Russel J Urban, retired Lt Col from the United States Air Force. 1968-1991. Born and raised in Centralia, WA. Went to college in Ellensburg, WA. Married to my mom in 1964. Soon after, I was born. Dad graduated, had another son with my mom and wondered what he would do with his C average music degree. Well that’s what he called it. The Air Force called and he answered.
Dad worked hard to achieve all that he did. Not just work but family too. Dad rarely got sick. Mom always said he would outlive the roaches. For some strange reason, he got prostate cancer and it got the best of him. April 2020 he passed. It still feels strange.
-Timothy Urban
Wedding in 1964.
My dad entered the Air Force after graduating college in 1968. After navigator training in the B-52 he was assigned to the 19th Bomb Wing in Warner Robins GA. This is my dad with my little brother and myself. Soon after, we gained a sister. So now there were three kids.
Between deployments our family drove from GA to WA. What an experience, Clark Griswald has nothing on my dad. This is us after getting back.
That’s a picture of my mom not being impressed with Upstate NY winters. It was pretty cold.
After the war he was stationed in Plattsburgh Air Base in upstate NY. There he was assigned to the 380th bomb wing. There he flew in the FB-111, which back then was a state of the art aircraft. That plane had advanced radar that allowed them to fly at night or in bad weather without being able to see. That plane was also fast, over 2.5 times the speed of sound. The wings could sweep back to help gain that speed. This is what it looks like.
Here's the whole gang.
After his time on flight status he had several staff jobs in Plattsburgh. On his next move I already left home for the army. My brother himself was in the Air Force at that time too. So dad, mom and sister headed to live in NH. My dads assignment was to be the R.O.T.C commander at Lowell College in Massachusetts. His last assignment. He retired in 1991. It was just my mom and dad at that point. My sister was off to San Diego. Here is a picture of our three service members:
It wasn’t long until he was deployed to Vietnam. He went over there twice. His first time he flew missions from Thailand. On his second deployment he flew out of Guam. He had some close calls while flying over there. There were some close calls. The worst one was when most of the tail section of his plane was shot off by a missile. They almost didn’t make it back. It was on that mission that he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and an Air Medal. He earned four more Air Medals but I don’t know the details on that. I only know they are awarded for heroism while in flight.
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