At the ole ORD pilot base we had a string of some very fine and
outstanding Chief Pilots. At the top of the
list for me was Capt Dick Shutack. He
Flew West and was memorialized at the Air Force Academy. Here below are some
Subject: 230915 Dick Shutack
Memorial Service
Release notes:
I’ve just posted the photos from Dick Shutack’s Memorial Service on 15 September. The planners had put in some extras at the Cemetery, so there are some things there that I hadn’t seen before. Once again, rainy weather was a big threat, but we were blessed with only intermittent light rain that allowed everything to be accomplished.
That wraps up most of my current efforts. I got a couple more nice pictures this morning of me in my photographer role at the reunion, so I still plan to put together a short piece about some picture taking choices at the reunion.
Jimmie
~ ~ ~ ~
230915 Dick Shutack Memorial Service
On Friday, 15 September 2023 a large gathering of friends and family came to the USAF Academy’s Community Center Chapel for a Memorial Mass for Dick Shutack. Attendees included many local friends, where Dick and Lynne had lived for many years; friends from his years in the Air Force and Air National Guard, totaling a 28-year military career and more than 28,000 hours of flying time, including 30+ years with Delta Airlines; and a large number of family members.
This week the umbrellas weren’t to protect anyone from the hot sun. When I took my final look at the weather radar before leaving for the chapel, we were in a big of a clear area. Most everywhere else within maybe 100 miles around us was green for rain. When I got home in early afternoon, much of Colorado was pretty much solid green. It was a rainy day, but as In June, when it was time for us to do the outdoor service, things let up some. Could easily have drenched us all.
Dick passed a few days after attending the USAFA Class of 1963’s 60-year reunion in early August. He had been determined to be there. I regret that I didn’t take time away from my photography to visit with Dick a while. At one point, we acknowledged each other from a distance with a nod and a smile.
After learning of his passing, I commented to a classmate that Dick was a genuinely nice guy. At such times, you normally hear that the person was a nice guy who always had a smile. Dick really was that and so much more. For several years, he was one of the regulars of the Class of 1963 at memorial services involving our class. He’d be absent for a while because of medical ailments, then be back. More than once, Dick and I would be the last 2 to leave the cemetery as we took some time to catch up. He talked about some challenging medical concerns but always showed a positive attitude. In conversations, he was truly engaged at a level I seldom see.
Seems like it was the 1993 class reunion I headed up where Dick took on the project of getting the reunion Challenge Coin designed and produced. I wouldn’t have even known were to start. At our regular committee meetings, Dick reported on the progress. He had things firmly in-hand, and I never bothered to get involved. He produced a design and final coin that had more detail than I realized was possible at the time. So, I have good, strong memories of the times Dick and I shared and am sorry there will be no more.
In addition to our regulars, Jim Hauser and Tim Gallagher were down from the Denver-Boulder area, Bob and Shirley Hall joined us again in the chapel, and Jim Fain’s daughter, Jamie, attended with Jim. At the cemetery, I learned that Marie Fox, widow of Thomas John Fox ’63, and their son were present. She’s in the Class of 1963 group shot I show later in this summary.
The crowd at the chapel filled much of the available seating.
Dick and Lynne have three children and seven grandchildren. All were involved in the Memorial Mass. Captain Andrew Shutack, USAF, did the Old Testament Reading. 2nd Lieutenant Owen Becker, USMC, did the New Testament Reading. The other five offered Prayers of the Faithful.
Prayers of the Faithful: Katryna Shutack Speaking Lieutenant Chet Shutack, USN, Cameron Shutack, Madelyn Shutack, & Ellie Becker.
Scott Shutack, Kevin Shutack and Nicole Becker did the Presentation of the Gifts, but I don’t have any pictures. Scott also closed with a serious and humorous eulogy of his father.
Dick’s Memorial Service at the USAF Academy Cemetery
Driving from the Chapel to the Cemetery, I wasn’t sure whether we’d be in the Memorial Pavilion or at graveside. The clouds were low with a light rain falling. For maybe the first time before leaving my car, I exchanged my jacket for a heavier rain-repellant one as there appeared to be a good possibility of us all getting very wet. I think Janet was preparing participants for the possibility of an abbreviated graveside service. Janet’s new assistant, Haven, came by once and mentioned how nerve-racking the day was as far as trying to correctly guess the weather and whether to convene inside the Memorial Pavilion at the cemetery.
Once again, we were blessed with conditions that allowed all the planned activities honoring Dick to make this a very special graveside service. The umbrellas in a photo will give you an estimate of when the sprinkles were there and when they were almost gone. A north wind that you’ll see lifting the flags in many of the pictures was a problem for me taking pictures toward the front of the crowd. After almost every picture, I’d lower the camera and wipe the lens on my shirt. During processing, I found 4 or 5 with the smudge of a raindrop on the lens. You might see one or two that got by me in the Dropbox folder.
The planners of the program to honor Dick included some things I had not seen before in the previous 48 services I’ve photographed for the Class of 1963. The presentation of Dick’s flag to Lynne involved her 3 grandsons in 3 different military uniforms. I’m guessing that’s a first in the decades the USAFA Cemetery has been active—and likely won’t be repeated ever. You can see in the picture above, that the Patriot Guard Riders were present with their flags to honor Dick. The only other time I remember seeing them at the USAFA Cemetery was for General Robin Olds’ Memorial Service in June 2007. A Bagpiper played Amazing Grace while Dick’s urn was being lowered. Despite the low ceiling, two F-16s of the Colorado Air National Guard flew over during the service. And, after the service, there was a special private toast over Dick’s grave that I’d never seen before. Perhaps it is a USN or USMC tradition.
I got to the cemetery before most of the large crowd, so I talked to the Patriot Guard Riders a bit. I told them that we were the Class of 1963, and we appreciated them being there. Later I noticed the grave with the flowers in the lower right of the picture above is that of Fred Beauchemin. So I took a few moments to tell them about Fred’s combat mission in 1967. In our class history pages, Gil has the story I wrote about that flight in a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog to show Fred one of the 3 most dangerous target areas in Central Laos. The kicker was that Fred agreed to go on the flight with only 3 days left before the end of his SEA tour in Thailand.
Dick's 3 Grandsons: Lieutenant Owen Becker, USMC; Captain Andrew Shutack USAF; Lieutenant Chet Shutack USN await the completion of the folding of Dick’s flag. In the Dropbox folder, I have the compete sequence of the flag passing from the Honor Guard through these 3 and ending with Chet passing Dick’s flag to his grandmother, Lynne.
The pair of F-16s of the Colorado Air National Guard got under the clouds for the fly-by. The clouds were too low for a normal Missing-Man pull up from the formation. So the wingman pulled away horizontally in kind of a U-turn toward the mountains. We didn’t see a lot of that F-16 after the break—but the roar of the engine was great for several seconds, as the F-16 passed between us and the Cadet Area. The low clouds may have added to the effect, and the sudden roar of a low-level F-16 probably got the attention of many cadets, whether they could see it or not.
Roses, Nickels, and Salutes
Fortunately, with the rain generally holding off, we got to do some of the time-consuming actions that had been planned. Quite a number of long-stem red roses were available for an informal ceremony before Dick’s urn was lowered. Each member of Dick’s family had a rose to add with no rush for many touching moments. Also, there’s a USAF tradition dating back to World War II of throwing nickels on the grass to honor lost fighter pilots. Janet has communicated that throwing nickels on the grass endangers the grounds crew when the do lots of mowing across the whole cemetery. So some friends added nickels with the roses.
After the family had placed their roses, others were invited to come forward. Janet stood at the beginning of a long line and handed out roses to many of Dick’s friends and acquaintances. Several with military backgrounds paused for salutes over Dick’s urn.
Since I already had more than 200 photos in the basic Dropbox Folder, I decided to create a subfolder titled Roses, Nickels, and Salutes. This subfolder has almost 30 additional pictures of people who came forward after the family finished their tributes. For example, the second picture is Hank Hoffman ’63 holding his nickel for a picture before dropping it in with the roses.
Before lowering Dick’s urn, the groundkeeper had to work a bit with the long stems to make sure everything cleared the top of the bier.
A final toast with Dick
After the group picture-taking was finished, I noticed the 3 grandsons gathered at Dick’s bier for a final salute. I zoomed in without interfering with their ceremony. Andrew’s father, Kevin, joined the three and Dick for a final toast. These 4 took turns sipping from a small bottle. At the end, I thought Owen was going to drop in the bottle for Dick’s part. I realized he was pouring Dick’s drink and tried to get a picture of the liquid falling but missed both times. I did get a picture of the last drop, which I think is kind of a neat picture to close out the toast.
The Last Drop
Group Pictures
Getting organized for group pictures is usually a bit unpredictable. Often, we start with our group shot of classmates as they are easier to round up. I pick out the background, and they get lined up, in this case with Lynne and Dick’s flag.
We had 12 classmates and 6 spouses, including Lynne attend Dick’s service. This picture includes all but Bob and Shirley Hall who were with us at the Chapel, and Charlie Ann Hayes who’s usually in our group pictures, and Nancy Ball who needed to avoid the weather.
This photo is one of what I’ve started calling the 3-Flags pictures. Lynne has brought Dick’s flag. In the background, the huge cemetery flag is at half-staff honoring Dick. And Ev Vaughn is holding the flag of Dick’s Class of 1963. That’s why I prefer this background when we’re having a service in the NW section of the Cemetery, where at least a dozen of our classmates are now at rest.
Starting with Ev Vaughn holding our class flag, we have Bob Hayes (missed getting Charlie Ann in the picture), Marie Fox, Mary T Thacker, Lynne Shutack (with Karen Steinbrink hidden behind her) Vic Thacker, Stinky Steinbrink, Bill Ball, Jim Kuhn, Jim Fain, Jim Hauser, Hank Hoffman, Tim Gallagher, and Jimmie Butler. In picture E12 on Dropbox you can see Karen but I’m not in that one.
Marie Fox is the widow of Thomas John Fox ’63. While I was taking these pictures, her son introduced himself but didn’t mention his mother was in the pictures. He took this picture I’m in.
I saw Nancy Ball at the reception at Biaggi’s after the service. This wasn’t good weather for her to be out in for such a long time.
Part of the unpredictability in organizing group shots came when I told Scott and others that the Cemetery flagpole would make a good background for the family’s group shots. So, the family started crossing the street and heading toward the flagpole. You can see how much closer they were than we were in our class photo with Lynne. Being closer made a great background for all the family group shots, and in the later shots, the flag caught the wind to make the background even better.
You may notice in some of the later numbered shots, the family members are looking toward other cameras to my left. I had pretty much finished my shots by E22 but stayed as I knew others were taking pictures. Then the flag caught the wind, so I took more. Overall being nearer the flag produced some very nice pictures of Dick’s family.
I got most of the names matched to family members based on the information in Dick’s obituary and from the very nice program for the Memorial Mass in the Chapel. So I added names to many of the photo captions. In this case, I’ll try again. I found that with so many attractive ladies in black dresses, I had to keep cross referencing names and pics. With a little extra detective work, I was able to correct one of my captions and change my guess of someone’s wife to actually being his mother.
So, I’ll start from right back to left with this picture. Mark Becker, wife Nicole (Shutack) Becker, and daughter, Elle. Scott Shutack, daughter Cameron, and wife, Sue. Lieutenant Chet Shutack, USN, Lynne Shutack, 2nd Lieutenant Owen Becker, USMC. Katryna Shutack and Captain Andrew Shutack, USAF, behind her. Their mother, Courtney, her daughter, Madelyn, and husband, Kevin Shutack.
Dick’s sister and brother-in-law are at the left end of the front row, but I didn’t get their names. I’m not sure who the man on the left end is.
After the service, Dick’s family hosted a luncheon at Biaggi’s. I took a few pictures there.
With all the extra features at the Cemetery, I ended up with many, many pictures. I’ve uploaded more than 200 in the basic Dropbox Folder and almost 30 in the Roses, Nickels and Salutes subfolder. I’m also creating a subfolder that will include this summary, an obituary from the local funeral home service, a pdf of the inside and outside of a very nice program for the Memorial Mass, and a small, laminated “Safely Home” card that also has a picture of Dick in a Delta Airlines cockpit and a copy of the 23rd Psalm from the King James Version of the Bible. I sometimes tell new chaplains that in conducting services for members of the Class of 1963, they should consider that those of us who recited the 23rd Psalm in the skies of Southeast Asia in the 1960s/1970s would have been reciting the King James Version.
Here is the link to the main folder for 230915 Dick Shutack Memorial Service and includes the subfolders. Once you have this link, you can view the pictures and/or download. I happened to erase most pictures in my upload folder yesterday, so I got copies back from Dropbox in a nice ZIP file that took a lot less time to download than it took for me to upload them.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/spt4v9vfffdzmkl7zjvz6/h?rlkey=qcsaxnqei4g3qvj62jtap0wmq&dl=0
Jimmie
No comments:
Post a Comment