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Show HILLTOP TIMES TIMES March 27, 2008 Son of base's .namesake dies at 83 BY DAVID KENDZIORA In fall 2007, WSU professor Ron Holt was hiking the trails above Ogden to get in shape for his deployment to Afghanistan with a U.S. Army Human Terrain Team. AND CHRIS BAJERSCHMIDT Ogden Air Logistics Center History Office H ILL AIR FORCE BASE — It's "like father, like son, like grandson" for the family whose name has been immortalized by Hill Air Force Base. The only son of Ployer "Pete" Hill, the base's namesake who was also named Ployer P. Hill, recently passed away on January 21, 2008, at the age of 83 in Florida. The son followed in his father's footsteps as a career officer in the nation's military ah' service, initially during World War II. He first flew with his dad at the age of 10 and, in 1943 at the age of 18, joined the Army Air Forces. During the war, he flew combat missions in various aircraft including the P-61 and P-70. When the war ended he separated from the service, earned an engineering degree from MIT, and returned to the service during the Korean War. This time he stayed and served a tour at Hill AFB as a major from 1964 to 1966, prior to a combat tour in Vietnam. As a lieutenant colonel, Hill retired from the USAF after 27 years of active duty in 1974. CARD AND p$YCHIC READINGS ADVICE ON LOVE. MARRIAGE, JOB. HEALTH. BUSINEJV ARE YOU HAVINC BAD LUCK? OP£N7 DAY* 9 AM - 9 PM CALL STEVE TODAY 621-54OO 3848 WASHINGTON BLVD. OGDEN Photo courtesy of Ron Holt Courtesy photo Ployer P. Hill holds a photo of his father and the base's namesake, also named Ployer P. Hill, shortly •after he was assigned to the base in 1964. The actual namesake, Ployer P. "Pete" Hill Sn, was an early American military air pioneer who earned his wings in 1918 at the age of 24. Cut from the same cloth as "Chuck" Yeager and others like him, Hill Senior flew everything from wood, wire and glue biplanes to the first all-metal airplanes, ultimately becoming chief of the Air Corps' Flight Test Branch at Wright Field, Ohio. There in 1935, he was killed piloting the original model of the B-17. In 1939, American airpower leader "Hap" Arnold helped to name the Utah airfield for him, saying that "he was one of our best and richly deserves this honor" Hill Field's first commanding officer, Col. Morris Berman, officially activated the site in 1940. Lt. Col. Hill is survived by five children and 10 grandchildren. One of his children, Douglas H. Hill, graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1972, likewise served a distinguished USAF career, and is now the airbus chief pilot with United Airlines. While on active duty from 1972 to 1979, he flew C-141 A and B series aircraft, and others with the Air Force Reserve from 1979 to 1993, when he retired. Lt. Col. Hill's other children are Michael Peter Hill, Gail Elaine Hill Smith, Christopher Scott Hill and Elizabeth Hill, who all resided on base during their father's 19641966 tour here. Their children, our base namesake's greatgrandchildren, are Dana, Julie, Spencer, Chandler Anne, Cassie, Ryan, Shannon, Shaughn, Julia and Lauren. WSU professor shares cultural knowledge with armed forces on firepower and body counts." Holt's deployment with his team Standard-Examiner staff jmuhlestein@standard.net will be for six months; he is scheduled to leave for Afghanistan in June. Weber State spokesman John GDEN — Soldiers and academics may seem like Kowalewski said Holt is on sabbatical strange bedfellows, but a this semester, and the university has new military program involving a granted him leave in the fall. Holt said his current training Weber State University professor includes computer mapping, negotiais putting the two together in an tions and cultures and the history of effort to save lives on the battleIraq and Afghanistan, but it is also field. Ron Holt is currently in Fort Leav- frequently changing. 'The human terrain teams are enworth, Kan., training with a U.S. Army Human Terrain Team, a group new, and the training is constantly unof anthropologists and other scholars der revision as new ideas and information arrive from downrange and who advise military commanders from those of us in training," he said. about local cultures. Teams vary in size between five 'T have long advocated that the and nine people and include a team USA could make much better decisions if the policymakers and the mil- leader, an anthropologist or other itary listened to anthropologists con- social scientist, a research manager, cerning foreign cultures," Holt wrote regional studies analysts and translain an e-mail interview. "So when the tors, Holt said. opportunity to help the Army arrived, There is also a research center in I felt I had to join up." Fort Leavenworth that teams can call 24 hours a day. Holt, a tenured professor, has taught honors and anthropology The teams include scholars from courses at the university since 1986. universities in the United States, He has also served as the honors Great Britain and Iraq, he said. program director. He said human terThe research done by the teams rain teams are a "wonderful opportu- will be available to scholars studying nity" for social scientists to increase the area. cultural understanding and reduce "Our job is to make friends and do violence. ' research on local cultures and tribes, Human terrain teams help brigade not gather intelligence," Holt said. commanders understand the local Holt's service will benefit Weber culture and help reduce the need for State because it will provide him with lethal operations, Holt said. more experiences that he can use in research and teaching, said Rob In Afghanistan, the first HTT reReynolds, associate professor of soduced the number of combat operaciology and interim chairman of the tions by 60 percent. Department of Sociology and Anthro"They saved lives and helped the pology. brigade to avoid errors that might have created new enemies," he said. "It will enhance his firsthand "Army and Marine Corps leadership knowledge of what goes on in the milhas realized that counterinsurgency itary and in combat and war zones," and stability operations must empha- Reynolds said. size providing the population with "It helps him as well in his skill security, jobs and basic services, not base as an ethnographer." 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