John Edward Kennebec

On July 15, 2023 Master Aviator John E. Kennebec filed his last flight plan. He then spooled up and pulled pitch on this realm, executing a picture-perfect autorotation into a field of fireweed at the northern end of Heaven where his wife of 54 years awaited him. We – his family and friends – will miss Dad greatly.

Born on Wabasha, Minnesota in 1930, Dad experienced the Depression up close and personal as he grew up. His father disappeared in 1935, a winter so bad Dad recalled walking to school on snow berms so high he was looking down at the telephone lines. He carried a tinfoil wrapped baked potato in each pocket to keep him warm on his walk and serve as lunch. That summer he began working the family farm plowing fields behind a team of horses and later a tractor.

At seventeen he joined the Army and became an MP, serving in Germany and Japan right after World War II. He returned to the states to become a recruiting sergeant, working in downtown Chicago. There he met his future wife Patricia Manning who was at that time roommates with his sister JoAnn.

They were married in 1957 after a three-year courtship. Dad applied for rotary wing flight school for the $30 a month extra pay, where he learned to fly in the H-13, an iconic helicopter seen at the beginning of every episode of MASH. 1961 found him flying the H-21 'Flying Banana' away from home on a yearlong tour of Korea. By then the family had grown to include four children, Matthew, Ruth, Michael and Joe. He completed his first tour in Vietnam, flying night medevac missions for the Marines while his family awaited in the suburbs of Chicago.

New orders took the family to Fort Rucker Alabama where Dad transitioned to what became his favorite helicopter, the CH-47 Chinook. That new skill cost him another tour of 'Nam, the family moving to Colorado Springs again where youngest son Patrick was born. This tour included lighter moments, one being severely overloading a Chinook with a number of pallets of Fosters Lager the Australian troops were leaving behind as they relocated, to keep it from falling into enemy hands. He also had a hand in a questionable inter-service trade in which an Air Force supply sergeant took several cases of Jack Daniels to look the other way as a 50KW generator set was snatched by sling load from a locked storage area with a Chinook under cover of darkness. All that beer had to be kept cold...

Upon return Dad took the whole family up the Alcan in a very fully load 1970 VW bus to Fort Wainwright Alaska. The winter that followed was epic, with minus 60 degree cold for weeks and 141 inches of snow. During this tour Dad flew some of the last Beavers and Otters in the Army inventory. He preferred the Otter as his feet were too big to fly the Beaver comfortably.

In 1972 that same VW bus groaned as it headed south to Fort Knox Kentucky where final child Amy joined the family.

Dad's final assignment was back to Fort Wainwright, by family request. He retired from the military in 1977 at 47 with 30 years of service. He, Chuck Patty and Stan Herring opened the Fairbanks Air Logistics office and Dad flew pipeline security patrols. Ed Maynard once spoke of getting to fly the helicopter for a few moments as Dad indulged in one of his few vices, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie from a pump station kitchen. He was a sought-after pilot when the Exxon Valdez ran aground and had a forest fire named in his honor after he snatched a wildfire crew out of a tight spot. He saw the whole state from a Bell 206 Jet Ranger, hauling oil people, biologists and miners to remote sites.

Dad and Mom re-retired in 1991, settling in the Lake of the Ozarks area of Missouri. A diehard Catholic, Dad was very active in his church, a lector at mass, called Bingo at the Knights of Columbus hall, and contributed greatly to the construction of the new church building.

Dad was predeceased by his wife Pat and his sister JoAnn. He is survived by his children Matt, Ruth, Mike, Joe, Patrick and Amy.

We would like to thank everyone at Rock Island Village for the compassionate care they provided Dad in his last year of life. We cannot think of a better team to have looked after him.

The highest compliment Dad ever gave anyone was to tell them the job they had done was outstanding; to him we return that compliment.

Outstanding job, soldier! Dismissed!