| Thomas J. Sterling |
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| Rank, Service |
| Colonel O-6, U.S. Air Force |
| Veteran of: |
U.S. Army Air Forces 1944-1946
U.S. Air Force 1947-1974 (Includes Reserve Time)
World War II 1944-1945
Cold War 1945-1974
Vietnam War 1967-1973 (POW)
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| Tribute: |
Tom Sterling was born in 1925 in Dasietta, Texas. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in January 1944 and was trained as a radio technician and then on the airborne high altitude radar bombing system on the B-29 Superfortress. He joined a B-29 bomb group in Sioux City, Iowa, in August 1945, but World War II ended before he was shipped overseas. He was then transferred to Germany where he left active duty in June 1946. He served in the Air Force Reserve through college and graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1950. Sterling was recalled to active duty in 1951 and served with an Air Force SAC F-86 Sabre Wing at Bergstrom AFB, Texas, before receiving a direct commission in 1952. He then went to Keesler AFB, Mississippi, for ECM training and was assigned to the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, in 1953. He was assigned to 9th Air Force, also at Shaw, for two years before resuming his flying career with the 9th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. Sterling was next assigned to the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at RAF Alconbury, England, in August 1960, and flew with the 42nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. He served a remote tour at Toule Rosieres AB, France, before transferring to Keesler AFB for Communication and Electronic Staff Officer School. In the summer of 1963 he was assigned to the 507th Tactical Air Control Group at Shaw AFB. Sterling was next sent to Tactical Air Ground Operations School at Hurlburt Field, Florida, in 1965, as a Communications and Electronics Instructor. In 1966 he was assigned to the Tactical Air Warfare Center at Eglin AFB, Florida, and then in November 1966 he went through survival school. He went to Nellis AFB, Nevada, in January 1967, for Wild Weasel training in the back seat of the F-105F Thunderchief. Sterling next flew combat missions in Southeast Asia with the 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Takhli RTAFB, Thailand. He was shot down on his 23rd combat mission on April 19, 1967, and was taken as a Prisoner of War. After 2,146 days in captivity, Colonel Sterling was released during Operation Homecoming on March 4, 1973. After hospitalization at Keesler AFB, he was assigned as assistant to the Wing Commander of the 3246th Tactical Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida, where he retired from the Air Force on September 30, 1974. He met Barbara Jo Stephens in January 1944 while visiting family in Sabinal, Texas, and they were married on April 4, 1947. They have three children. |
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