Wes was an air force major and bombed North Vietnam. He was shot down and rather than hide, he used his hand held radio to talk to his fellow pilots and directed them as to how they could be most effective.
He was captured and the commies were not happy with what I see as his heroism. He was marched through Hanoi, lashed to another USAF pilot. That pilot died from the beating he took on the march through the angry civilians. Major Schierman was a POW for 7 and a half years. He was finally released and flew for the airlines.
He retired from that and put together an RV 12, N262WS. The WS was for his initials. He got to fly it 50 hours when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He sold it to me for about the price he paid for the parts. Everyone says that he did a marvelous job in building it. Everyone. I flew it from his airport, Arlington Washington State to Ft Myers Florida.
So Wes died and I thought about changing the tail number to end RV so as to honor R.Van. But then friends of Wes said "google his name. You won't want to change the tail number."
I did.
I am honored to fly his airplane after I see what he did for our beloved United States.
Someone on Vans Air Force suggested this and I finally got around to doing it. I got all his rows of ribbons put into a sticker by looking at the below picture. I put it on the tail.
Now, whenever I inspect the plane before flying I will think of Air Force Major "Wes"
Thank you from a grateful nation, Major Wesley Schierman.
Tail Number and Air Force ensignia next to Major WS's initials
http://s1269.photobucket.com/user/us...tml?sort=3&o=0
https://leonleeellis.files.wordpress...blog.jpg?w=645Press that link to see his picture in uniform (obviously years after he got out of the AF)
Tribute to USAF Major Wes Schierman, RV-12 builder
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