USAFA Class Heritage Class of 1963

Married highschool sweetheart 15 June 1963.  Four children and still married today. 

After pilot training at Laredo AFB entered the world of tactical aircraft for the next 24 years.  Fortunate to serve at Wing level most of career.  Two tours and 421 combat missions (RF4C-320; F-111-110). Flew last flight at Cannon AFB one week before retirement.  Never stationed at the Pentagon.  Served joint command at Pacific Command in Hawaii (tough duty). 

Bases and assignments: Pilot training Laredo AFB, TX (63-64); RF4C upgrade Shaw AFB, SC (64-65); Tan Son Knut RTAB, VN (65-66); Flight Commander Alconbury RAF, UK (66-70); TAC IG inspection team Langley AFB, VA (70-72); F-111 upgrade Nellis AFB, NV (72, 74-76); Thak Lhi RTAB, Thailand, (73); AFSC, Norfolk VA (76); Pacific Command staff officer Camp, Smith Marine Barracks, HI (76-80); Squdron Commander and ADO Holloman AFB, NM (80-83); AWC, Montgomery AL (83- 84); RF4C Wing DCO Bergstrom AFB, TX (83-86); and,F-111 Wing Vice Commander Cannon AFB,NM (86-87).

After retirment from Air Force (June 1987) served as City Administrator for City of Harrisburg, Linn County, Oregon. Final retirement summer 2000.  Reside, with wife, in Albany, Oregon.  

35th Reunion (1998): After graduation Dan immediately returned to Pendleton, OR to marry Waconda Hunt, his sweetheart of 7 years. After UPT at Laredo, TX Dan was assigned to Shaw Field, Sumter, SC to fly the F-4. Surprise, the F-4 turned into a RF-4, the newest plane in the inventory at that time. Dan and squadron mates were forced to fly commercial to St. Louis to pick up the new planes at McDonnell-Douglas. After a quick year of airplane checkout and becoming operationally ready, the entire 16th TRS deployed to Saigon in October 1965. Waconda and two sons returned to Oregon to stay until Dan returned. Thank heavens for short tours. After getting time- off for missions over North Vietnam, Dan was reassigned to Alconbury, UK to continue flying the RF-4C. The Alconbury tour was great, with numerous deployments to Spain, Germany, etc. and lasted four years. Wanting to expand beyond the recce arena, Dan was selected to serve on the TAC IG from 1970-1972. Wanting to get into fighters somehow and telling Waconda that the F-111 would never go to war in Vietnam (it had already been there unsuccessfully) Dan volunteered to go to Nellis AFB, NV, and fly the F-111A. Of course he had lied to his wife, and within a year returned to Takhli RTAFB, Thailand, for Linebacker II. Waconda, now with four kids, decided to stay put in Las Vegas. No short tour this time around. Dan spent 365 days in-country prior to returning stateside to Nellis, where he got his hands dirty as an IP, maintenance squadron commander, head of the Wing Quality Control Branch and command center official. In 1975, Dan attended Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, VA, and was forced to pull a subsequent joint staff assignment in Hawaii, working the Pacific Command Staff, initially as a shift officer and then in the planning and scheduling section for Pacific Command Reconnaissance efforts. Many trips to Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Alaska, etc., later, the Eckles clan was reassigned in 1980to Hollaman AFB, NM. Dan started out as a maintenance squadron commander (again—not much progress, here) and finished up as Assistant Deputy Commander for Operations. In 1982, it was off to Maxwell and Air Command and Staff for what was left of the family (college was starting to thin out the ranks). Graduation saw the family moving to Bergstrom AFB, TX where Dan was the DCO and Waconda did her best to run the wives club. The family numbers continued to dwindle down (now the oldest two were gone). The end of 1985, Dan was asked to return to the F-11 (D model this time) as the Vice Commander of the 27th TFW at Cannon AFB, NM. This move left only one child at home. In the spring of 1986, Waconda was diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis, and this only made the decision to retire that much easier. It was time. Dan and Waconda returned to Oregon, and after their last child left home, moved to their current address in Albany, OR. Since 1990, Dan has served part-time as a City Administrator for a small Oregon city in the Willamette Valley. Waconda has also worked part-time as an educational assistant at a local school district. One of the big reasons for retirement and returning to Oregon was to give the kids a “home base” which has worked out quite well. All four children completed college and work somewhere in the Northwest, and each is within one day’s drive. The only daughter has married, and Waconda wants you all to know hat she has three very eligible and successfully employed sons she wants married. As Dan said at his retirement, it has been great. His flying, friends, and family made for a super twenty-four-year career. He and Waconda say hello to all their friends from past years and say a prayer for our fallen comrades, their families and friends.