The Charbonneau Villager Newspaper 2019 Nov issue Villager | Page 13

THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER 13
November 2019
Long said he felt relieved after the
war was over.
“I’m proud of my service and that’s
it,” he said.
“We forget in our time now, especially
generations before ours, what it was like
to be alive in that time. I try to imagine
for both of my parents who were in their
late teens, early 20s when Pearl Harbor
was bombed and we entered the war on
two fronts and men in particular, but
women too, were sent overseas,” Marise
added. “Many gave their all. Both my
dad and my husband’s father, who
served in Europe too, survived and that
is why we are here and I have children
and grandchildren. It was their sacrifices
that allowed our country to continue and
to prosper and flourish as a country, and
that’s why they’re called the greatest
generation.”
‘Liberated and free’
Though Charbonneau resident Jake
McMichael didn’t experience any “close
calls” during his 20 years of active duty
in the United States Navy, he retired in
1978 with approximately 5,500 hours of
pilot time and 1,000 hours of special
crew time.
McMichael served in the Naval Air
Force from 1958-1978 and was an air-
craft commander for the Lockheed P-2
Neptune and later the Lockheed P-3
Orion — a four-engine turboprop anti-
submarine surveillance aircraft that he
flew from 1966-1978.
When McMichael wasn’t flying, he
was an aeronautical engineering duty
officer in charge of a crew of about
3,000 people who worked on the planes.
Originally born in Ohio, McMichael
was 18 and living in Pennsylvania
when he entered the United States Na-
val Academy. After he spent one of his
summers visiting airplane plants and
spending time on aircrafts, he was
“hooked on flying.”
“This is what I want to do,” McMi-
chael remembered thinking, adding that
in the air, he felt liberated and free.
He graduated from the Naval Acade-
my in 1958 and went to Pensacola, Flor-
ida for Naval air training to become a
Naval Aviator. His first squadron was
Patrol Squadron 11 in Maine, where he
flew the P-2 during the Cold War.
After Patrol Squadron 11, McMichael
attended Naval Postgraduate School
Jake McMichael retired from the Naval Air Force
with about 5,500 pilot hours and 1,000 hours of
special crew time.
Jake McMichael served in the Naval Air Force
from 1958-1978. Jake McMichael, who retired from the Naval Air
Force after 20 years of active duty, and his wife
Dianne live in Charbonneau.
and earned his master’s degree in elec-
trical engineering in 1966 before joining
his second squadron in Hawaii, Patrol
Squadron 6. This is when he started fly-
ing the P-3 until he retired in 1978.
One significant success during the
Cold War was when McMichael’s crew
was following a new Soviet submarine
off the coast of California. His team was
sent out to locate the sub using a de-
vice called a Sonobuoy — a small buoy
with an expendable sonar system that
is dropped from an aircraft to conduct
anti-submarine warfare research. The
hydrophone drops down into the water
to pick up sound, and the crew then col-
lects data from the sub.
“He went right under our Sonobuoy
and he didn’t even know we were
there,” said McMichael, adding that his
crew recorded all the data from 20,000
feet above the sub.
Another time, McMichael and his
crew located a Soviet diesel submarine
without the Russian intelligence com-
munity knowing they were tracking it.
One of McMichael’s main duties dur-
ing the Vietnam War was flying the P-3
at night on patrol duty, looking for in-
filtrators up and down the coast of
Vietnam.
“I was not at the tip of the spear ...
We were essentially not in harm’s
way,” said McMichael, adding that he
loved patrol-type duty and locating So-
viet submarines.
He eventually joined Patrol Squad-
ron 31 in California where he was head
of the maintenance department and
oversaw 300 people working on the
airplanes. During his time in active duty, Mc-
Michael received a Presidential Unit
Citation, a Meritorious Unit commen-
dation, a Navy Expeditionary Medal,
an American Defense Ribbon and a
National Defense Service Medal.
In 1978 McMichael said he felt it was
time for him to move on and retire
from the Navy.
“I didn’t feel any sadness,” he said.
“I felt kind of a sense of relief and
looking on to new adventures — new
things.”
Less than a year later he landed a
position with Sandia National Labora-
tories in the nuclear weapons program
as a program engineer for 19 years.
He was also active in the Portland
chapter of the Portland Project Man-
agement Institute and served as presi- There are numerous military items visible inside
dent and then as quality assurance
Jake’s home.
manager.
McMichael is currently the director
Academy he traveled home for a short
of youth services — and was a past
period of time and met Dianne. They
president — of the Rotary Club of Wil-
weren’t an item until years later but
sonville.
they stayed in touch and married when
But after all those years inside the
McMichael was 25.
clouds, McMichael missed flying.
“She was a great Navy wife,” he said.
After he retired from the Navy, he
They later had two children, Michele
went back to flight school and received
and
Kelly.
instructor ratings. McMichael, who cur-
“He
married me, took me a thou-
rently belongs to a flying club out of
sand
miles
from home, dumped me
Mulino, Oregon, also received his air-
there
and
took
off in his airplane for a
line transport pilot rating and a glider
few weeks,” Dianne said. “I learned
rating — though he hasn’t used those
quickly that, as a Navy wife, you have
two yet.
to be fiercely independent and able to
And while McMichael encountered
speak up for yourself. I was and I did.
many changes and responsibilities in
Fourteen moves and 20 years later, I
his life, his one constant was his wife,
can say it was the best life I could
Dianne.
have ever wished for.”
During his first year at the Naval
PMG PHOTOS: CLARA HOWELL