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This Day in History – June 10, 1969 – The X-15 gets a place in history

10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and

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Randels, James B.

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  • Randels, James B.

James B. Randels

Preferred Name: Jim
Date of Birth: October 23, 1918
Highest Military Grade: 0-6 – Colonel
Biography
Pilot Information
Books

Colonel James B. Randels served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He joined the Army Air Corps right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In his career he flew over 75 different aircraft amassing 6200 flying hours.

In a 2019 interview with Bryant Clerkley from News 5 WKRG in Florida, he gave some advice for people seeking a career. “”I think you need to pick a career early and follow it. Work towards it,”. When speaking about his flying career he told the reporter “When you’re in an airplane you’re in command. When I was in Korea I spent six weeks in the army, and you’re not neccesarily in command.”

His flying career was not without incident. He had 3 belly landings and one crash landing in Vietnam. He said, “Lesson learned there, if you have to crash land go into a banana patch because I did not get a scratch.”

Colonel Jim Randels retired from the Air Force in 1972.

For his 101st birthday, The Board of County Commissioners of Okaloosa County, FL proclaimed October 23rd, “James B. Randels Day”.

Sources: https://www.wkrg.com/top-stories/100-year-old-okaloosa-county-veteran-gets-special-day-dedicated-to-him/ and https://weartv.com/news/local/oct-23rd-declared-as-james-b-randels-day-for-wwii-veteran.

Units Assigned

  • 1953 10th Flight Test Squadron/50 Fighter-Bomber (later, 50 Tactical Fighter) Wing, Commander, Hahn AB, Germany (F-86, F-100)
  • 1972 Retired USAF

Awards & Decorations

Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross (3)
Bronze Star
Bronze Star

Flight Info

F-86
F-100

Military & Civilian Education

Military Education:

  • Community College of the Air Force

Wall of Honor Location

Randels, James B., Reeves, Roy F. (1958): Note On Empirical Bounds For Generating Bessel Functions. In Communications of the ACM, 1 (5) pp. 3-5.

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