OVERSEAS NATIONAL AIRWAYS

ONA pilot / USAF Lieutenant Colonel Tom Fenwick

Tom Fenwick and Sue Hawkins in Cairo 1978

I was born in Morganfield KY, a town of 3100 people. Our Thanksgiving Day football rival was Sturgis KY, a town of 750. In about 1975 following article was published in The Union County Advocate, a weekly newspaper. MORE STORIES BY TOM! Evil tricks on Cabin Crew by Cockpit Crew! LOWER THE TAIL WHEEL!

The Union County Advocate Imagine yourself on the Courthouse steps and having heard a sonic boom, you look up and see the contraiols of a B-58 HUSTLER. Had I told you "he was over Sturgis 25 seconds ago", you would, no doubt, think I had lost my mind but that is exactly the way it was. We received a letter from Tom Fenwick, who was a classmate of my son Joe at Morganfield High School just a few years ago. It reads: Dear Mr Bell, You may remember me. I was your son Joes' classmate at Morganfield HS. After the 10th grade I enlisted in the USAF. I did my tour in Korea in the B-29, then was commissioned and attended Pilot Training. After Fighter Pilot training and various USAF assignments, I was assigned to the 305th Bomb Wing flying B-58 "HUSTLERS". In early 1962 I was flying the supersonic corridor from Nashville to the vicinity of Fort Wayne Indiana. As we approached Evansville I asked my Navigator, Capt Floyd Aker, what he was tracking on the radar. I couldn't believe my ears when he replied "A small town in Ky called Sturgis". I had him put the information onto certain instrumentation available to me and I turned toward Sturgis.

Sturgis to Morganfield in 25 seconds at 1464 mph I told Floyd that he should start a timer and "center me up" on Morganfield which was 10 1/4 miles beyond when we passed Sturgis. He did so and we were on our way for a speed run from STURGIS to MORGANFIELD! Arriving over Morganfield we had an elapsed time of 25.2 seconds which computed to a speed of 1464 MPH. The "record" was never recorded as certain timing requirements must be met, but nevertheless at a time when Capt Bob Sowers set the record from NY to LA and return and Sid Cubich was roaring from Tokyo to London, I set the record from STURGIS to MORGANFIELD ! I have since retired from the USAF and fly for OVERSEAS NATIONAL AIRWAYS. (Editors note) I do indeed remember Tom and am not in the least surprised at this feat. He was always up to something. He quit High School after the 10th grade to join the USAF to do the things he wanted to do all his life. He retired from the USAF as a Lieutenant Colonel. Not bad for a HS "dropout" in my opinion!