~ IN MEMORY ~
USAF veteran, DL Capt. Elmer Elton ‘Junior’ Hinkle Jr.
April 6, 1941 ~ April 28, 2019
Belated news, as reported recently in the June/July issue of ALPA Air
Line Pilot magazine’s In Memoriam column, the passing of retired Delta
pilot Captain Elmer Elton Hinkle Jr., age 78. Captain Hinkle joined Delta Air
Lines 03-14-1969 and retired with Delta in 2001, based
031/ATL.
He is survived by his wife Linda and their two
sons.
All information below and photos are available online at
Captain Hinkle’s obituary information notes that a Celebration
of Life will be held August 24th at Christ Methodist Church, Plano TX
75075.
For those wishing to send a personal note, whitepages lists
the family residence address as
13251 Bodega Trl., Frisco TX 75035-0062.
Thank you,
~ Carol for the PCN
CPT. Elmer Elton “Junior” Hinkle, Jr
BIRTH : 6 Apr 1941.....Morrisville, Polk County, Missouri,
USA
DEATH : 28 Apr 2019 (aged 78)....Frisco, Collin County,
Texas, USA
BURIAL : Christ United Methodist Church Columbarium, Plano,
Collin County, Texas, USA;
Junior married his childhood sweetheart, Linda, on September
8, 1962. He graduated from Missouri University, Columbia, Missouri in 1963 and
received a commission in the United States Air Force through the
ROTC.
In March 1964, Junior and Linda arrived at Vance Air Force
Base in Enid, Oklahoma where he became a member of Class 65-F. He was assigned
to 3575th Pilot Training Wing, 3576th Pilot Training Squadron, Flight 3,
'Speedy' where he flew the T-37B 'Tweet', with Wayne Yohe as his instructor.
Part way through our T-37B training, the class was split in half and Junior was
reassigned to the Flight 4, 'Warlock' in the 3576th Pilot Training Squadron.
While in Warlock flight, his instructors were Emery Cushing and William Butler.
In advanced flight training, he was assigned to Flight 1, 'Mojack' where he flew
the supersonic T-38A 'Talon', which was also known as 'The White Rocket'. His
instructors were James Wilhelm, Harold Mund and Donald McCarter.
On Saturday morning, March 20, 1965, he graduated and was
awarded his Pilot Wings. He was an Outstanding Officer Graduate for having
‘”excelled in flying, academics and military performance.” Junior accepted an
assignment to Pilot Instructor Training and became a T-38A Instructor Pilot at
Vance Air Force Base where he remained until March 1967 when he was reassigned
to Sheppard AFB, Wichita Falls, Texas instructing German students. He was not
happy with the assignment as he did not volunteer while numerous others did and
yet he was sent there against his will.
In November 1967, he ferried an F-5 to Europe after a brief
check out at Williams AFB, Chandler, Arizona. What was to have been an
eighteen-day trip turned into a month. Junior came away with a bad feeling about
the TAC pilots who led the whole mess. He ended up spending a week in Morroco
until he wrangled a USAF air evacuation flight to Portugal, as he did not have a
passport
When he was not offered a regular commission in the USAF, he
left the Air Force and joined Delta Airlines in March 1969. Based on class
seniority he got his choice of Dallas as his home base. He was a Second Officer
on DC-8 for about eight months and then went back to Atlanta for DC-9 First
Officer training. He flew First Officer on DC-9, B-727, L-1011, and Captain on
B-737, B-727, B-757, B-767, and MD-11. He flew 29 years out of Dallas and final
3 years out of Atlanta on MD-11 international. In the course of his flying with
Delta, he flew to Tokyo, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, Athens, Rio de Janeiro,
and Sao Paulo.
Mostly routine flying during his 32 years with the exception
of an early, foggy departure out of Savannah, GA. The runway had a crown at
mid-point which preventing seeing a flock of sea gulls that decided to lift off
just as he rotated for takeoff. He took gulls in both engines and had no choice
but to set it back down. It was a B-737 and a 6000 ft runway and he was able to
stop with the nose wheel just at the end of the runway. He flew his retirement
flight on March 31, 2001 from Frankfurt to Atlanta. Linda went on the trip and
the First Officer went back and brought her to the cockpit and strapped her in
the center jump seat for the descent and landing. She was thrilled and still
talks about the experience.
His first 10 years with Delta were spent flying, playing golf,
tennis, and the usual things around the house. In 1980 he decided to start a
home construction company as his dad and granddad had been in construction. He
did the preliminary design and never built the same home twice. Linda worked in
the office and decorated the spec homes and worked with clients on custom homes.
He built about 100 homes during the 11 years. They moved to Shell Knob, Missouri
in 1994 and built their retirement home.
In 2010, Jr and Linda set up and hosted the first reunion for
class 65-F in Branson, Missouri. The reunion was a tremendous success due to the
detailed planning of Jr and Linda.
Several years later, they moved to Frisco, Texas to be nearer
their children. Jr then built a new retirement home in Frisco.
After retirement from Delta they enjoyed taking cruises to
Alaska, New Zealand & Australia, Panama Canal, Hawaii, Scandinavia &
Russia, and a Mediterranean cruise. One of his most enjoyable and rewarding
trips was to Normandy, France where they visited Omaha Beach, Utah Beach and the
town of Bayeux which was the first town liberated on D-Day. It was something
that he had always wanted to do and it proved to be more rewarding than
imagined.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years and two sons, Wade and
Chris.
A Celebration of Life will be held August 24th, 2:00pm at the
Christ Methodist Church, 3101 Coit Road, Plano, TX 75075.
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