John Monroe Guiling

GUILING, John Monroe John Monroe Guiling was born on June 4, 1932. This was the bottom of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 100 year low point, of less than 41, occurred during the first week of July 1932. He was the 5th of 7 children. His birth happened at home as was the custom of farm families of that day. His schooling began in a one-room schoolhouse that included grades 1 through 4. It was less than half a mile walk from their house. Their father had given the land where the building was erected. Each grade had a row of seats in the classroom. A stove that sat in the middle of the room provided heat. There was no electricity or running water. The Guiling family moved often in his younger years. They moved to Scotland, Arkansas for John's start of his Grade 2 and then moved to another farm near Clinton, Arkansas for one year so Grade 2 was finished in Clinton as was the first half of Grade 3. A bus provided transportation to and from school. The family then moved to a larger farm in east central Arkansas where they lived for two years and where John finished Grade 3, Grade 4 and half of Grade 5. This school house had 2 rooms school that served 8 grades. It was about one and one-quarter miles from their farmhouse and with no bus service, he walked to and from school down a dirt or gravel road. Almost needless to say, John carried his load of farm work during these years. The attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, occurred while they lived there. An older brother left the farm when he was in the 8th grade to work in a war plant at about this time. John's father saw that he could make more money working in a war plant than farming so he sold this farm and moved the family to a rented house in Morrilton Arkansas while he worked in war plants, moving first to Florida and then to California. The California house had electricity with hot and cold running water, thus indoor plumbing. John considered this a move 'up' for the family. When the war plant work was over there was wide spread unemployment. Although both of his parents were able to read and write (most likely never finished grade school) however), employment opportunities were limited for their father. The older brother had joined the Navy' when he turned 18 and was no longer a part of the family. The parents still owned the farm where most of the children were born but apparently John's father didn't feel up to reestablishing the farm and trying to eke out a living there. He took his life at this point. He was 52 years old. The original farm was sold for enough money to allow his mother to buy a frame house on the edge of town. The house had cold water and an outhouse. Sewer was available at the gravel road near the house so the house was soon connected, a water heater was installed, and a small bathroom was constructed. His mother raised the remaining 3 boys in that house. Her income from Social Security' was $88.00 per month plus $12.00 for each child under 18. She asked each child to go out on their own when they finished high school and turned 18. She remained in that house until shortly before her death. In so far as is known, she had very little additional financial resources. John and his two younger brothers finished their secondary' education at Morrilton.The older brother had obtained a GED certificate while in the Navy in WWII. That covered the dropping out of school in the 8th grade and made him eligible for the GI Bill. He used the GI Bill to finance a junior college certificate at Arkansas Tech in Russellville Arkansas. He gave his books, slide rule, and drawing instruments [bought by the GI Bill] to John. That aid made it possible for John to get a junior college education in basic engineering subjects with a very thin budget and a lot of hitchhiking. That education proved helpful when he took his childhood dream of being a pilot and enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War. John finished basic training, and after several months wait on the list of qualified troops, was placed into pilot training as an enlisted man. He finished pilot training, graduating first in his class, and was commissioned, as was the procedure of that time. He chose a test squadron in Albuquerque New Mexico. It turned out to be a fun, exciting job. He had lived his childhood dream 'in spades' by his 25th birthday. He had flown a lot of the current jet fighters and light bombers, sometimes pushing the birds to their limit. This was before he became old enough to worry' about the risk. He was involved in some aviation firsts during that tour of duty. They were all involved with the test of [the then very secret nuclear weapons development] so no publicity was allowed. Some of the things he tested on display in the [now unclassified] Atomic Museum in Old Town [Albuquerque NM], It was his pleasure to take his son Mark there and show him the exhibits. "I just had a marvelous wonderful time flying the hottest stuff in the sky" Guiling once said. John worked extensively with the then-new jet fighters, including the F-11, the first Air Force fighter capable of supersonic speed in level flight. Much of John's work involved flight tests to see how weapons systems would work in real world conditions. Some tests went better than others. He once described such an incident: "I was supposed to chase another fighter through a 4 g loop to get pictures of a bomb separation. Somehow the leader got into a 5 g pull up and I blacked out. My ears were still working and I heard someone say "turn left". I still remember wondering which way "left" was when you were going straight up while blacked out. Fortunately, we did not collide". The dawn of the jet era allowed planes to fly higher than ever before, and pilots like Guiling were among the first to see earth from 50,000 feet. A couple of things happened during those years that determined the course of the rest of his life. The Russians put Sputnik into orbit around the earth, thus beating the U.S. into space. American international ballistic missiles were capable of doing this but they were constrained because they were 'war weapons' and the goal was to do it with 'peaceful' missiles. That all changed immediately after Sputnik. The U. S. was in space a short time later with a tape recording broadcasting the President's message from space. It was put there by one of the military rocket boosters. The Air Force immediately switched focus from 'pilots are our top skill - train more pilots' to 'we need more engineers immediately'. Having half of an engineering education made John eligible for a two-year program at the Air Force Institute of Technology that would lead to Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. His commander suggested that he take advantage of this opportunity which entailed a 6-year obligation to pay the Air Force back for their expenditure. That commitment put him at about the 12-year point in his military career. With the possibility of retiring at 20 years, that made him a think of a career in the Air Force. He took the educational assignment and did obtain a Bachelor of Science degree, thus being the first person in his extended family to obtain a college degree. A most significant event that happened during that time: John met, fell in love with and happily married Mary Lee Hammond, a beautiful young lady from Santa Fe, New Mexico. They had dated for a year and they were married before the transfer to the school. Two boys were born from that marriage, Mark Jay Guiling and Jeffrey Martin Guiling, while he was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio and they became the focus of their lives. His first post degree assignment was as a crew station design engineer at the Air Force Engineering facility at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The next assignment was as Deputy Director of the Operational Test and Evaluation of the new RF-4C at Shaw AFB, SC. That was desk duty but at least that involved direct association with the new flying machine. He also flew a lot on the side since by duty was flexible and he still loved to fly. Then one of those things out of the blue happened. The Air Force had requested added funding for more technical education of the personnel. They couldn't get enough volunteers for some of the graduate engineering programs, and they certainly did not want to tell Congress that they could not use the money. So they screened the records and assigned qualified people to study for advanced engineering degrees. John was one of those selected. He requested that he be sent to a civilian university since he had already been through the program at Wright-Patterson AFB for his bachelor's degree. They gave him his first choice, the University of Colorado at Boulder, CO. The commitment for this program was, as before, a six-year 'payback' to the Air Force. That put John well past the minimum of 20 years for retirement. Turning down additional education, and delaying his participation in the war in Vietnam, made the commitment worthwhile. This degree was a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. The engineering degrees gave him two skills as far as the Air Force was concerned. The needs of the Air Force always came first and almost all of the rest of his career he was assigned to desk duty. He kept an application for astronaut duty on file with NASA for many years. He was always rated as 'qualified' but never selected for training. The one time they let him do flying as his primary duty, was during the Vietnam War. He requested a flying slot and was assigned to fly the C-130E tactical transport. To a fighter pilot, the C-130 was a big flying machine. It took 5 people to do the job. It was a fine airplane and did its job well. The flying was mostly within the combat zone of South Vietnam so he amassed over 500 hours of combat time. He was awarded several ribbons; one was a Distinguished Flying Cross. Three Air Medals were awarded as well. The most dangerous thing he did was put that big bird down on very short strips, sometimes a rutted section of a road. He frequently carried 20,000 pounds of fuel in the cargo area to be offloaded at helicopter landing zones. That big bird was pushed to its limits time and time again. The saddest part of the mission was evacuation of the dead and wounded. The cost of war came into sharp focus to him and at least in later years, always kept his "Cost of Freedom" document to hand out to all that he would meet. Part of that document reads as follows: "Our top priority mission in that war was air evacuation of the wounded. The first person I had to pick up was a young fellow who had stepped on a land mine. It had blown off both of his legs and one of his arms. The remaining arm was being used for blood infusion. The medical people with him stated that he was on his 48th transfusion and that he faced the threat of hepatitis. Shortly after take off I was instructed to land at another strip down the coast. There they brought out a Vietnam boy about 10 years old that had been playing with a hand grenade when it went off. His body was covered but he was alive because his eyes would follow you as you moved about. I flew both to Saigon where the best medical treatment was available. My two sons were about his age. Every time I see a triple paraplegic I think of that soldier". During almost 20 years on flight status he had flown many types of aircraft and earned their highest aeronautical rating of Command Pilot. He had flown nearly 5000 hours. He had earned both a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in aero engineering. But, another bolt from the blue came near the end of his time in the Vietnam War. He was selected to be a weapons system manager in the Pentagon. He requested a different assignment, but to no avail. That was seen as an honor to be selected. That duty, coming immediately after the combat tour and the earning of a master's degree, did result in advancement in rank. Since he had several years of 'payback' time to serve he did not have a choice. Shortly after his arriving at the Pentagon, the Air Force decided that he, and a lot of staff people, were more important in the management work so he was removed from active flight status. The Pentagon duty involved being a Headquarters Air Force manager of several weapons systems and one major system. After he finished his 4-year 'tour' in the Pentagon, he was transferred to a suburban base that was the headquarters for the Air Force Research and Development Command. He served out his school commitment there and then requested retirement after serving 24 years and 4 months in the Air Force. The family selected a home in Round Rock, Texas in August 1977. The older son had completed high school before he left the DC area. John had a second career as a stockbroker. He lived and breathed airplanes but did not march well to a sales person's drummer. He was fired after about 5 years because he did not earn a lot of commission for himself and the firm. He tried real estate, first as a sales person, then as a broker. Mortgage interest rates then were in the 16-18 % range and it was not a good time to be in that industry. It was hard to find people who could qualify for loans with that high interest rates. He did this for 10 or more years. He withdrew from employment to care for his wife at their home after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was about 65 at this time. An operation, then chemo and radiation, got the cancer but the treatment took its toll on her. She progressed into COPD [chronic obstructed pulmonary disease], metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Peripheral Neuropathy followed the diabetes. Her heart stopped at about 8:00AM on 10 June 2005 in the bedroom at home. Her prayers were answered. She wanted to be the first to die since she did not want to be alone, and she wanted to die at home. She was buried in the National Cemetery at Santa Fe, NM, her hometown, a few days before their 47th wedding anniversary. Other tragedy followed John. Their younger son, Jeffrey, was found dead in his apartment in Houston, Texas on 20 May 2008 and Mark died on 1l June 20l1. John served several years as the treasurer of his church, The First United Methodists Church of Round Rock. This was at a time when the older church building on South Brown Street had become too small for their growing city. The church worshiped in the C. D. Flukes Middle School (lovingly referred to as The Lizard Church due to that school's mascot) for several years while they bought a larger site at 1004 North Mays Street and built the first building there which was called the Family Life Center (FLC). He liked to say he learned more about church finance than he ever wanted to know. Another long-term church duty was doing the KP for the United Methodist Men's weekly breakfast on Wednesdays at 6:15 am. He said that KP was the only skill that the Air Force taught him that the church needed. The dishwasher machine was named the 'The Guiling' at some point. When the church kitchen was upgraded, the dishwasher's name was upgraded as well to 'The Guiling Too'. Charity work was something he enjoyed and was his passion since March 13, 1986. He was treasurer of The Round Rock Area Serving Center for about 14 years and continued as a volunteer. He was in his 33rd year as a volunteer when these notes were prepared. Early in his time as treasurer he noted that their largest out go was helping people pay their electric bills. One year that amounted to something over $41,000.00. He recalled that he became a donor to the TXU electric utility charity when they moved to Round Rock in 1977. He put the two facts together and wrote a letter to TXU. He asked why The Round Rock Area Serving Center, where he volunteered could not receive some of the money that he and others donated. TXU responded with a telephone call and some forms that needed to be completed. He completed the paper work and shipped it back to the company. Since then TXU has sent the charity checks totaling over $1.8 million to assist Round Rock Area citizens. John Guiling's huge heart and dedication are one of the Round Rock Community's legacies that will positively impact untold numbers of people's futures and families' futures from this point forward. John Guiling's life was a life well-lived and his legacy was, is, and will be, an inspiration to others. John would have wanted a chance to say good-bye to all his friends but unfortunately, that was not possible. John suffered serious injuries from an automobile accident and per his wishes as expressed in his estate planning documents, plus as expressed verbally to many, all extraordinary life support efforts were discontinued on April 23, 2019 and John passed away peacefully soon thereafter. John is survived by two brothers, Guy Willard Guiling of Dallas, Texas, and Norman Dale Guiling of Dallas, Texas, numerous nephews and nieces, and by daughter-in-law Kathy Youngblood who met John & Mary Lee in 1983. After the passing of John's son Mark in 2011, Kathy remained a good friend and close confidante to John and over the past 5 years he enjoyed a standing Sunday lunch with Kathy which at his insistence was always at Luby's because he could 'see his food before ordering it'. John is also survived by many dear friends that were close to him, including Ed Roberts with whom he shared dinner every Thursday. A Memorial service is planned to honor and remember the life of John Guiling on May 4, 2019 at 11:00 A.M. at The First United Methodists Church of Round Rock, 1004 North Mays Street, Round Rock. Donations to The Round Rock Area Serving Center, 1099 E. Main Street, Round Rock, would be appreciated. John, we will all miss you greatly! Rest in Peace.