Tom Poe will speak at Oct. 4 Ancient Aviators gathering

Tom Poe will speak at Oct. 4 Ancient Aviators gathering

Tom Poe will be the guest speaker at the Oct. 4 Ancient Aviators social group gathering at American Legion Post 44 in Gulf Shores. Breakfast is at 8:30 a.m., and the meeting starts at 9 a.m. For more info, email ch47pilot@hotmail.com.
The Ancient Aviators, formed in 2002, gives aviators and others a chance to “tell their story.” A full breakfast is available for $6, and visitors are always welcome. The group meets the first Tuesday of each month. Future speakers include Charles Yates in November, Bill Reed in December and Jerry Ellis in January.
Born in Brownville, Tom got interested in flying while watching Air Force trainers at Van De Graff field in nearby Tuscaloosa, and aircraft at Craig AFB in Selma.
Tom was in the Air Force ROTC program at Alabama and was in the very first T-38 class at AFB in Del Rio. He was on active duty until 1969 and followed that with 17 years in the Air Force Reserve at Charleston AFB in South Carolina. During that time, he flew numerous missions to Vietnam with cargo that included everything from combat boots to artillery shells to troops. The average trip took six days. From 1965-69, Tom seldom had longer than three days at home. He accumulated 5500 hours in the C141 when he retired.
He remembers a 17-day trip from Charleston to Spain to Greece to Turkey then to the Middle East with a layover in Iran. They returned by the same route, and then flew to Germany to pick up concertina wire going to Vietnam. Then they went over the North Pole to Alaska, to Japan, back to Vietnam, Okinawa, Alaska, and –finally–home to Charleston.
Tom says the most fulfilling flights were the medevac flights from Vietnam. Tom also flew 250-300 women and children out of Libya during the 1967 Israeli six-day war. He also flew missions during the Yom Kippur war in 1970, and flew transports during the Grenada conflict. Many of his missions were classified. He finished his flying career with Continental Airlines. Tom currently lives in Foley, with his wife and two cats.