Stephen Paul Camann

Our Dad Steve served in the Air Force for 20 years. Even as early as the third grade, our Dad wanted to fly airplanes. He would get as close as he could to the Niagara airfield and look up at the planes as they passed overhead. Residents of Bergholz used to see Dad out going past their homes on Saturday morning carrying a camera. One time security caught him taking pictures and confiscated the film.

Dad’s dream came true when he started at the Air Force Academy in 1968. He graduated in 1972 and married our mom, Diana in Bergholz, NY. He then started pilot school in Columbus, Mississippi. He trained in a T37 trainer and T38 jet aircraft. After training, he was assigned to Keesler AFB in Mississippi. Dad flew weather reconnaissance missions in a C-130 to do photo mapping around the world, including a lot in South America. As better satellites took over the job of photo mapping, he stayed at Keesler to join the ranks of the famous Hurricane Hunter Squadron. This squadron flew directly into hurricanes in the Atlantic to gather weather info for NOAA.

Dad’s next assignment was in Guam to fly weather reconnaissance with the 54th, and we have learned that he also collected atmospheric samples after Soviet ballistic missile tests. Guam was where Jane was born. We recently met Dad's friend and navigator who told us some stories from his time in Guam. While he was stationed there, he got word that a boy and his father were lost at sea near Guam after sailing from the Philippines. This was considered an impossible mission. It is rare that such a small boat is found. Dad was the lead pilot in charge of this task, and he spotted a light flash from the father's mirror. This crew and our dad saved their lives.

In 1980 Dad was stationed at Williams AFB in Chandler, Arizona. At Williams he taught T-38 jet flight school and became a Squadron Commander. Rachel was born in Arizona. In addition to training pilots, he was sent on a special assignment to Houston to train the Astronauts in the T-38.

In 1984, we went to Germany, and that's where Paul was born. In Germany, he was second in command as part of the "Berlin for lunch bunch" in the 7405th. He flew stealth C-130s across East Germany to land in West Berlin at Templehof Airport. Along the way his crew would do reconnaissance on the Soviets, collecting pictures, video, infrared, and radar signals. He didn't fly directly but rather on a zig-zag path, and if he ever flew out of his corridor, the Soviets had orders to shoot him down.

In 1988, we moved to a Maryland suburb of Washington DC where Dad joined the 99th Airlift Squadron, part of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB in Maryland. He was tasked with transporting generals and staff, congressmen, heads of state, and foreign dignitaries. He flew a C-20 Gulfstream 3. He retired from the Air Force in 1992, and he flew Gulfstream jets commercially in Europe for about a year.

Dad joined Southwest Airlines in 1995 and flew 737s until he couldn't, in 2007, as Alzheimer's disease set in.

He remarried in 2009 and they lived in Pennsylvania. They moved to Southlake, Texas in 2017. We all went out to see him there and were with him when he passed away in March 2018.

We miss our dad. We are glad he was able to fly.

Paul, Rachel and Jane Camann - March 2018