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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sentimental Sunday: "Joint Class Party with 52-06"

The picture below, from Dad's military scrapbook, is from a "Joint Class Party with 52-06" (the next group of navigators to go through training at Ellington Air Force base in Houston, Texas):


George Paul Sims was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, on March 15, 1928, the third child of George M. and Mary C. Sims.  The family lived in Waupun, Wisconsin, on the 1930 and 1940 Censuses, and that was Paul's home of record. He married his wife Peggy about 1954, and they had a son, three daughters, and four grandchildren. After the Korean War (where he earned the Air Medal with three clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross), he graduated from the University of Wisconsin (Madison city directories show that he was a student there in 1955 and 1957) and later earned an  MBA from the University of Auburn.

In September 1968, he was a major and a communications electronics staff officer with the 115th Fighter Group, Air National Guard (which he had joined in February 1956). He and his family moved to Montgomery, Alabama, then, so he could begin a course at the Command and Staff College of the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base there, which lasted until June of the following year. While a member of the Air National Guard, he also took the special military Radar Interceptor Officer and Squadron Officer courses.  He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on August 15, 1974.  He moved to Nokomis, Florida, from Madison, Wisconsin, in 1975, and was a member of  Epiphany Cathedral and American Legion Post 159, both in Venice, Florida, as well as the Military Officers Association of America and the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association.  He passed away in Nokomis on November 23, 2006.



James R. "Jim" O'Mahoney was born February 16, 1928, in Indiana, the fifth child of Joseph Francis O'Mahoney Sr. and Evelyn Miriam O'Connor O'Mahoney.  The family can be found on the 1930 and 1940 Censuses in Indianapolis, which was Jim's home of record.  He graduated from Cathedral High School in that city in 1946, where he was on the yearbook and school newspaper staff as well as a member of the drama club, and then graduated from Purdue University.  He married Purdue classmate Marjorie Jean Kester of Mount Prospect, Illinois, on April 12, 1952, and they had at least five children (three girls and two boys).  He was in the Air Force and living in Houston (possibly stationed at Ellington Air Force Base) from at least May 1953 to at least March 1954.  From at least February 1961 to at least March 1963, the family lived in Mansfield, Ohio, and they were in Maple Glen, Pennsylvania, in November and December, 1966.  He was living in Lake Bluff, Illinois, from at least 1993 through at least 2002, and was living in nearby Lake Forest, Illinois, when his sister died in December 2004.  He was still alive in January 2010.


I could not find any additional information about Richard Robert "Dick" Parks, whose home of record was Columbus, Ohio.  Dick was assigned to the same squadron as Dad in Korea, so he will be appearing in more pictures from the scrapbook.


© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing. Paul Sims is my father.

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    1. Erin, I'm so glad you found this. Thank you for commenting.

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