Gordon Scharnhorst

I had occasion to serve with Lieutenant Colonel Scharnhorst when he was a Major at Royal Air Force Coltishall in 1967/8 and found him to be a thoroughly great officer and ambassador for the United States Air Force and his country. Even now his presence made an impression on a young air force mechanic new to his position. I found this place to commemorate his passing and do so with sadness, a truly wonderful example of an American.

I would like to extend my condolences on behalf of my mother, Mary Ann (Scharnhorst) Bedord and the rest of our family. Mary Ann is a first cousin of Gordon and kept in contact with him over the years. She was very proud of her cousin the military pilot. My father passed away a day before Gordon, on April 10th. I have recently come into contact with other cousins on our Scharnhorst side and my hope is maybe we could communicate in the future. As a child, I believe I met Gordon once and...

What an amazing life story.

Always a stand up guy and had words of wisdom for me I just didn't understand. However now it all makes perfect sense. It defiantly made me see the light. Asking Nixon aren't you supposed to be somewhere. I can still hear it today. Thanks for the help it will never be forgotten.

What pleasure it gave me reading about Horse's illustrious career as an Air Force pilot and later more command positions. He still never went further in his ego than the boy from Hermann, Missouri. Horse and I meet through Maggie at Wheelus AFB. I always considered him as an older brother. He was a hard-working man who saw the value of giving his children a good education and was so proud of their accomplishments and loved them a lot. He had a wicked sense of humor and used to send out...

We never formally met your Dad, but he would sit behind our family at mass usually at 4 o'clock. Always had a warm smile to me and my family and would sing along to the mass and I would often think, what a nice voice he had. We are sad to learn of his passing...wish we would of gotten to know him.

I will always remember Gordon as a true friend from the time when we first met at Goodfellow AFB as "Pre Aviation Cadets" and through-out our Air Force flight training, up to including F84 gunnery at Luke AFB. One of the "high-lights" of our 54F Class reunions was getting together with "Horse" and "Maggie" to catch-up on "years past".

I flew with Gordon as a fellow cadet in flying school and at Luke AFB gunnery school. It was an honor to know him and he will surely me missed. I always enjoyed talking with hime at the 54F reunions.

Gordy you were always a welcome guest during my bartending days at the Hiawatha. Always a gentleman with a smile and a great story. You will be missed. RIP.
Barb Schalow Hogue