SAYING GOODBYE

The Memorial Service for Al Redick

"A friend of ours walked up here a little while ago, and said: 'Boy, I'll bet your Dad's laughing his ass off!,' and I said, 'What do you mean?,' and he says: 'Well...he got us all in clean shirts'!"

—Alby Redick

For every tear, there was a smile. Despite the grief, there was the laughter evoked by stories about the man. Beyond the sense of loss, was the fact that this one man had given so much to so many lives.

Not surprisingly, it became abundantly clear that all who knew the man had gained immeasurably from their relationship with him.

Everyone knew and loved Al Redick.

Thus, it was "Standing Room Only," as over 400 friends and family gathered en masse on June 10, 2000, to bid a fond farewell to Albert Luke Redick; a man who was one of the cornerstones of the International Warbird Community and one who ultimately lost his life in that pursuit, along with two other men, in the crash of his Grumman S-2 Tracker, north of the field at Stead, Nevada, on April 17, 2000.

A moving portrait of the man was painted by his closest friends:

According to friend Jim Olson, Al Redick was the type of man who "… just shook my hand really firmly, asked me if I'd 'come to work.' I said, 'Yeah, I did...,' and we hit it off like a house afire."

Olson, who had been injured in a motorcycle accident and was off his crutches for the first time during that initial job interview, said that "Al pushed me really hard, he pushed me to get all the potential that he could and we became great friends," adding, "We had so much fun — I could talk for hours."

Olson also noted that Redick was a family man.

"A couple of years ago my parents had their 50th Wedding Anniversary and I wasn't going to be able to make it — I couldn't afford it. When Al heard about it, he called the travel agent [and] he put three round-trip tickets on his credit card and refused to let me pay him back."

Said Olson: "He shared my happiness with my wife and my daughter and I shared his happiness. He loved his wife so much. And he also let me indulge in my favorite pastime: of painting my daughter's name on all his airplanes!"

Redick, who had worked with famed movie pilot Jim Gavin on the Meg Ryan film, "Courage Under Fire," and on the Nicholas Cage movie, "Conair," had permitted Olson to name the aircraft of Redick's "Classics in Aviation" (known today as "Aviation Classics, Ltd." and "Advanced Aviation Services") after Olson's daughter, Halley.

According to Olson, "One of the Cobra's in 'Courage Under Fire' and 'Conair' was called 'Halley's Comet,’ it was stenciled on the side. The F-105 out there [outside the hanger] is 'Miss Halley's Buck and a Nickel.' The airplane Al flew when he died was 'Little Halley's Iron Works'."

Olson quipped, "Well, in the last years we didn't work together formally, but we sure played a lot. We did what we do best, we played with airplanes… we sure had fun at it!"

Redick was also eulogized by Linc Dexter, who told the gathering, "Al Redick was loyal to himself, his family, his friends and his acquaintances. He was very generous in his personal life and his business. He was a man that always gave his full measure," adding, "Al was a man of great depth and talent."

Dexter punctuated his comments by noting that Redick's "camaraderie with his fellow aviators was legendary. At each Reno [Air Race] he would always share his mettle with his friends. Al was a consummate aviator and mechanic whose love for aviation was an example and an inspiration to all of us who knew him."

Frank Taylor was present to ask: "What can we say about Al Redick? I don't think any of us could say it all."

Taylor related a story told to him by Redick, involving "The Chino Kids," and a "borrowed" North American B-25 Mitchell. Said Taylor:

"Al told me an interesting story one time, years ago down in Chino. It seems as if Juan [Redick] and Robbie Patterson, and Johnny Maloney, and some of the guys were hanging around after everybody had left the airport; and these guys were young - thirteen, fourteen, and as soon as nobody was looking, they went out and fired up the B-25 and were taxiing around the taxiways. They thought nobody knew it, but Al knew it all along and he just laughed! He said: 'Hey, the kids are having fun! We'll stay out of their way...'!"

"Al was a great guy..." said Taylor, "...he was one of the best," adding, "There's an old saying: that 'It takes one to know one,' and I think the real thing that Al Redick has given us, is the opportunity to associate with people who are like him, which are all of you and the honor was in knowing him and in being here together in times like this."

Pilot Dante Edwards remembered Redick for his friendship, his professionalism, and his trust:

"I don't think I knew Al as long as some of you had but the time I did have with him will stay with me for the rest of my life. I've known him for about seventeen years, and as some of you know, in the last six to eight months, I got involved with him in the cloud seeding program and it was there that I really got to know Al.

I guess...those of us here who fly know that...if you fly, you're going to scare yourself.

One occasion comes to mind where...we scared ourselves...Mike, Al and I. We worked well as a team, took care of it, came back and Al melted it all away with some of the best storytelling over a beer and a pizza that I think I'll ever experience.

He had a million stories and his integrity and the lessons he taught me, both personal and professional, will always be with me; And I feel really honored to have known him and gained his trust and his respect. As I'm sure most of you that knew him feel. So, I'm just tickled pink to have known and gotten what I got from Al and he'll be with me forever."

Said Bill Carroll, "Al was a very, very special friend to me, [he] changed me, by listening to him, by watching him; I looked up to him. Connie, [Redick, Al's wife] one of my favorite people. I was fortunate enough to be his best man at his wedding with Connie, [she] said he was very proud of that. We flew together, we vacationed, we boated, we rode our Harleys. We had a lot of fun; Al knew how to do that. So did I, we practiced a lot.

But he worked hard too, to get what he had. I think that's why we hit it off years ago...we loved cars, we loved boats, we loved airplanes, we loved motorcycles, we loved our women... Anyway, I don't think anyone will miss him much more than I...perhaps his family... his wife. Those of you who knew him, know what I'm talking about."

Carroll concluded his remarks by saying, "I can tell you — there's that many fingers on this hand [people] that I feel that close to — I'll miss him."

Al Redick was born in Tacoma, Washington, on December 24, 1933, to parents Verner and Gertrude Redick. He was a Korean War era veteran with an aviation career that spanned more than thirty years. Redick began his career as an aircraft mechanic in the United States Air Force, in the early 1950s, eventually becoming an accomplished pilot and an authority on vintage aircraft.

Redick moved to Reno twenty years ago and began a company known as "Classics in American Aviation," known today as "Aviation Classics, Ltd." More recently, Redick founded "Advanced Aviation Services" and provided everything from his S-2 Tracker to Nevada's Desert Research Institute's (DRI) cloud-seeding program, to his C-123 Provider, "Large Marge," which was the star of the movie "Conair," featuring Nicholas Cage, John Malkovich, and John Cusack.

In addition to "Courage Under Fire" and "Conair," Redick also worked on other TV and Movie productions, such as "Baa Baa Black Sheep; 12 O'Clock High; GI Jane and My Fellow Americans."

According to his family, "his passion was the restoration of warbirds" and towards that end, he traveled to far off places like Biafra, Africa; post-war Vietnam; and the former Eastern Bloc of European nations.

Three MiGs that Redick and his crew have restored were on guard outside the RARA hanger as the proceedings commenced, along with a Republic F-105 "Thunderchief," which Redick was in the process of restoring as a museum piece at the time of his death.

During the service, it was also announced that that same F-105, which had greeted thousands at the gate of the 1999 Reno National Championship Air Races, had been earmarked for donation to Stead as a permanent memorial to Al.

Al Redick leaves behind his wife, Connie, his daughters Cozette Theel, Desiree Bush, Therese Enriquez and Gigi Sullivan, plus his sons Alby and Juan; He was grandfather to fifteen grandchildren.

A memorial quilt was signed by those in attendance and the photos and flight gear of Al Redick were placed on prominent display.

After the service, the crowd assembled outside the hangar for several fly-bys which included John Penney and Alby Redick in the Polish Mig 21; a C-130 Hercules of the Nevada Air National Guard; and two Sikorsky UH-60A Blackhawk helicopters of the Nevada Army National Guard.

In a missing man salute by the Mig 21, Penney took Redick's son Alby on a vertical climb until the craft disappeared from sight — approximately fourteen thousand feet.

Together, Al and his sons had prepared the craft (MiG-21) for Dr. Terry Klingele, of St. Louis, Missouri, completing flight testing just two weeks before the crash of the S-2.

As that same MiG roared high into the cirrus-topped, blue Nevada skies — nearly three miles over the field at Stead, his children and his grandchildren watched from the ground, along with hundreds of others, fingers pointing to its trail against the clouds.

Clearly, Albert Luke Redick was a legend in Aviation circles and yet, the legacy he left behind was as much on the ground as it ever was in the sky; as much a part of the human existence as it was one man's existence with his machines.

Sometimes the sound of freedom exists not in the roar of a jet engine — but in the simple laughter of one's children and grandchildren at play.

As four hundred people will attest: that's the way it was with Al.

He will be missed, but likewise, he will be remembered.

Fondly.

They played "Taps" for this fallen veteran as the national banner was presented to his widow.

Then the bagpipes played...

"...Amazing Grace..."

Al's presence on Earth now defined, that was the part of him that we all took home with us.

That amazing grace!

by Mark S. Daniels