Many of us assume that a member who has been active in Chapter 59 since the early eighties, has just completed two years as Vice President and is now currently President, would be well known to all.  Just how well do we know our fellow members?  If you're fairly new to Chapter 59, you may not be as surprised as many of the “old salts” to learn things we didn’t know about each other.  Chapter 59 President Emmette Craver is the first this year to have his past exposed here in the newsletter!

 Emmette is one of those classic “airport kid” stories, riding his bicycle at age 11 or 12 out to the local grass strip in Southeast Colorado, with his buddy to watch the pretty yellow Cub flying students and joyriders around the patch.  In the afternoons the boys would watch the plane take off and land, then help clean off the bus and oil before it was put away.  “My efforts paid off as the summer season ended, as I was finally given my first ride in an airplane.  I was hooked.”  Times were tough in the late thirties and there was no money for such foolishness as flying lessons.  But after some time in college Emmette found himself first in the Army National Guard, then the Air National Guard where he served as a Crew Chief for an AC&W Squadron (radar intercept).  In the Air Guard he was able to join their Aero Club and soloed in a J-3 Cub.  Working full time for the Guard he was able to buy an Aeronca Super Chief for $750 and earn his private license with it.  

 After earning his Second Lieutenant’s bars from his Guard unit, Emmette soon jumped through all the hoops to be selected for pilot training.  Training started at Moultrie, Georgia, in T-34’s and T-28’s.   Then it was on to Laredo for T-33 jet training, followed by F-86 training for his Air Guard outfit.  He went back to his unit at Buckley (Colorado) and flew P-80’s and F-86D’s, then was transitioning into F-100’s in 1961 when things heated up in Berlin.  In the interim he had flown as a Flight Engineer for United Airlines (DC-6 and 7) from 1957 to1958, but soon came lay-off times for the airlines and he felt he had to make a choice between a full time Guard position and an uncertain airline career.  

 The military won out and in 1961 he became active duty USAF and was soon flying F-105’s first in Seville, Spain, then Bitburg, Germany, with the nuclear alert mission.  Toward the end of his tour his unit transitioned to F-4’s  and Emmette was before long headed to fill a pilot shortage in Vietnam.  “I arrived at my unit in Cam Ranh Bay one morning, and they were so short of pilots that I was flying my first mission that afternoon.  No in-country check-out, indoctrination or intelligence briefings.  By the next afternoon I was leading a flight on my third combat mission.”  After a few months flying out of Cam Ranh Bay he was sent kicking and screaming to Saigon for three months to “frag” missions for Tigerhound missions in North Vietnam and Laos.  He returned to Cam Ranh Bay to finish his tour and soon found his next assignment to be as a Forward Air Controller attached to the Army at Ft. Hood.  Emmette was so excited about that opportunity that he decided to extend his Vietnam tour to avoid it.  Six months later, in 1968, the FAC job was still waiting for him at Ft. Hood  and for the next three years he worked first with the Army on the ground, then helped get batch of O-2A FAC aircraft operational at Bergstrom AFB in Austin.  

 In 1972 Emmette went back to Vietnam for his second tour in F-4’s.  He spent the first six months flying missions out of Phu Cat, then the based was closed and he was assigned to Nakhon Phenom, Thailand for the remainder of his tour.  After another four year tour in Germany, he spent his final Air Force tour at Hurlbert Field in Florida, retiring with 27 ½  years of military service in 1977.  You can bet there are some very interesting war stories behind this career fighter pilot with 357 combat missions, the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star, and 22 Air Medals!
 Emmette retired in Austin where he was active in EAA Chapter 187, then moved to Waco in 1983 to use his Veterans benefits getting an A&P license at TSTC.  He was a very early EAA member, had joined before his last tour in Germany and re-joined in the mid-seventies.  Naturally, he joined Chapter 59 as soon as he came to Waco, and the rest is history.  After earning his A&P license he was talked into teaching in that department for five years.  By then he was living at his Wings for Christ Airport home he now shares with his wife, Kathy, and their menagerie of cattle, horses, goats and chickens.  Emmette has a long neglected Cessna 150, which he promises to restore as soon as his hangar is completed.

EAA Chapter 59 is very fortunate to have Emmette at the helm as our President.  He is a man on a mission, with much already accomplished for us and a vision of this being a premier EAA Chapter with it’s own facilities and a reputation as the area’s educational and recreational leader.  With his organizational skills and motivation, I would be surprised if he doesn’t meet all his goals.  - McMains