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Marijane Howard Sipple has shared many thoughts of the days that followed the tragic death of her husband Dave. She recently sent a copy of a letter, she received several weeks after the accident, from Richard Kelly in Honolulu.
Marijane was a close friend of the Kelly's from her days of living in Honolulu, before returning to U.S. Virgin Islands to fly for AAB and American Inter-Island.
In 1982, I relocated from St. Croix to Honolulu and found it interesting that my circle of connections were similar to Marijane's.
Read more about her time in Hawaii.& USVI.
Thomas G. Mooney Jr. was born over 100 years ago and lived an already full and interesting life before he died at the early age of 56. Tom had taken on a new job to add to his resume of being a pilot in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and then to Hollywood to fly aircraft for TV. The new job was flying the Goose at Antilles Air Boats. Before his training was completed, he and his AAB flight instructor, Dave Howard both died in an accident after departing St. John, USVI on April 5, 1978.
This week, I visited the grave of Tom Mooney at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, Honolulu, Hawaii. Punchbowl is only a few miles from my home and I laid a flower lei in remembrance of his service and life. I had only just met Tom when he first arrived at AAB and was looking forward to hearing the many stories of
his flying in 3 wars and more.
I remember after the accident, Charlie Blair asked me to dive to the aircraft and dismantle the engines, control surfaces and components rather than bring the entire aircraft to the surface. It was hard to dive on site
after loosing both Dave and Tom.
Read more at N8777A.
Tom Mooney arrived on the set of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" being filmed in the Channel Islands of California, not to far from his home. He joined a team of experience pilots that would recreate the days of Pappy Boyington's squadron in the South Pacific.
Baa Baa Black Sheep was Tom's last flying for TV and film before leaving for Antilles Air Boats but it wasn't his first. Tom joined Tallmantz Aviation in 1966 and flew various aircraft for the Hollywood cameras.
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and many more
