Charles Eckels:  

Hi All, I had a profile on this web site but haven’t re-visited it for a couple years and it must have been removed. So here it goes again. When I graduated high school I bought a semi-truck tractor and took off for a tour of the country. I drove for almost a year and really got a great education of life and how become more responsible. It was a time in our country that the war in Vietnam started to pick up and I knew I was going to be drafted so I enlisted in the Army so that I could pick a military occupation that I would like. I went into communications and after completing advance training was sent to Vietnam. I realized after I got to my new unit that they had a helicopter unit in my company. Since I already had a civilian pilot’s license, I took the test to get in and was first refused because of my glasses. I was very disappointed but went back to my old unit. After a month or so, I was approached by a Major I had met in the helicopter unit I was trying to get into. He wanted me to come over and take a flight with him to see how much aptitude I had. I must have had enough since I ended up as a pilot and made it through my tour without getting myself killed. I did go down a few times but helicopters are a bit more forgiving. Some of our old friends and classmates didn’t come out as lucky. When I came home, I took a job with my dad who happened to be a manager at a Beechcraft Dealership at the Van Nuys airport. I worked there for a while but since I picked up a few pieces of metal in my body, overseas, and had to go to the veteran’s hospital for surgery. I was told I couldn’t sit for long periods of time, so my job ended at the airport. After that, I went to work for small company that built eng...Expand for more