Roger Weller “retired from the Air Force Reserve after 30 plus years of service, mostly in air operations, command positions, and the flying business for the ANG and the USAFR. I was a fighter pilot for 10 years at the Springfield ANG Base, flying F-84Fs and F-100s (yes, the airplane crash story is true!) I was the sole survivor of that F-84F crash in December of 1968……OK, the rest of the story…I was alone in the plane (of course….that’s what we fighter pilots do best) and ejected successfully (some may disagree with that opinion….). I got squeezed out of the Ohio Air Guard at 24 years (they didn’t like Wing tri-deputy [Ops, CSS and CMS] commanders (commuting from Maryland) so I got into the DLA IMA program in 1989 at Cameron Station, VA and made O-6 after three years there. Retired as the IMA to the DLA Chief of Operations …….neat job …..at Ft Belvoir, VA in 1996..”
“I concurrently worked as a civilian at WPAFB for 17 years (the last 7 years were in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) business—-fun!) before coming to Maryland. I retired as a GM-14 with a CSRS pension on the last day of the millennium from DoD as Director, Center Services in December 2000 from The Joint Spectrum Center, located on the Naval Station in Annapolis. I have worked seven separate weeks in 2006-2008 as a volunteer in a work camp in D’Iberville, Mississippi. We rebuilt and renovated old homes and built new homes for the residents there displaced by Hurricane Katrina.”(1)
See more about Roger at https://www.69-03.org/pages/rog_weller.html
Source: https://www.69-03.org/pages/rog_weller.html
Roger Weller Caterpillar Club Story
“Twas a cold December day in 1968, not yet a month from receiving my wings at Laughlin AFB, Texas. As the F-84Fs had no two seaters; my first flight was solo.
I had progressed to Flight #7 in the syllabus. I was to lead a two-ship flight of F-84Fs out of Springfield, Ohio on an local navigation mission, with my instructor as my wingman.
To make a long and sometimes boring story (according to my wife who has heard it about 100 times) short, the single-engine flamed out at 2000 AGL at the beginning of an ILS approach to home base. I tried two air starts, was advised to “punch out”, and did so, although not everything performed as advertised by the Dash-1.
The parachute opened at about 500 feet AGL and my pink butt lived to fly fighters for another 7 years. I spent 5 days in the WPAFB hospital (due to my flight surgeon going “out of State’ for a long weekend………….), I was back up in a T-33 on the sixth day and in an F-84F on the seventh day after the accident.
FYI, Yes, I got my Caterpillar Club pin from the parachute manufacturer, the M. Steinthal Co. of NYC.”