Jack W. Bomar

Jack Bomar enlisted in the V-5 Program of the U.S. Navy on June 26, 1944, and went into the Navy Reserve on July 14, 1946. Jack obtained his private pilot's license in November 1946 and soon purchased a surplus Stearman Bi-Plane... the rest is history. He received an Honorable Discharge from the Naval Reserve on July 13, 1950, and he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on September 6, 1951. He was trained as a radar technician and helped build Strategic Air Command's Electronic Countermeasures Laboratory at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, before he received a direct commission in the Air Force on February 27, 1953. Lieutenant Bomar completed Aircraft Observer School at Ellington AFB, Texas, in February 1954, and Navigator-Bombardier training at Mather AFB, California, in February 1955. His first assignment was as a Navigator-Bombardier on RB-26 Invader, RB-57 Canberra, and RB-66 Destroyer aircraft with the 1st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at RAF Fairford, England, from March 1955 to April 1958. He next completed Navigator training at Mather AFB from April 1958 to January 1959, followed by service as a B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress instructor navigator with the 3535th and 3536th Navigator Training Squadrons at Mather from January 1959 to July 1962. Major Bomar served as an academic instructor and training officer at Officer Training School at Lackland AFB, Texas, from July 1962 to December 1966, and then deployed to Southeast Asia as an EB-66 Destroyer Navigator with the 41st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Takhli Royal Thai AFB, Thailand, from December 1966 until he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on February 4, 1967.