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Show After mandatory retirement at 65, Crooks started a three-yecareer with the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.G, which advises the Ufi. government in scientif- On Dec. 3, 1903, a couple of mechanics out of Dayton level flight. Right when my father (Ohio) made a read that, I said. That's what I want to do. I never did ar nd change my mind. I didnt think I'd ever do it, but ic and technical matters. I did. The National Academy of Sciences wanted somebody who knew internal combustion engines, and I knew em, he Were running at war speed says. Crooks expertise helped World War I and his enlistment were unavoidable. Crooks says. Territorial and economic rivalries had intensified from the late 1800s, particularly among Germany, France, Great design guidance apparatus on antiballistic missiles. Keeping tlidr stories alive After his final retirement, Crooks and his wife, War il Pauline, returned to their antique-fillein and he where mowed, home, kept repair gardened, until just a few years ago. safe for democracy." Crooks supported his president. If we wanted to be a free My doctor asked me if I still mowed, and I said, No. didI got to be 100 years old, I quit. His comment I felt had When how about in. it. We we That's to get country, unlformi In Mi Crooks cut a he have flgura Ybung droMng was, 'Just as well, Crooks says with a laugh. nt any choice," says. Crooks was 24 and working in Detroit as a journeyman He lost his beloved wife of 56 years several years ago, "On &ec. he when so draft his widowed daughter. Carmen Rothschild, moved the act (and) joined up. They passed 3, 1903, plumber Texas into the family home to look after him. Crooks less than a month later I said, Tm from announced They also has a son and two grandchildren. in the paper that they were enlisting mechanics in the Signal Mount Vernon, a town of 14,375 where hes lived for 50 Corps tneydKint have any Air Corps at that time.' &) feVCl years, has embraced its living historical figure. At this years ffUZuC & He returned to Missouri for a brief visit with his parents tnUy Memorial Day parade, Crooks was showered with honors. I before reporting for duty at Kelly Field, now part of Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas. He then was accepted got a big surprise seven plaques, he says. I gained notoriin into a Austin, Texas, flight training program ety from being the only flyer left from World War I. Awards from the Ohio legislature, county and city officials, fact technical rather than attended he that classes, despite the for cadet school. of the C7? the two years college required parade day committee, and local chapters of veterans -commandanr school of the the when It was quite a surprise organizations made his day and decorate his walls. is front a war and in war of this us are said. These times, Honoring and listening to veterans is imperative to got up Crocks recalls. And he and their stories war school, were running at speed.' really meant it, keeping experiences alive, says Kerri Childress, spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C. But it also meant a shortage of training planes at Kelly Field because they There are only a handful of years before none will be left, Childress laments. were being used overseas. Still, Crooks and the other recruits trained by taking 100-mi- le never going to fight wars like that again, not hear of the vast changes they saw Were short, flights. 1 officer lifetimes. in commission let first their as a of October 1918, got my flying They By the litlot of took in. the A them service care branch of select the what to fly youd Hearing their stories is so important, she says. Nothing impacts as much as actuyou could chose feel like around I that so I dan tle fighter planes, but I didnt much, ally talking to someone who was there. night for You cant talk about Crooks military service without noting his long, rich had that. bombing. They sent the biggest planes they life. for Field of left nation's the decision in Houston, one he With that And, of course, everyone wants to know how hes reached and far exceedEllington where were ed in store. The Army the century milestone. major changes largest aviation training facilities, 1 invited had Nov. officers 1th. and We Houston on Ive been asked that occasionally. I say, If I knew what the secret is. Id start planned to change commanding between We a clinic and get rich, he says with a laugh. I go to bed at 8 p.m., and my Galveston (nearby military installations) and everyone in to come out. remembers. Crooks for had planned it a month, daughter wakes me at 8 a.m. I take five or six naps at night. As long as I can marked 1 1 of Armistice the signing the turned out to be That Nov. rest without pain, I dont object. Day, which have Her fathers good habits he is the absolute picture of moderation armistice, or truce, signaling the end of World War I. for offensive which helped keep him healthy mentally and physically, Rothschild says. Then, in February a few months before the spring Crooks had been training he received his discharge in the mail. I was being Ive only seen him stressed a couple of times. He just flat turns away stress, she trained as fast as they could train me, he says. I just wasnt ready earlier. Thats says. And he knows what he should and shouldnt eat. He still has a cast iron stomach and his own teeth. I arrange his vitamins so he can take them himself, he doeall there was to it. and his snt need someone to do it for him. He never flew overseas and he never saw combat, but the war experiences I Since breaking his hip several years ago, Crooks exercises did change his life, he says. "While I was a young man told my parents, I want to build engines, but my mother said, War mementos: dog tag, service medal, and wing. two hours each day. He doesnt see well enough to be entertained by television, but he enjoys the kitchen radio. I listen Theres no future in that. Its a rich mans toy. You ought to be to the Cleveland Indians, usually two to four innings, he says. a plumber. And that's what I learned to be. All little bits and pieces of an America he was preBut when he returned to civilian life, those childhood dreams, fueled by his military experience, took wing. His pared to give his life for nearly a century ago. plumbers tools helped finance a mechanical engineering Marcia Scbonberg is a freelance writer and author of B is for degree from Missouri University, but after his 1923 gradBuckeye: An Ohio Alphabet. uation, Crooks put away those tools and joined a company that manufactured diesel engines and compressors. Britain, Austria, and Russia. The United States entered the war in April 1917 to, as President Woodrow Wilson put it, make the world d, pre-Civ- a ceiie && ( Jlu 10-we- JnatJiwuztJwanffoao. vr American Profile Page 7 |