STILL SERVING HIS COUNTRY FORMER ACE WAR PILOT VOLUNTEERS AT REAGAN LIBRARY.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
By the time Clyde East reached the 1,000-hour milestone for volunteer work at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs in Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. , it was too late. Alzheimer's had already robbed the president of his memory. There would be no more opportunities for the volunteer staff to meet him in person - to shake his hand and have a photo taken with him at his Century City office. It's a shame, because you just know Reagan would have loved to meet Clyde East: The 40th president of the United States The head of the Executive Branch, one of the three branches of the federal government. The U.S. Constitution sets relatively strict requirements about who may serve as president and for how long. and an American war hero, swapping stories and talking about the history they'd made. But Reagan's Alzheimer's robbed them of that opportunity, so this will have to do. ``Do you know who you have leading you today?'' Lee Carter Talmadge Lee Carter, (October 27, 1958 - ) is the current judge of the 25th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. He is one of two judges that serve the counties of Marion and Winston. Judge John Bentley is the other judge that serves the 25th Circuit. asks two of the mothers chaperoning a class of third-graders from Arroyo West Elementary School West Elementary School is a public elementary school located in Hillsborough, California, a suburb about 20 miles south of San Francisco, as part of the Hillsborough City School District. in Moorpark during a visit last week to the Reagan Presidential Library. The women shake their heads and look to the front of the line, at the white-haired gentleman standing ramrod-straight, with a grimace grimace Neurology A humorless facial 'mask' typically seen in Pts with catatonia. See Amimia. on his face. No matter how many times fellow tour guides brag about East, it always embarrasses him a little. ``That man is an ace pilot, a genuine war hero,'' Carter says. ``That's who he is.'' The women look back at East, this time with a different look in their eyes. ``Really,'' they say, calling over a few more mothers and fathers. The military records and history books don't lie. Lt. Col. Clyde East is America's highest-ranking reconnaissance flying ace. His career spanned World War II, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to and Vietnam. When Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower needed to know the Germans' troop concentrations at Normandy for the D-Day invasion, it was East who went up the morning of June 6, 1944, and took the reconnaissance photographs - shooting down an enemy aircraft along the way. When Gen. George Patton's army was making its dash across France, it was East flying up ahead to let them know what to expect - and shooting down a dozen more enemy planes in the process. By the end of World War II End of World War II can refer to:
 This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved. . East flew 130 more combat missions in Korea, and a decade later, when President John F. Kennedy "John Kennedy" and "JFK" redirect here. For other uses, see John Kennedy (disambiguation) and JFK (disambiguation). John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963), was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in wanted proof in October 1962 that there were Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, it was East who went over and got the president the pictures he needed. Four times. He finished out his Air Force career on aerial reconnaissance in Southeast Asia after the Gulf of Tonkin incident The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was an alleged pair of attacks by naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (commonly referred to as North Vietnam) against two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. , which started the Vietnam War Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. . East retired from the service in 1965, with a chestful of medals, including the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal, with 41 oak-leaf clusters attesting to the hundreds of successful combat missions he made in his career. For the next 28 years, until he retired in 1993, East served as a military analyst with Rand in Santa Monica. On a visit in 1995 to the Reagan Presidential Library with his late wife, Margaret, the Agoura Hills resident noticed a sign asking for volunteers. East decided it was time to take on another job for his country. Making sure school kids got the best possible tour of the Reagan presidential years, and all the special historical exhibits on display at the library. Nine years later, at age 82, he still finds himself getting a little embarrassed when parents, teachers and seniors visiting the library seek him out after the tour to shake the hand of a genuine war hero. ``I tell them I was one of the luckiest people in the world to make it through 350 combat missions and 25 years of service alive,'' East says. ``But I'm standing on the shoulders of hundreds of other pilots who didn't make it home. They're the real heroes. They gave everything.'' It's just like Clyde to deflect the praise, say Rebecca Reimer and Cindy Drake, a mother-daughter team that volunteers with East on Tuesday afternoons. ``He's one of the most humble, honorable men you will ever meet,'' says Drake, whose young daughter wrote a paper on East for a school project. ``The teacher wrote across the top of the paper, 'I want to meet this man.''' A lot of people want to meet Clyde East. And he wanted to meet Ronald Reagan. An American war hero and the 40th president of the United States sitting down to catch up on some old history together. But Alzheimer's robbed them of that opportunity, so this will have to do. Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Lt. Col. Clyde East, the nation's highest-ranking reconnaissance flying ace, served the United States from World War II to the Vietnam War. (2) Retired Air Force pilot Clyde East talks to students about the upcoming Air Force One display as a tour guide at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. John Lazar/Staff Photographer |
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