Russell, Allard, CAPT

TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT INFLUENCED HIS/HER DECISION TO JOIN THE NAVY?
"I always loved aviation. In 1940, I quit school at the University of Washington and joined the Navy," he said. "I went down to Pensacola before the war and graduated from there and went on to fly dive bombers off the carrier Saratoga. I was in San Diego when Pearl Harbor was bombed".

IF HE/SHE PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE YOU FEEL WERE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TO HIM/HER AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY.
"I became part of the 'Cactus Air Force' at Guadalcanal. We were attached to the 1st Marine Division at the Canal", Russell said. "I'm so proud of the 1st Marine Division I can hardly stand it. I have a plaque on the wall from the Secretary of Navy commending me for being part of the '1st Marine Division Reinforced'."

OF ALL THEIR DUTY STATIONS OR ASSIGNMENTS, ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY HE/SHE HAD FONDEST MEMORIES OF AND WHY? WHICH WAS THEIR LEAST FAVORITE?
Shortly after the end of World War II, he was appointed executive officer of Fighter Squadron 52 back aboard the Saratoga. It wasn't long after that Russell was offered the job of squadron commander of Torpedo Squadron VA-55. At 25, he was one of the youngest squadron commanders in the Navy.

"For the next two years we were flying TBMs torpedo bombers", he said. "Our squadron went to the South Pacific and Australia and we flew a lot of air shows all along the West Coast of the United States. It was one hell of a good job."

FROM THEIR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY PERSONAL MEMORIES, YOU MAY BE AWARE OF, WHICH IMPACTED HIM/HER THE MOST.
"At Guadalcanal, I was almost a war hero to the Japanese," Allard Guy "Slim" Russell of Sarasota, Fla. said with a smile. "I dropped the first 500-pound bomb on the 75-mile long, 25-mile-wide enemy-held South Pacific island.

I came down in my (Douglas Dauntless) SBD dive bomber in a screaming, 70-degree dive from 12,000 feet at 230 knots and let my bomb go. I missed the whole damn island, and that's a true story.

My radio man told me as we were flying away, "Sir, your bomb was 200 yards off the beach in the water." I couldn't have cared less. They were shooting at us, and I was just glad to have survived the attack.

WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS DO YOU BELIEVE HE/SHE WAS MOST PROUD OF FROM HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE?
His combat awards include two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 5 Air Medals and the Presidential Unit Citation.

These were earned in combat missions in the Pacific and Atlantic campaigns.

IF KNOWN, PLEASE LIST ANY INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM HIS/HER TIME IN THE MILITARY WHO STOOD OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON THEM AND WHY?
The 84-year-old retired Navy captain comes from a long line of warriors. His father, 2nd Lt. Arthur R. Russell, Company M, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, received the Silver Star for valor while fighting in the trenches in Western Europe during World War I. He joined the service as an 18-year-old private. By wars end, after participating in seven major battles on the Western Front, he was discharged as a 2nd lieutenant.

IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, WHAT PROFESSION(S) DID HE/SHE FOLLOW AFTER DISCHARGE?
In 1962, Russell decided it was time to retire. He went to work as an adviser to Bell Aircraft Company and doubled his salary. He helped develop the first automatic system for landing planes on an aircraft carrier.

"It was a fantastic system that brought a pilot right into the carrier's deck automatically," he said. "I spent the next five years as director of Flight Testing with Bell Aircraft."

Russell left Bell and went to work for Hughes Aircraft Co. in Washington, D.C., for four years before joining a little-known branch of the Peace Corps for another four years. He was in charge of a Peace Corps program that used old military equipment for civilian purposes.

"Through this program I helped build some schools in North Carolina and Virginia for minority students," he said. "Then in the early 1970s, we used a junk Navy barge in South America to barge a bunch of American doctors and their equipment to out-of-the-way places down there."

Thanks to a friend, Russell wound up in Vietnam during the final year of the ill-fated war.

"A friend of mine was deputy chief of the Navy division under our ambassador in Saigon," he said. "He was retiring and asked me to replace him."

For the next nine months, Russell ran a supply operation on the Mekong Delta that supplied the South Vietnamese Army with rice and ammunition.

"I got out of there the day before South Vietnam fell, thank God," he said.

When he returned to the States he rejoined the Navy as head of the Iranian-Mideast sales program in the late 1970s. It was his job to mother hen the sale of $4.5 billion worth of F-14 fighter/bombers to the Shah of Iran's air force.

"I spent a lot of time over there going back and forth on the airplane deal as the interface between the Shah?s government and the Navy," Russell said. "All but one of the 81 jets reached Iran. The 81st plane is still sitting out in the Arizona desert where we store airplanes. It?s brand new and was only flown one time".

"It belongs to the Iranian government, but it didn't make it over there before the Shah's government fell.

By the 1980s, Russell went to work for Boeing as head of the firm's AWAC program. These are specially-equipped jet transport planes equipped with sophisticated radar used for military purposes. After two years as head of the $4 billion program he officially retired again. By then, Russell had 29 years in the Navy.

IF KNOWN, WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS WAS HE OR SHE A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY SPECIFIC BENEFITS THEY DERIVED FROM THEIR MEMBERSHIPS?
Russell has been involved with many retired military organizations.

Probably the thing he is most proud of since retiring from the Navy is his election to the Golden Eagles. This is an exclusive organization of retired Navy and Marine aviators. All are at least 60 years old with impeccable aviation pedigrees. There are only 200 of these rare birds alive. Each has to be selected by his peers to be a member, and that only happens when one of the clan passes on.

Russell is also a founding member of the 1st Marine Division Association of Venice and a past commander of the Golden Pelican Squadron. The Pelican Squadron is also a group of retired Navy and Marine pilots who live in Southwest Florida and meet monthly.