William Frank Oehler

OEHLER, William Frank William Frank Oehler, 62, an Air Force master navigator, decorated Vietnam War veteran, engineering trainer and avid sportsman, died Wednesday, (June 17, 2009) at his home in Las Vegas, NV. He had been ill with an undetermined ailment. He joined the Air Force in 1969 after earning a degree in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University. He flew 249 combat missions in Southeast Asia and was awarded 18 Air Combat Medals and three Distinguished Flying Crosses. In his 12 years of active duty with the Air Force Reserve in the United States and Asia, he served as an instructor, flight commander and engineer, attaining the rank of captain. In 1981 he left the Air Force Reserve and assumed the same role as a civil servant at Hill AFB, UT, where he flew, and often led, cruise missile chase flights on the Utah and Nevada test ranges. At Edwards AFB in California, he worked on test projects for numerous aircraft and was project manager for the C-17. He retired in 2004 as branch manager for the logistics division. Mr. Oehler was an expert skier, skeet shooter, scuba diver and hunter. He was born Oct. 28, 1946, in Holyoke, MA, and grew up in Southampton, MA. His mother, Gladys Oehler, died in 1997. He leaves his father, Harold Oehler of Stafford; two sisters, Susan Aline Oehler of Maple Grove, MN, and Laurelae Lynn Oehler of White River Junction, VT; a brother, Harold Michael Oehler and his wife, Stephanie Summers, of Willington; an uncle, William Oehler and his wife, Jan Oehler of South Hadley, MA; a niece, Michelle (Braun) Brassington and her husband, Aaron Brassington, of Watertown, MN; and two nephews, Michael Braun of Brooklyn Center, MN, and Nathan Michael Oehler of Willington. The body was cremated. A gravesite service with full military honors will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, July 31, in St. Edward's Cemetery, Stafford. Eulogies and a reception will follow at Sun Valley Resort, Stafford. Donations may be made to the William Frank Oehler Fund of the Citizens Scholarship Foundation of Stafford, Stafford Savings Bank, P.O. Box 25, Stafford, CT 06076.