French outfit during the war," said Major Stewart. "He is how I got interested in flying as a kid."

Major Stewart's path to his own set of wings wasn't the norm, especially for today's standards. There was no Air Force Academy, in fact there was no Air Force at all. It was still the Army Air Corps.

When he graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Wash., he decided to go to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

"While I was at Whitman, they started a program called the Civilian Pilot Training program," said Major Stewart. "That's when I first started flying."

After completing all three phases of the CPT program - primary, secondary and advanced - Major Stewart received his commercial pilot license in June 1941.

In the meantime, there is a war raging across the Atlantic. Germany seemed unstoppable, cruising through Europe and capturing lands at their leisure, and it was just a matter of time before the United States would become involved.

At that time, the Navy and Army Air Corp were looking for pilots, so Major Stewart traveled to Geiger Field and took a flight test with a first lieutenant from the AAC.

"Once I passed the flight test, they sent me to Sacramento and I trained down there with a bunch of other guys, some were bush pilots from Alaska in their 30's and 40's," said Major Stewart. "The military sucked in everybody that knew how to fly."

After training in Sacramento for a few months, still unsure if he actually had a rank, title or position, he was sent to Fort Sumner, N.M. and became part of the first glider school with the CE4 gliders, eventually becoming a glider pilot.

"I was at Fort Sumner for about three weeks when the colonel called me in and said, 'Here's your commission and your wings, you're now a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corp,'" said Major Stewart.

Once completing a few months flying gliders, he received orders to Kingman Army Airfield, Ariz., where he began flying AT6 Texans.

"I got all kinds of hours in AT6 Texans because our primary mission was to train the Polish," said Major Stewart.

The next mile stone for Major Stewart came in September 1943, when he got to travel on a British luxury cruise liner. Unfortunately, this was no vacation because the boat was a troop carrier named Orion taking American soldiers to England and into the war.

"Once we got to Europe, we landed in Scotland and went to Royal Air Force Base Warton and got all checked out," he said.

While at Warton, the major was flying as a co-pilot on the B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortresses. He enjoyed flying these aircraft but wanted to get experience on others as well, so he went to the fighter section chief and said that he wanted to fly a fighter.

"I told [the fighter section chief] I wanted to fly a fighter. He asked when I would like to start and I wanted to start as soon as possible. He replied with, 'How about right now,'" Major Stewart said.

Training in those days was not as scrupulous and by the book as it is in today's Air Force. Major Stewart was taken out to the cockpit and told to climb in. He was then asked if he had any experience in a single engine aircraft for which he replied, "You bet. I've got around 500 hours in an AT6" which was just the answer the fighter chief was looking for.

"He said here's the plane, here are the controls and there's the runway," said Major Stewart. "That's the way I was checked out on the P-47 Thunderbolt, as well as the P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning."

Along with these aircraft, the major also had the pleasure of flying the Noorduyn UC 64 Norseman, the Douglas A-20 Havoc and other various trainer aircraft such as the Piper Cub.

The major had the opportunity to fly the C-47 and A-26 during the last six months of World War II and the months following shortly thereafter.

He returned back to the U.S. in December 1945 where he did very little flying, but had the opportunity to take on other challenges. Some of these challenges included base exchange officer in Guam, Reserve Officer Training Corps duties at the University of Idaho, recruiting duty in Detroit, closing down Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, and then reopening it a year later, and as public relations officer at Fairchild.

"Once they closed down Sheppard, I left active duty for a year," he said. "When I got back in, you know where they sent me, back to Sheppard to reopen it."

As Major Stewart looked back on his career and tried to pick out what he enjoyed most about his military experience, he simply laughed and said "flying." There is nothing that sums this up better than his favorite expression:

"I would rather fly an airplane than chase the prettiest girl in the world," the major said.

Although, he wasn't to worried about chasing girls because he was married to his wife, Mary Allen Poe, for 57 years, he said.

"I had a really good time taking the Texan up and just playing around," he said.

Military life is in the Stewart family bloodline as his children followed the military route.

"My son was in the Air Force as an air policeman at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., one of my daughters was in the Marine Corps and one married an officer in the Air Force," Major Stewart said.

It's been more than 45 years since Major Stewart has been the PRO at Fairchild and admits that some things have disappeared, such as the old chapel, the officers club and the school where his kids went.

"Although, a lot of things have changed since 1960, the headquarters building is still white," the major said with another chuckle.

As Major Stewart prepared to head off base, he took a moment and posed for a photo in front of the two aircraft in Heritage Park he flew many years ago, just another memory to add to his collection.