Many
former
students credit the Primary training received at
Spence and their
Primary flight instructors as key factors in their
success that
followed. Here are some of the many Spence
Instructor Pilots who
helped give thousands of fine young men a flying
start in their
aviation careers - - the way we were.
Blacksheep Flight - Instructor Pilots - 1954 
Back Row (L to R)
-
Swenson, L. Williams, T.
Williams, Cribbs, Chapman,
Watson, Winkelman, Eisman, Owen, Turzanski.
Front
Row (L to R)
- Francis, R. Carver, Campbell, Havill,
Pierce, E. King (Flight
Commander), Oberholtzer, Lester (Asst. Flight
Commander)
Class 60E -
Polecat Flight
- 1959
Instructors - Back Row (L to R)
-
Haines,
Young,
Walsh, Weeks, Braswell, Johnson, Freeman (Flight
Commander), Tillman,
Whiddon, Himmelien, Gargaly, Montgomery, Stueben.
For enlargement
of 60E picture
click
here
.
Flight
Commanders
Squadron Commanders
before their promotion to Director of Flying Training. Directors of Flying Training 1951-1961
World War 2
Spence
Instructor
Pilots
Arnold Lester,
Brax Batson and
John Bricker all
instructed in the Advanced Training program at
Spence during WW2.
Lester and Batson graduated from Advanced
Training at "Spence Field" in
Class 44-B and were immediately assigned to
Instructor Pilot duties at
that same location. Bricker's WW2 class
number is unknown at this
time. Later all three were among the first
flight instructors
hired by Hawthorne School of Aeronautics when
Spence was re-opened in
1951. Lester advanced to the position of
Flight Commander,
remained with Hawthorne until the base closed,
and was responsible for
the training of several classes including the
first and the last T-37
classes trained at Spence. Batson advanced
to Flight Commander
early in the program and to Squadron Commander
in 1957, the position he
held until leaving the Spence program in July,
1959 to become Director
of Training at the new Hawthorne US Army Primary
Flight Training
Program at Lowe Field, Ft. Rucker, AL.
Elmer Gordon Paquette, pictured above as an Aviation Cadet, was also a Spence graduate in Class 44-B and was assigned as an Instructor Pilot at Spence after graduation. Picture contributed by his son, Kap, who was born in the Spence Field Hospital on Christmas day, 1944.
Jones
Bolt
- From Spence IP to Major
General
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Fred Joseph
Ted Cossairt
Newton
Cole
