Gone But Not Forgotten

The Association of Graduates has recently learned of the death of Mr. Willie J. Honea, CS-03 class of 1964.

Mr. Honea passed away on 27 Nov 2020 in Colorado Springs, CO.

A funeral service will be held on 3 Dec 2020 at 1000 hours at the USAFA Cemetery.
Burial will immediately follow the service. In the event of inclement weather,
the service will be moved to the Memorial Pavilion.

Condolences may be sent to his family in care of his wife, Ann:

Mrs. Ann Honea
4838 Escapardo Way
Colorado Springs, CO 80917-3720

I Remember Will

I meet Will in 1960, when we were cadets at the Air Force Academy. Over the next 60 years I was to learn the true meaning of "friend."

Will was in 3rd Squadron and I was in 4th. The two squadrons shared the same floor in the dormitory, so we crossed paths often.

Will and I shared an interest in electronics. Somehow, while we were doolies that became known to an upper classman named Andy Nassar. He organized a stereo repair business with him as business manager, and Will and myself as technicians. For about five months we did a flourishing business repairing radios and stereos. Most of the repairs were simply a matter of replacing vacuum tubes, for which we needed access to a tube tester. (Yes, this was before transistors!) Andy arranged with a technician in the EE department, Mike Kunrod, to use their tester. Will and I became good friends of Mike's. This escapade lasted until Mike passed word to Andy that he had heard in the hallways of Fairchild Hall that the Commandant had heard rumors about a cadet run electronic repair business. That night all evidence disappeared. No one ever found out who had been doing it.

After the Academy, both Will and I went though pilot training at Vance AFB, in Enid, Oklahoma. Will and I were room mates. Our quarters had two small bedrooms, one of which we used for an electronics work bench, mostly just for doing our own electronic projects.

At one point Will ran into a psychologist from Air Training Command headquarters. They had give us all a questionnaire upon entry to pilot training. Will told me this guy told him that by his evaluation neither Will nor I would complete the program. Despite some early difficulties, both Will and I not only earned our wings, but we both went on to become instructor pilots, and to fly combat in Vietnam.

While rooming with Will, I discovered that he could stretch a dollar a long way. Once he and Ann became engaged, Will started saving money to get married. I learned about this when I caught him re-using the coffee grounds in our shared pot.

I also learned that Will was a very good mechanic. He bought and repaired a used motorcycle, which he even let me drive to Enid one day. One trip was enough for me, after sliding sideways on a grave road. But Will loved that thing. One weekend he road it round trip from Vance to Amarillo, Texas to visit his dad, a master sergeant in the Air Force.

After pilot training, Will went on to become a T-37 instructor at Laughlin AFB and I became a T-38 instructor at Craig AFB in Selma Alabama. Both of us were sponsored by the Academy to come back and teach, but only after we both completed our Vietnam tours. I did my tour as a Forward Air Controller, and Will did his as an A-37 pilot.

Both of us ended up in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. By then I was married to Nancy( we got marri3ed just before I left for Vietnam) and Will to Ann. We enjoyed having each other for dinner. I remember our first Thanksgiving together as a couple. We had Ann and Will as our guests.

Will and I both used the Analog Computer Lab in the Electrical Engineering Department. They had just added a digital computer to control the analog computer, which used circuitry to simulate dynamic systems. I had taken a programming course at the Academy, but Will had not, so I ended up teaching him Fortran, how to punch his program on cards, and how to load and run them on the computer. Will was a quick study.

Will and I had to get a certain amount of flying time. At one point I arranged for us to drive down to Chanute AFB in Illinois on a winter weekend. As we trekked south in the dark, Will said, "Your lights are getting dimmer. We are running on battery. Your alternator has died." Of course he was right, so we turned around immediately. At the first roadside phone booth, Will called Ann to head south to meet us, while I kept the car running. We did make it home, with Ann intercepting us, then she and Will followed me home to make sure I got there. After repairing that car, which had given me many other problems, I got rid of it.

One weekend we kept Honea's dog Hondy, a large German Shepard. One day, Nancy found him on our bed. She told him to "Get off!" Hondy responded by baring his teeth. When she told him, "Look buster, I'm not afraid of you. Get off!", Hondy submitted and got off.

After Madison, Will and I both served as instructors in both the Electrical Engineering Department, and in the T-41 cadet flying program. For Will, this was his first aircraft with a prop, while for me, it was deja vue, since the T-41 was the just a newer version of the O-1 I flew in Vietnam. We still had to get non-student flying time, so we teamed up often.

On one occasion, we decided to do a one day "out and back" down to Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. We got to Kirtland fine, but got stuck there as high winds formed all along the Front Range. So Will and I camped out for two days at Kirtland with no clothes, no toiletries, and little money. But we had time to talk and enjoy each other's company. Finally, on the third day, we were weather cleared to return. I'd flown the out leg, so Will flew the return leg. All was well until we got to Peterson AFB. The winds were higher than forecast, and the gusts were outside the T-41 crosswind limits. But we were nearly out of fuel, so we had to land. During the landing, as Will struggled to hold the wing down in a very strong cross wind, I had to grab my yoke and help him. It took both our strength to get the plane on the ground. We were a good team.

We both were raising kids while at the Academy, so traded baby sitting, meals, etc. Will helped me change a clutch in my car, and many other things. When I slipped a disc and wound up in the Academy hospital, Will taught my classes, and one night drove Nancy through a snow storm to come see me. How great to have such a kind, helpful, and generous friend.

After Will left the Air Force, he worked for various small technical firms doing mostly Air Force research. On one occasion, I visited his lab, where he showed me his work on using strain gauges to electrically monitor stress on an airframe. His setup consisted of a two inch square, four foot long aluminum beam clamped by one end to a bench. Glued to the beam was a small flexible resistor strain gauge. Will's circuitry measured the current through the resistor, which changed slightly when the beam was flexed. After months of design, test, redesign Will thought he had it finished. The setup was so sensitive it detected the Moon as it rose!

While I was at the Academy, I built my own home computer from scratch, using an Intel microprocessor. This was years before Pesonal Computers became commercially available. The only other person I know who built their own computer was Will, who built one using the Texas Instruments microprocessor. Will was a pioneer.

After I left the Air Force and settled in Denver, we traded weekend visits with Ann and Will, always a treat. We watched many Broncos games together, win or lose. One of our most fun visits was when we took our bikes to Colorado Springs and we all biked along the Templeton Gap Floodway.

We saw each other at Academy Reunions, and any other time we were close, as when Ann had to come to Denver for medical treatment for her vocal cords.

On one occasion, I had a Dodge Caravan on it's last legs. I knew the engine was about to go by the oil it burned. To keep it limping along, I poured several cans of Motor Honey into the engine. When I mentioned it to Will, he said he was in need of another vehicle if I could price it well. I did and Will took it, rebuilt the engine, and drove it for several years. But he never let me forget that cleaning out all the Motor Honey was one of the nastiest jobs he'd ever done.

When I started the Class of 1964 history website, I needed an accurate list of class members. I did not want to ask the AOG, for fear of getting rejected as "not an official project." I remembered that at one point, Will had helped Jim Wheeler, past head of the Association of Graduates, during a dispute over AOG leadership. It turned out that Will had a copy of our class AOG database. I used it to build the initial website. After I "sold" it to class president Rod Wells and it became our class project, Rod got me an updated official copy of the AOG database. Then at the end of the project, as I prepared CDs for our 50th Reunion, I need them to be tested on Microsoft, Apple, and Linux computers. Will tested them on his Linux computer.

Will used his computer skills to help his church, setting up, running, and maintaining accounting and membership programs for them. Will never talked about his faith. He just lived it.

As Will encountered health challenges I was always impressed at his upbeat attitude. Though it all, he always kept helping others.

So as I remember Will, I remember a friend who was always open, honest, hard working, smart, generous, funny, and always willing to help.

No one has ever had a better friend.