Cereghino, Bruce R.

Bruce R. Cereghino (1933 – 2000) was born in Forks, WA, but grew up in Redwood City, CA, on the San Francisco Peninsula.  As a child, he saw an air show at the old Moffett Field NAS and he was hooked.  He wanted to be a pilot.  Period.

After graduating high school in 1949, he studied engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for two years, then transferred to Stanford for the first quarter of his upper-division courses in Electrical Engineering.  Taking leave of Stanford, he enlisted in USAF Aviation Cadets which, at that time, required two years of college.  He was in Class 55-N and underwent Pre-Flight at Lackland AFB, TX, took Primary at Bartow AB, FL, and Basic at Webb AFB, TX.  He was commissioned and awarded his wings at Webb.  After a year of being copilot on a major general’s C-47 (out of Donaldson AFB, SC) he went to fighter-bomber training at Williams AFB, AZ.

After graduation from that course, he was assigned to the 81st TFS at Toul-Rosieres AB, France where he flew the F-86H for two years, then added a year to his obligation in order to fly the Hun.  He was assigned to an F-100F, the only two-seater in the squadron.   Once he took the mayor of Nancy, France, on a VIP flight.  Given the specific type of weapons his plane carried in those tense times, he was chewed out by no less than Gen. Curtis LeMay for not knowing what his secondary target was.  He never forgot it after that.  He always piloted that lone two-seater in the 81st.

He rotated back to CONUS before France showed its gratitude for our help during WW II and sent USAF packing.  Bruce’s last post was Deputy Base Ops officer at the then-March AFB, CA.  He left the service with the rank of captain and went back to Stanford to complete his BSEE.

Until he retired he worked in Avionics for Honeywell (SR-71 Blackbird) and Hughes Aircraft (Apache helicopter.)