Gale C. Burkey (1918-2007)
BURKEY, LOWENBERG, MORRIS, LITCHFIELD, OSTERKOUT, BENSON
Posted By: Tri-County Times
Date: 11/1/2007 at 21:18:29
TRI COUNTY TIMES, Story County, Iowa, Thursday, June 7, 2007.
Gale C. Burkey, 89, died Saturday, Oct. 6, at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista of a brain stem hemorrhage.
Gale was born April 22, 1918, in Sheldahl, Iowa. He was a 1935 graduate of Sheldahl High School. His 30-year naval career began in 1935, when at age 17, he enlisted in Des Moines as an apprentice seaman. He was accepted for flight training in March 1939.
As a naval aviator, he was assigned to Navy Squadron VP-23 at Pearl Harbor, flying patrol bombers. He was preparing for a routine patrol flight Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked. He was ordered to fly in search of Japanese carriers. Later in the war, while on a similar mission, Mr. Burkey was flying one of the planes that spotted the Japanese fleet near Midway Island in 1942, before the Battle of Midway. He then participated in the Solomon Islands campaign. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for work there. The citation reads: "Vigorously attacked by four carrier-based zero fighters, while patrolling Aug. 24, 1942. Ensign Burkey executed superb airmanship against the Japanese."
In 1943, he was sent to the European theater, where he flew Liberator bombers out of England. In April 1944 he flew supplies and personnel to Honolulu, Kwajalein Island and Manila.
He met his future wife, Gretchen Lowenberg, in 1943 through his cousin, who worked at the same publishing company in Des Moines as Gretchen. The cousin told her that the aviator was on leave and asked if she wanted to go on a date with him. They were married a year later.
From 1947 to 1951, he was an instructor at flight schools in Corpus Christi, Texas, and at Moffett Field in the Bay Area. He flew for four months during the Korean War. He was promoted to commander while working as a test pilot in Dallas.
From 1957 to 1959, he became air officer on the Ranger aircraft carrier, overseeing flights. He came to San Diego in 1959, when the Navy assigned him to be a commanding officer of a squadron at Brown Field. He retired in San Diego in 1965. In retirement he earned a bachelor's degree from San Diego State University. He did accounting work for a couple of years at Rohr Aircraft in Chula Vista. He served five years on the sheriff's senior volunteer patrol in Bonita, directing traffic and checking on homebound residents. He was on the patrol as recently as last year. He had served as president of the Sweetwater Valley Civic Association. He and his wife were grand marshals in the Bonitafest parade on Sept. 29.
Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Pam Morris of Burney, Calif., and Paula Litchfield of Lakeside; four granddaughters and one great-grandson; and two sisters, Marilyn Osterkout and Doris Benson.
He was preceded in death by his father, J.C. Burkey of Sheldahl and Greta Burkey, who raised him, of Sheldahl.
Memorial services will be held Nov. 9, at 1 p.m. at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, Calif. A reception will immediately follow at the Harbor Inn, US Naval Submarine Base, Ballast Point (Point Loma). Memorial donations may be made to the National Museum of Naval Aviation, NAS Pensacola, Fla.
http://www.tricountytimes.com
Story Obituaries maintained by Mark Christian.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen