Dee Callicoat learned to fly in a J-3 Cub, and flight became a passion which lasted 50 years.
Clyde Beal, The Herald-Dispatch
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This is a story about a pilot who learned to fly in a World War II single-engine J-3 Cub. Flying lessons during those early days were $5 an hour, which included the airplane rental, fuel and the instructor. It was a time when flying was simple, mostly unregulated, and -- according to Dee Callicoat -- a great deal less complicated.
"Back in the early 1970s I lived in Ohio, directly across from Newlon Air Field which is located up the Ohio River Road," Callicoat said. "Just about every day after work, I would row a small boat across the river and go fly with friends. We would skim along the Ohio River and fly at treetop level. One of my flying pals got reported once for flying too low, and the FAA took his license for six months."
Over the years, Callicoat has built, restored and traded for a total of 23 airplanes. Each one has provided him with a view that only a flier is privileged to share. Many of his past favorite airplanes hang in framed pictures showing a much younger aviator with darker colored hair. There are also photos of antique cars he has let slip through his hands, but his favorite still remains -- a restored red 1950 Ford convertible that goes out when the weather permits.
Callicoat was born in a one-story log home in Scottown, Ohio, in 1928. The family quickly relocated to Crown City, Ohio, where he lived until his teenage years.
"The Depression years were hard on everyone," Callicoat said. "People were doing anything to make a few dollars. When I was in grade school, I would catch catfish, perch, carp, and an occasional jack salmon from the Ohio River. I would sell them for 20 cents a pound cleaned and ready to fry or 15 cents a pound for the complete fish. Dad was a carpenter when work was available. During the fall he would butcher hogs for other families earning a little extra money. We would trap muskrat and mink which we sold to a local fur trader in Crown City. He paid $5 for a muskrat and $15 for a mink."
Callicoat said that the Ohio River would provide for those with a watchful eye. This was especially true when the water was high and swift.
"When the 1937 flood came, the water was two inches over the hearth in the front room," Callicoat said. "When the water was high, dad and I would go out on the river and find boats that had broken loose from docks miles upstream. We also found live chickens, lumber, barrels of pickles -- even cans of lard."
Callicoat worked as a clerk in the Crown City Grocery during his high school days making 50 cents an hour. This was the same amount he made working in tobacco fields during the growing season.
In April of 1944, 16-year-old Callicoat left home and found work as a deckhand on an Ashland Oil riverboat. The freedom of this adventurous lifestyle was soon saturated with guilt because his brothers had all served in the armed forces. He began thinking if Ashland Oil believed he was 18, then maybe the United States Air Force would too.
"It was the Air Force that held the promise of flying," Callicoat said. "So I left Ashland Oil and enlisted in the Air Force without so much as a single glitch about my age. But where the heartache came from was after I had already enlisted. I was told that I was going to be transferred to the Army because there was no current demand for flying positions in the Air Force."
One day Callicoat was an Airman Basic, the next he was a PFC attending boot camp at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After that he was sent to Fort Lewis in Washington to await overseas transfer to Frankfort, Germany.
"While waiting on orders one morning in a group formation, the sergeant in charge asked if anyone could type," Callicoat said. "He said there was a need for a company clerk. I told the sergeant that I had typing in high school. I was told to go pack for another assignment."
Two days later, Callicoat arrived in Washington, D.C., for an assignment that lasted the remainder of his career. He figured he was going to be a clerk typist, but he never thought for a minute he would be assigned to an office job at the Pentagon.
"For nearly two years, I worked in that maze of crowded hallways and staircases within the Pentagon," Callicoat said. "I even became accustomed to passing well-known personalities on a daily basis. People like General Wainwright, General Patton and even General Eisenhower."
After an honorable discharge, Callicoat returned home and signed up for the "52 / 20" Program. Sponsored by the Federal Government, it provided returning veterans $20 a week for one year.
"I went to work for Huntington Heating and Supply," Callicoat said. "I became a sheet metal apprentice fabricating heating and air-conditioning ducts. After a few years, I opened up my own business -- Callicoat Heating and Air Conditioning. For a while I taught sheet metal fabrication classes at the vo-tech center in Getaway, Ohio. I later formed an engineering consulting firm in 1980 that covered the entire East Coast."
Shortly after his discharge, he began flying lessons at a small airport in Gallipolis, Ohio, paying $5 an hour. He soloed in 1952 and bought his first airplane -- a 1941 single engine PT-19 Fairchild surplus Army Trainer -- for $650.
"I've had a love affair with the airplane for over 60 years," Callicoat said. "In over 50 years of flying, I've had one accident that I was able to walk away from."
The accident Callicoat referred to involved an L16-A single-engine plane that simply quit on takeoff. He managed to get the plane back on the ground with minimal engine and structural damage.
It's been a few years now since Callicoat has felt the excitement of heading off into the wind. He says it isn't the same as it used to be. But he still misses it -- it shows with all those airplane pictures.
Nowadays when the sky is clear, he gets behind the controls of another classic, his pristine 1950 red Ford convertible.
- Source: http://www.herald-dispatch.com
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