Ralph Peter Hammerton
"Pete"
d 2002
Biography as of Sep 30, 2013
Zigs and Zags€"that is a good way to describe my Academy, Air Force and subsequent careers.
This started when I applied for the Class of €˜62 as a high school senior. I was accepted, but then €˜they€™ discovered that I had 20/25 distant vision in one eye. So I got to be a Golden Boy. (I also zigged when I should have zagged when Buzz Patterson put my nose over near my left ear during doolie boxing!)
I thought I was going to Nav School upon graduation, but was offered a medical waiver to go to UPT€"after a detour to Georgetown.
I was fortunate enough to get F-100s with assignments at Bien Hoa and Lakenheath. There I came down with juvenile diabetes (at age 28!). End of flying; hello Intelligence work€"mostly at Tactical Air Command (TAC) Headquarters.
This was going well until the medics (€˜them€™ again) decided that complications from the diabetes were appearing and decided to medically retire me at the 16-year point. BIG ZIG! Ever lie awake at 0300 and wonder how to feed your family on 30% on a Major€™s base pay?
Went out to Tucson and tied up with Hughes Missiles on the Infra Red (IR) Maverick Missile program. Great work and a great place to live€"and then we zagged to Georgia for nine years to start and help manage a friendly missile plant. While there I gained a kidney and lost part of a leg (€˜them€™ strikes again). We came back to Tucson three years ago and plan to zig out of the active work force in Dec 97.
I zigged (or was I due a zag?) back into flying. I joined the Tucson Soaring Club last year and am having a ball (no medical certificate required). After retirement, I€™m going to continue to fly, instruct and be a docent at the Pima Air Museum.
Although I credit the Academy for the best background and education possible, the central constant through all this meandering has been my wife and family! We met when I was at Luke. Judy and our two sons have been by far the most important and significant elements in my life.
With them as a central core, a few zigs and zags just make life a little more interesting! Submitted 1998.