Posted by Jeff Weart on September 29, 2013:

Eulogy delivered 10 May 2013, Army Residence Community Chapel, San Antonio, TX Introduction Distinguished guests, I am Jeff Weart and I am Steve Weart, and we have the honor of saying a few words in memory of our father Douglas Spoor Weart on behalf of all children, Margaret, and if he were still on this earth, our brother Douglas. Thanks to Reverend Mason for the prayers; Thank you for readings; thank you for music. Thanks to our mother, Joan, for being here today and over the many years supporting Dad's career, taking care of a family of six, enduring many moves, and in particular, providing the family a bedrock of courage and love as her husband's health grew frail over the last few years. Thanks to sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grand children, great grand children, and cousins many of whom have traveled great distances to be here. I feel that my father would give me the following military-flavored advice on the delivery of his eulogy derived from the benefit of his training in oratory at West Point, Air Command and Staff College, George Washington University, and the Army War College: "Think of it like an airplane's checklist for a combat mission consisting of the following steps: 1. An introduction where you recognize the presence of family, friends, and guests CHECK, 2. a Main Body consisting of THREE MAIN POINTS (sound familiar?), and 3. a CONCLUSION in which you summarize what you have said to allow you to exfiltrate the target area of the podium unscathed." "Oh, and whatever you do remember the three B's" The three B's? "Yeah...BE BRIEF, BE BRILLIANT, and BE GONE!" So, the main body's three main points will be 1. PRE-FLIGHT, 2. AIR MISSION SORTIE in PROGRESS, and 3. Final Landing taxi, and post-flight. PRE-FLIGHT Dad's pre-flight checklist was first run starting in January 1927 in Alexandria, Virginia. He was the youngest of four children born into the Army family of Doug and Gertrude Weart, a distinguished family originally from Chicago whose service to the United States will span over forty years in uniform. In that month, King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings was opened for public viewing for the first time. Army captain Douglas Lafayette Weart was an Army engineer who contributed to the construction of the Lincoln Memorial dedicated 4A1/2 years before my father's birth. In that year the Yankees swept the World Series on four games over the Pittsburgh Pirates. His father's career as Asst Engineer of Maintenance, Panama Canal Zone 39-42 and Chief of Staff Caribbean Defense Command 43-44 produced stories of my father's youth as an adventurous kid with a horse, a parrot, and his own monkey while living in Panama. In the year 1945 when his dad was Commanding General Rear Echelon, Kunming China, CBI as a brigadier, Dad graduated from Lake Forest academy in Chicago and secured an appointment to the class of 1949 at USMA, West Point. MISSION SORTIE IN PROGRESS Dad's cadet career at West Point from 1945 to 1949 saw tremendous changes in history with the end of World War II, the occupation and isolation of Berlin, and most importantly, his meeting of a lovely young girl named Joan McKie Dunne at Fort Belvoir, VA, who would later become his wife. Commissioned in 1949 as a 2Lt in the newly formed US Air Force, he was assigned to San Antonio at Randolph Field Texas for pilot training and then to duty in California flying the Boeing TB-50 "Flying Classroom" version of the B-29 bomber training future navigators. That's where my sister Margaret was born. With the Korean War in progress from the summer of 1950 to the summer of 1953, Dad flew Curtis C-46 Commando cargo aircraft and Douglas C-47 Skytrains out of Japan. After Korea came the first "staff" assignment for Dad. He went to Hawaii and served as executive officer to Maj Gen Jacob Smart, deputy for operations of the Far East Air Force. With 48 stars on the US flag, our brother Douglas was born in Hawaii in 1955. His next tour was as an ROTC professor of military studies at Willamette University in Oregon. In 1957, Sears and Roebuck was selling "twin insurance" which would "double your purchase" on products for a newborn baby. Good thing Dad and Mom bought the insurance because in September of that year, our folks got two for the price of one. Dad's professional career took us to Pope AFB, NC flying Fairchild Republic C-123K cargo aircraft, a year for Air Command & Staff college at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL., and then his first Pentagon Tour with the Secretary of the Air Force Legislative Affairs Division. Dad was off to Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA from 67-68 and then was assigned as the Deputy Cdr of Ops, 19th Air Commando Squadron, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam during 1968. Following his combat tour in Viet Nam, he was assigned to Hickam AFB, Hawaii as a Lt Col in PACAF's International Relations Division. Margaret had gone off to Purdue University. In 1972, Dad took command of the 3389th Pilot Training Squadron at Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi. As the Vietnam War began winding down, so too did the need to train Vietnamese pilots. Colonel Douglas Weart, Commander of the 3389th PTS -- MAP flew the last T-28 from Keesler to Pensacola on May 2, 1973. The UPT -- MAP foreign pilot training program at Keesler AFB ended on May 4, 1973 with the presentation of silver wings to the fifteen members of Class 73-07. Thirteen of the graduates were from the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) and two were from Laos. Doug David Wert finished high school and entered college in Alabama graduating from the University of Alabama. In 1973 -- 1975 Dad was Dep Cdr for Operations and Base Commander of Craig AFB, Selma. AL. Margaret graduated from Purdue University, married Charles Franklin, class of 1973, West Point. Jeff and Steve finished high school and were on their way to West Point and the Air Force Academy. Dad's last US Air Force assignment was as the Director for Administration, Air Training Command, Randolph TX finishing up a distinguished thirty-year career at the same base he started pilot training. POST FLIGHT A fun loving man and great teaser, during his retirement Doug enjoyed traveling with Joan, playing golf, and staying very active in the Windcrest and Army Residence Communities, as well as the local Kiwanis Club. As a club President and District Officer Doug continued to give back to the nation through Kiwanis, helping to sponsor college scholarships and other community support activities. Of all of his accomplishments he was most proud of his family. High Flight By John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (A sonnet written by John Gillespie Magee, an American pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. He came to Britain, flew in a Spitfire squadron, and was killed at the age of nineteen on 11 December 1941 during a training flight from the airfield near Scopwick.) "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. "Up, up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, where never lark, or even eagle, flew; and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God."

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