https://www.aberdeennews.com/news/opinion/krueger-happy-100th-to-the-pilot-who-started-it-all/article_652eabfa-48f3-589d-9ca8-83d63210a46a.html

Ray Yoder turned 100 years old not too long ago.

Who is Ray Yoder, you might ask? Ray gave this old naval aviator his very first airplane ride. And it is one that will never be forgotten.

Ray was a World War II Navy pilot who came back to the Aberdeen area after the war ended. Of course, he bought a brand new airplane: a Luscombe Silvaire, a two-place metal fuselage with fabric wings. There are still a few around yet today.

It must have been 1946 or 1947 when I first met Ray. He was close friends with my all-time hero and mentor Herb Schaunaman, who was married to a very close cousin of mine. Herb had also been an Air Force pilot during WWII and was the recipient of unmatched quizzing every time we got together. It was with great pleasure that I could bang Herb’s ear whenever the chance arose.

So that particular day I was visiting with Herb and his wife when Ray, with his trustworthy Luscombe, landed. Ray asked me if I would like to go for a ride. Well, that did it for me, I was hooked. It was then and there that I just knew I was destined to become an aviator of some kind, for sure. However, it took about 10 years and fear of being drafted that my career aloft began.

When someone of Ray’s reputation as a first class naval aviator shows you how to fly, it will never leave you. I am forever indebted to this generous man who just innocently offered to show me flying at its best. That is, in a small, light airplane right off the prairies of South Dakota.

That particular flight led me to accumulate about 22,000 hours of my own flying time encapsulated over 38 years of time aloft, mainly due to my time as a Navy fighter pilot, and my years flying airliners for Northwest Airlines. And that is log book time. I haven’t even counted the 25 years of flying my old faithful J-3 Piper Cub! And as someone has said, take a $5 bill, frequent a beer joint and it might get you one free beer with the amount of hours flying that was accumulated noted.

We have kept track of Ray Yoder for a very long time, and if he gets to read this rambling … “hearty congratulations to you and a huge thank you again for introducing me to what became a wonderful, exciting and rewarding career of flying airplanes.”

Raymond A Yoder