Royce W. Priest

"Deac" Priest USAF Retired Age 81, of Riverside, Colonel Priest passed away of natural causes on May 18, 2004. He was born April 9, 1923, in Parsons, Kansas. He and his wife, Anita, have liv ed in Riverside for the past 18 years. Colonel Priest entered the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1940 at the age of 17 and retired as a full colonel from the Air Force in 1968. He had a distinguished military career, which included being one of the few remaining WWII Fighter Aces. During the war he received the nation's second highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross for landing his P-51 under enemy fire in occupied France to rescue his squadron commander, Captain Bert Marshall, who had been shot down. Late r, he was also on duty flying bomber escort over the coast of France on D-Day. After the war, he was assigned to Chile, where he met Anita. He spent three years as a personal pilot to the President of Chile and then trained pilots for the U.S. Chilean Air Mission. Colonel Priest went on to be directly responsible for training the first class of jet pilots for our allies in the Taiwanese Air Force. After a tour at The Pentagon, he served on exchange duty at the Australian War College as a student and instruc tor. Colonel Priest came back to the U.S. to work on the Minuteman II program. His next tour led him to England where he was Chief of the United Kingdom Purchasing Center and later became Base Commander at Wethersfield Air Base. Colonel Priest finished his Air Force career stateside with a tour at The Pentagon. After retiring from the Air Force, he joined the defense industry, working for Vought Aeronautics in Dallas, Texas, where he retired in 1982 after serving as the Program Manager of the A-7D fighter a ircraft. Colonel Priest is survived by his wife Anita and their loving family: Colonel Patsy Priest, USAF, retired and her husband Bob Kendall of San Antonio, Texas; Royce Priest, Jr. of Riverside; Susy Breeland and her husband Joe of Austin, Texas; and Annabel Mize and her husband Tony of Riverside. The joys of his life especially included his six grandchildren, Matthew, Joey, Alex, Jarod, Brian and Samantha, who all considered Papa a true hero. Services will be held at the Riverside National Cemetery a t 12:30 p.m. Monday, May 24, 2004. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be sent to the National World War II Memorial, American Battle Monuments Commission, P O Box 96766, Washington, D.C. 20090-6766, in the name of Colonel Royce W. Priest (Charter Member #7095564).