James RANDEL

RANDEL, James M. "Jim" passed away October 14, 2023. He planned to be a doctor, but after growing up with a father in in the Army and with a dangerous draft number, he quit his job as a marine biologist and joined the Air Force. He had the perfect disposition for a doctor, calm and compassionate while maintaining the necessary distance to protect everyone involved. As it turned out, those same qualities made him an excellent pilot. Jim Randel went to flight school and to Vietnam, where delivered critical cargo to places it needed to go. Remember that commercial for Army recruiting where the young troops said, "We do more before 7 am than most people do all day?" Jim said to the TV, "We drove them to work." He flew Air America. He was decorated for landing a critically damaged plane that, with a less skilled pilot, might not have made it. When asked about what happened he said, "Some bastard got off a lucky shot." He received numerous awards during his service among them the Distinguished Flying Cross, the National Defense Service Medal, and others. Vietnam awarded him the Gallantry Cross and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. He also received the Senior Space Operations badge. Watching the movie The Greatest Beer Run Ever, he noticed a plane that the lead character was boarding. "That's a C-123," he said, "I flew that." When the plane landed, it was a C-130, he said, noting that whatever technical advisor they had didn't do a great job. The lead in the movie was dressed like a tourist, so everyone assumed he was a CIA agent. "That's what they looked like," he said. "We flew them to places we weren't supposed to go." Jim had two children, Kimberly and Alec. Alec is great at fixing things, just like his dad. They had years of practice together. Jim spent time with Kimberly in her Special Olympics competitions like swimming and skiing and field sports. Once, Alec and Jim sailed from Hawaii to British Vancouver on a cement ketch when Alec was very young. An Australian couple was sailing from Hawaii to Vancouver and invited them on the trip. Jim said it was the only time he ate raw fish. Jim met his wife, Honey, while stationed at McChord Air Force Base, Washington. She'd called his office looking for another Major that she played racquetball with, but he was retiring. She asked the guy who answered the phone, "Do you have any other Majors?" He put Jim on the phone and we've been together ever since. Major James Randel retired from the U.S. Air Force more than thirty years ago, but for all that time, he stayed busy, including database programming for a variety of businesses like publishing, restaurant, and automotive industries. Later, he supported his wife's public relations business, doing whatever needed to be done, including keeping the staff calm and supporting her. He even did tasks he hated. It was the early days of computers and because the expense of a bookkeeper was more than they could afford, he input company expenses line by line into a Microsoft computer. An Apple guy from the beginning, he sat at a roll-around desk in front of the computer he despised, cursing at it with every keystroke. But he did it because that's what needed to be done. While he was still in the Air Force, they found he had polycythemia vera, a genetic disposition, a blood cancer. It was identified early and treated. There were even years when no treatment was needed. For a while, he brewed beer and even won an award for his red ale, made with recycled water. He was a great cook, too. He built and flew radio-controlled planes and drones and in his last year, was 3D printing parts to build them. He was the first person in Florida to buy a Tesla, a P85D, the souped-up version, they told him. He got the next generation after that. He loved that car. . . maybe because it was like flying. He loved advanced technology. In his last year he bought 3D printers to make pieces for a massive plane in the shape of an eagle. That project is being completed by a friend so the eagle plane can be used to scatter his ashes over the field where he flew his planes. Jim adopted an old labradoodle that had a hard life. It's a 100-lb dog, taller than his wife, Honey. The dog had a lot of special needs that he didn't see or chose not to. He had a special bond with that dog as he did with his daughter. Jim and Honey were together for 35 years. A fund has been started at Moffitt Cancer Center to support research into how to improve the quality of life for people with blood cancer. If you would like to make a donation, please do. Moffitt.org/jimrandel