Delmar Haddock

1954 - 2019

Delmar Del' Haddock December 10, 1954 - August 7, 2019 JULIAN Born December 10, 1954 in Lamar, Colorado, passed away August 7, 2019 in Julian, CA from a heart attack. Delmar was one of eleven children born to Randal and Ada Haddock. He grew up in Two Buttes, Colorado on his family's farm. All of the kids pitched in on the farm, and Delmar started driving a tractor when he was ten years old. After graduating from Walsh High School in 1973, he attended Chapman College and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1984.Delmar joined the Navy in 1977 and received training as an Aviation Electronics Technician and then as a helicopter Search and Rescue Crewman. Most of his time in the Navy was spent as a Combat Search and Rescue Crewman, Rescue Swimmer, Door Gunner, and Plane Captain in the HC-9 "Predators" Squadron in San Diego.On June 30, 1989, he was awarded the Sikorsky Helicopter Rescue Award for skill and courage while participating in a lifesaving mission with a Sikorsky helicopter. That helicopter is now on display at Naval Station North Island in San Diego. He also did two WestPac deployments on board the USS Coral Sea and the USS Constellation.When the HC-9 Squadron was disbanded he joined VR-57, a transport squadron out of North Island. He was activated to the Desert Storm war in 1990 where he was stationed in Sembach, Germany.He worked for NOSC (Naval Ocean Systems Center) where he became an expert in lasers and optics. He also worked on the Tele-Operated Vehicle (TOV) which was designed to detect land mines. Then in 1988 Delmar joined SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) where he worked on the Advanced-Time-Space-Position Information (TSPI) System for Edwards Air Force Base. He had a lot of fun at SAIC building an Indianapolis 500 race car simulator. In order to do this, Delmar and his team went to Laguna Seca for training on how to drive a racecar. In 1997, Delmar joined SPAWAR Systems San Diego where he worked on the Stabilized High-accuracy Optical Tracking System (SHOTS) for the Pacific Missile Range in Kauai, Hawaii. He moved his family to Kauai, Hawaii for three years for this program designed to intercept ballistic missiles. Finally, he spent six months in 2012 in Afghanistan supporting the Army and Marine Corps in detecting IEDs to save American lives. His team was credited with saving 20 American lives each month.In his spare time, Del loved to visit the classrooms at the Julian schools and do science lessons. He was interested in telescopes and star gazing, woodworking, and visiting the coffee shop every morning to see friends. Delmar is survived by his wife, Lisa, and their two daughters, Katie and Christina, as well as his brothers and sisters, Ray, Ivan, Neil, Alvin, Oma, Laroy, Becky, Fred and Kenny. He has countless nieces and nephews that he dearly loved as well.A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. at the Whispering Pines Catholic Conference Center in Harrison Park, Julian.