thedrifter
10-17-03, 06:37 AM
Submitted by: MCAS Miramar
Story Identification Number: 20031016191343
Story by Sgt. J. L. Zimmer III
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif.(Oct. 17, 2003) -- This year marks the 100th anniversary of aviation, and one Marine Corps chief warrant officer has been around to see nearly 40 years of it.
Chief Warrant Officer Robert A. Stambovsky, aircraft maintenance officer, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 769, Marine Aircraft Group 46, is a 39-year veteran of the Marine Corps and has been working air shows for more than 10 years.
For the past eight years, Stambovsky has been volunteering for the Miramar Air Show.
"I just came off two years of active duty after being activated to support Operation Enduring Freedom and volunteered with the Air Show last year, but this year I am back on reserve duty," he said. "I worked as the flight line operations officer at MCAS El Toro and at NAS Miramar and MCAS Miramar."
Stambovky's role as the flight line operations officer for HMH-769 is to coordinate the use of more than 50,000 gallons of different types of aviation fuels, smoke oils and maintenance, ensuring that all support is there for the static display and demonstration aircraft when it is needed and to make sure the show is performed flawlessly.
This year is different for Stambovsky; he will be retiring in April and working the Air Show for the last time as a member of the uniformed services.
"I have developed a great rapport with the military and the civilians at the air shows," he added. "I am really looking forward to returning and volunteering as a retired Marine next year."
According to Stambovsky, the air shows give him a reason to be around Marines, pilots and occasionally flying in aircraft.
"I don't know how to explain it," he said. "It's a work of art that can take a human being high in the sky and moving fast."
Stambovsky's love for flying started when he went to his first air show as a child.
"I saw a jet airplane fly over me and was in complete awe," he said. "From that point on, I was in love with them."
At the age of 23, Stambovsky enlisted in the Marine Corps with hopes of becoming a Naval Aviator. However, poor eyesight kept him out of the Marine Air Cadet program, so he joined the Marine Corps Reserves and went to college.
"I served my tour in Vietnam and came back to the U.S.," said the 59-year-old Springfield, Mass., native. "When I got home from Vietnam, I went to the Marine Air Reserves and went back to college."
"I went to school because I knew it was something I had to get out of the way," said Stambovsky. "When I got out of college in 1972 I was above the age to be commissioned as an officer, but was selected for the warrant officer program."
Stambovsky has not only received his commercial pilots license, but is an instrument instructor, multi-engine instructor and holds an airline transport rating with 4,800 hours.
After receiving his degree in aeronautical engineering, Stambovsky continued to serve in the Marine Air Reserve and was sent to Iran as a field engineer for the newly implemented AH1-J Cobra program.
"In 1974 I was promoted to the rank of warrant officer but my squadron didn't have a billet for me," added Stambovsky. "Coincidentally the aircraft company I worked for as a civilian needed someone in Iran to support the Cobra program."
This dedicated Marine and aviator has a certain 'air' about him that separates him from a normal commercial pilot.
"Flying has to be in your blood if you really want to enjoy it," he said. "There is a mystique to aviation, people want to see a man-made object fly through the sky."
With all his years in the Marine Corps and as a commercial pilot, Stambovsky will never get enough of flying.
"Even if you don't have the desire to fly, you are still interested in it," he said. "I can never get enough of it."
Some of his other career highlights include 10 years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Instructing at Ambry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Stambovksy owns a single engine SHINN prop-airplane and a CASA HA-250 twin jet powered trainer aircraft.
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/F32F16715C612A7985256DC1007F9941?opendocument
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Story Identification Number: 20031016191343
Story by Sgt. J. L. Zimmer III
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif.(Oct. 17, 2003) -- This year marks the 100th anniversary of aviation, and one Marine Corps chief warrant officer has been around to see nearly 40 years of it.
Chief Warrant Officer Robert A. Stambovsky, aircraft maintenance officer, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 769, Marine Aircraft Group 46, is a 39-year veteran of the Marine Corps and has been working air shows for more than 10 years.
For the past eight years, Stambovsky has been volunteering for the Miramar Air Show.
"I just came off two years of active duty after being activated to support Operation Enduring Freedom and volunteered with the Air Show last year, but this year I am back on reserve duty," he said. "I worked as the flight line operations officer at MCAS El Toro and at NAS Miramar and MCAS Miramar."
Stambovky's role as the flight line operations officer for HMH-769 is to coordinate the use of more than 50,000 gallons of different types of aviation fuels, smoke oils and maintenance, ensuring that all support is there for the static display and demonstration aircraft when it is needed and to make sure the show is performed flawlessly.
This year is different for Stambovsky; he will be retiring in April and working the Air Show for the last time as a member of the uniformed services.
"I have developed a great rapport with the military and the civilians at the air shows," he added. "I am really looking forward to returning and volunteering as a retired Marine next year."
According to Stambovsky, the air shows give him a reason to be around Marines, pilots and occasionally flying in aircraft.
"I don't know how to explain it," he said. "It's a work of art that can take a human being high in the sky and moving fast."
Stambovsky's love for flying started when he went to his first air show as a child.
"I saw a jet airplane fly over me and was in complete awe," he said. "From that point on, I was in love with them."
At the age of 23, Stambovsky enlisted in the Marine Corps with hopes of becoming a Naval Aviator. However, poor eyesight kept him out of the Marine Air Cadet program, so he joined the Marine Corps Reserves and went to college.
"I served my tour in Vietnam and came back to the U.S.," said the 59-year-old Springfield, Mass., native. "When I got home from Vietnam, I went to the Marine Air Reserves and went back to college."
"I went to school because I knew it was something I had to get out of the way," said Stambovsky. "When I got out of college in 1972 I was above the age to be commissioned as an officer, but was selected for the warrant officer program."
Stambovsky has not only received his commercial pilots license, but is an instrument instructor, multi-engine instructor and holds an airline transport rating with 4,800 hours.
After receiving his degree in aeronautical engineering, Stambovsky continued to serve in the Marine Air Reserve and was sent to Iran as a field engineer for the newly implemented AH1-J Cobra program.
"In 1974 I was promoted to the rank of warrant officer but my squadron didn't have a billet for me," added Stambovsky. "Coincidentally the aircraft company I worked for as a civilian needed someone in Iran to support the Cobra program."
This dedicated Marine and aviator has a certain 'air' about him that separates him from a normal commercial pilot.
"Flying has to be in your blood if you really want to enjoy it," he said. "There is a mystique to aviation, people want to see a man-made object fly through the sky."
With all his years in the Marine Corps and as a commercial pilot, Stambovsky will never get enough of flying.
"Even if you don't have the desire to fly, you are still interested in it," he said. "I can never get enough of it."
Some of his other career highlights include 10 years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Instructing at Ambry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Stambovksy owns a single engine SHINN prop-airplane and a CASA HA-250 twin jet powered trainer aircraft.
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/F32F16715C612A7985256DC1007F9941?opendocument
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: