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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Elliott Meisel Esq.

LESTER MOAK, December 10, 1921-March 5, 2015. Born in Brooklyn N.Y. he saw Lindbergh parade on Bedford Avenue after his flight to Paris. Hanging around Floyd Bennett Field where he took his first plane ride in a Waco biplane in 1934 he saw some of the trans-Atlantic and trans-continental record-breakers of the day and others including "Mr. Mulligan"; the "Joseph LeBrix" (east-to-west trans-Atlantic); Dick Merrill and Harry Richman's ping-pong-ball-loaded double Atlantic crossing "Lady Peace"; Amelia Earhart and her twin engine Lockheed; Al Williams and his "Gulfhawk" and a squadron of the early biplane "Hell Divers" which were stationed there.

On April 18, 1942, co-incidentally the day of Gen. Doolittle's Tokyo raid, he volunteered for Army Air Corps pilot training. He trained in the S.E. Command (PT-17, BT-13, AT.10, AT-9) graduating at Albany, GA. From there he was sent to LaJunta, Colorado for B-25 transition and then to Greenville, SC for B-25 crew training. Upon completion he picked up a new B-25-H and ATC navigator in Savannah, GA for a flight across the Caribbean, South America the Atlantic via Ascension Island, across Africa, around Arabia and to operations in India, Burma and China.

After a tour with B-25s he was assigned to 10th AF Hq. in Assam, India where he flew Hq. staff, sprayed DDT over the combat areas of Burma, worked radar calibration and used L-5, C-45, and B-25S. Requested by and transferred to the Theater Hq. at Calcutta, India to fly staff of Gen. Stratemayr.

In addition to the C-47, C-60, C-46 and B-25S in staff work all over the Theater including "Hump" flights, he flew a Dauntless (Army A-24) and "qualified" in the "Jug" (P47) which his kid brother Stuart Moak was flying in the European theater with the big 9th AF.

Lester was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medals. After the war he lived in Chevy Chase, Md. until 2013 when he moved to NYC to be closer to his children the rest of his life. Though he wanted to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, as his wife, Phoebe predeceased him, that was not to be, but flying in the service of his country defined his life.
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