HONOR ROLL

Virgil Roy "Luke" Sewell
 COl. USAF (Ret)
 1919 - 2004

                                        TRIBUTE TO ‘LUKE’ SEWELL FROM A FELLOW DAEDALIAN
                                                            (I called him ‘Sir’; but he preferred ‘Luke’)

          USAF Colonel (Ret) Virgil Roy Sewell whose 31-year distinguished career included service as an enlisted radio operator, combat in the Southwest Pacific as a B-24 bomber pilot and ending as Deputy Director, Operations/Plans at a major air command  headquarters(SAC), was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery August 18, 2004. ‘Luke’ as he preferred to be called, was a long-time member of the Offutt AFB, NE, Order of Daedalians,  National Fraternity of Military Pilots.
          Born in Lampasas, Texas in 1919, Luke enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps October 14, 1941, completed basic training at Jefferson Barracks, MO, and served as an enlisted radio operator/mechanic until beginning aviation cadet pre-flight training at Maxwell AFB, AL in September 1942. He earned his silver wings and Lieutenant commission following graduation in pilot Class 43-E at Blytheville, AR on 28 May 1943.
          Eight months later, on January 17th, 1944, following B-24 ‘Liberator’ crew upgrade training in Tennessee, New Mexico and Texas, Luke and crew departed Fairfield-Suison Field (now Travis AFB, CA) in a Consolidated-built B-24 ‘Liberator’ aircraft for combat in the Southwest Pacific. The island-hopping 6000-mile flight over then largely uncharted waters of the South Pacific Ocean took the youthful crew to Hawaii, Canton Island, the Polynesia island of Fiji, Noumea, New Caledonia, across the Coral Sea, ending at Townsville on Australia’s  northeast coast.
          In February ’44 he joined the 22nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), the famous “Red Raiders” at Nadzab, New Guinea in what Luke often described as the “best damn outfit I was ever in.” Ever ready to relate a war story, Luke often told how his beloved Red Raiders bombed Japanese airfields, shipping, and oil installations in Borneo, Ceram, and Halmahera, Indonesia, and pressed the island-hopping attacks on Japanese forces into   the southern Philippines and Okinawa.  The Red Raiders moved to Motobu, Okinawa when that island fell in June 1945 and from there they continued the relentless bombing attacks on railway and industrial sites in Formosa, China, and southern Japan until the second atomic bomb forced an end to WWII on August 14th.
            Demobilization of U.S. Forces began almost immediately.  The B-24s were scrapped at Clark Air Base in the Philippines and the Red Raiders transitioned into 2-engine A-20/A-26 aircraft. Captain Sewell soon became Commander of the 408th Bomb Squadron and the unit moved to Itami Air Base, Osaka, Japan in November 1945. The 22nd Bomb Group was inactivated three weeks later.  Not wanting to de-mobilize, Luke twice extended his tour of duty and was assigned to 5th Bomber Command near Tokyo. He was kept busy ferrying homeward-bound servicemen to ports of debarkation and several missions involved flying liberated Prisoners-Of-War from China to hospitals in Manila. Later he assisted in a U.S. Strategic Bombing Damage Survey of Formosa Island (now Taiwan) and Shanghai, China. The latter allowed him to spend Christmas 1945 in Shanghai and develop yet another “war story.”
           In early 1946 he became commander of the 8th Bomb Squadron, Atsugi airbase near Tokyo, later moving the unit to nearby Yokota Air Base. It was in Tokyo while attending a social ribbon-cutting ceremony that he met an American secretary employed in General MacArthur’s Daichi building headquarters. Marion Frances Herbermann was Mrs. Luke Sewell for 58 years.
          Luke Sewell’s Air Force career following the war was much like that of many WWII aviators alternating between flying airplanes and flying 60-inch desks. Always a Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber rated resource, Luke first transitioned into B-29’s at Biggs AFB, TX in 1948. He often called the B-29 “a sorry airplane.” Next came the B-36 at Carswell AFB, TX and the B-52 at Barksdale AFB, LA.  During 1966-68 he served as Director, Joint Coordination Center Europe at High Wycombe Air Station, England. His last Air Force assignment before retiring in 1972 was in the Deputy for Operations/Plans Directorate at Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt AFB, NE.
          His numerous military awards include several Air Medals for WWII duty in the Pacific, the Legion of Merit, AF and Joint Service Commendation medals, and several Foreign Service awards to include the World War II Victory Medal and the Philippines Liberation Ribbon.
Luke loved to relate some of his wartime flying experiences whenever the opportunity presented itself.  In recent years that opportunity occurred during gatherings of fellow aviators for Vietnam-era Linebacker II briefings and “Tales of the 55th (SRW) presentations at the Offutt club.  There he truly represented WWII’s ‘Greatest Generation’ in relating exploits of that historic by-gone era. 
     
                                           You will be missed old friend. 
           And while you were not given a B-24 aerial salute or Missing Man Formation
                                              at Arlington August 18th
                             —six white horses and a caisson ain’t all bad, Sir.