~ IN MEMORY ~
USAF veteran, SO/NWA Capt. David Emerson O’Mara
January 22, 1943 ~ December 21, 2022
As noted in the October 2023 Air Line Pilot
magazine, the passing of Northwest Airlines pilot Capt. David E. Omara.
http://www.southernairways.org/obit-david-emerson-o-mara.html
David Emerson O'Mara, 79, of Mount Pleasant,
SC, passed away on December 21, 2022 after a 3 year battle with a rare blood
cancer and dementia. David was an Air Force veteran who flew B52's and the
AC119 Gunship in Viet Nam. Upon his departure from the Air Force, David was
hired by Southern Airways on 9/20/71. He continued his career up until 1983
when had to retire due to an injury from a car accident. David was always known
for his kind, caring disposition and his great smile! He was a caring Captain of
his ship and always took care of his crew!
He leaves behind his partner Sharon Bishop
Smith, his sister Kathy O'Mara Gilfillan his nephew David Sytsma, his nieces
Bethany Pearson, Erin Gilfillan and Mikel Ann O'Mara and great nephew Cody
Pearson. We all will miss this Gentle Giant of a man that touched so many with
his kindness and will to help anyone he could!
Vietnam :
https://www.ac119gunships.com/omara-david-e/
David E. O’Mara, Pilot
17th SOS, Phan Rang, 1969-70
I completed my degree at Memphis State
University and was commissioned on 20 August 1965 through the AFROTC program.
Upon completing pilot training at Del Rio, Texas in December 1966, I was
assigned to duty as a B-52G copilot at Seymour Johnson AFB, NC.
Beginning in 1968, I flew 45 B-52 Arc Light
missions over Vietnam from Guam, Okinawa, and Thailand.
Within days of returning to Seymour Johnson,
I received orders to Vietnam in the C-123. I grew up as the son of a U. S. Navy
Officer, so I knew not to whine or complain over what the military wanted of
me. However, as a Captain, I realized almost everyone was negotiating for
favors. So I told the assignments officer I had just returned from six months
of flying Arc Light missions, that I considered myself a combatant, and I would
gladly take any combat aircraft assignment the USAF had. A few weeks later I received
orders for the AC-119G gunship. I did not then know I was embarking on the most
meaningful year of my life.
Shadow Hijacking
I believe we were scheduled this night for a
nine or ten o’clock departure for the second scheduled sortie of the evening.
We had accomplished all preflight checks and procedures and were presently
taxiing to the north end of the airfield for a south departure from Phan Rang.
Tonight’s mission was a planned search and destroy sortie to somewhere in Corps
II or Corps III of South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam). South Vietnam was
divided into four Corps or subdivisions, each denoted by Roman numerals, I – II
– III – IV by the U.S. Army. I Corps started at the DMZ with II and III Corps
sort of evenly divided in the middle of South Vietnam and finally, IV Corps,
from Saigon south to the southern tip of the Mekong Delta………………………………………
