Foil: 9 Panel: 2 Column: 1 Line: 110

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Melina K. Miller

Raymond Berge Staininger was born January 27, 1916. Some of the first stories he remembers were tales of WWI battles, but what really excited him were the emerging "flying machines". His interest grew as he met the post-war barn-storming pilots, especially his father's friend and business partner, Clarence Chamberlain. Chamberlain was a well-known pioneer pilot who, with Charles Lindberg and Wiley Post, kept flying in the public eye. Young Ray frequently spent time at the Tulsa, OK airport where he could study the parked planes and dream.
Ray graduated from high school at the outset of the depression; college was not an affordable option. He moved from Tulsa back to the family ranch in South Dakota, enlisting the in the CCC's. In 1937 Ray heard an Army recruiter talking about the Army Air Corps flight opportunities. He enlisted and while waiting for assignment worked at wiring submarines for the Navy. In 1938 Ray graduated from the Radio Mechanics and Operations school at Chanute Field, IL. He flew in B-26s and B-17s with some of the special early WWII pilots; he remembers with great fondness the lessons he learned serving as Radio Tech for Col. Knute Longfellow and Lt. Harry Mitchell, both of whom exhibited exceptional skill and who demanded top performance from the young men learning under their command. At Chanute Field he joined the newly formed Winged Chorus directed by Chaplain Wolverton; he sang with the chorus until he returned to Hamilton Field where the Army Air Force was flying submarine patrol off of the Pacific Coast from California to Alaska.
During this time Ray also served as a recruit instructor with such distinction that he was offered a Tech Sergeant rating and teaching position, but his goal of becoming a pilot outweighed any other advantages. In 1941 he was accepted into flight school and after completing the primary and basic training was sent to Advance Flying School in Marfa, TX, where he flew the two-engine "Bamboo Bombers" (planes made with wooden frames covered with fabric). He graduated with the class of '43D and was assigned to March Field in California.
With his coveted new wings and the rank of 2nd Lt., Ray trained to fly the four engine B-24 bomber known as "The Liberator". In July of 1943 he checked out as first pilot and with his crew began the long overnight training flights. On July 14 he married 2nd Lt. Helen L. Peterson, U.S. Army Nurse Corps, and after a 3-day leave returned to duty.
In August the crews left for the Pacific Theater - The Eastern Mandate. The bombers would take off fully loaded from runways made of metal sections put together on the sand. These flights were seven hours long to the bomb site and then seven hours back over the pitch dark Pacific waters. More than once Ray's previously learned navigation skills made possible a safe return to the base.
After completing 15 months of flight duty he spent the next 9 months as Operations Officer: planning, assigning and briefing crews and base administration. In November of 1945 Ray return home. He refused a promotion to Captain in the Reserve because he knew that as a rancher he would not be free to leave at a moment's notice.
Ray continued to fly and when the family moved to Tucson, AZ in 1958 he joined the Federal Aviation Agency where he served until he retired in 1982. Now at 90, his memory of the thrill of flying has never dimmed. Were he of another generation he would have had the same drive to be in space.