Harry C. Hillin

BIOGRAPHY

After spending my initial tour of duty as an Instructor Pilot in T-37’s at Laughlin AFB, TX, I got orders to Mountain Home and Det 22 as a UH-1N pilot. I had a great tour of duty and got in lots of water skiing, firewood gathering, and Mexican nights at Woolace’s. I was stationed at Mt Home until 1980. As my assignment there was coming to an end, a new Commander named Bob Pyeatt was just coming on and I extended my tour at Mt Home for a few months to help him out with his transition. As fate would have it that is when I had chance to meet my wife of 30 years, Kathy. In July of 1980 I was transferred to the 1550th FTS at Kirtland AFB, NM. After a year as an Instructor and Standardization Pilot at the School House, I left the service to pursue the “greener” side of the fence in civilian aviation.
 
I went to work for Columbia Helicopters flying as a copilot on a Vertol (CH-46) doing helicopter logging in the Pacific Northwest and later oil field support for Chevron Oil Company in Sudan Africa. After a couple of years of spotty employment with them, I moved my family to Chandler, AZ and free lanced as a pilot at a flight school, a charter company, and several corporations flying various piston and turboprop airplanes. I got a full time job with a wood products company flying a King Air and shortly thereafter we moved the family and the flight operation to Southwest Oregon. In 1991 a recession hit and the company closed the flight department there in Oregon, and I found work with the US Forest Service as a pilot flying aerial photography and fire fighting missions in Oregon and Washington.

I joined the 304th ARRS in Portland, OR in 1995, and later to the 142 Fighter Group (ANG) to finish out my 20 years of service. I was hoping to get back into flying with the Reserve, but served as an E-5 until my retirement in 2005. With the Reserve I worked on the HH-60 flightline as a mechanic and later with the National Guard in the Contracting Office.

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Hillin Biography page 1 of 2

Photos provided by:
Clay Hillin

Lt to Rt: Jim Woolace, Bill & Susie Schaefer, Cederic Mithchell & date, Clay Hillin