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Obituary
Commander Homer C. Ogles Jr. U.S. Navy (Ret.)
September 1930 - March 2025
Retired, Commander Homer C. Ogles, "Cecil", born to Homer C. Ogles Sr. and Myrtle V. (Turner) Ogles, of Franklin, Kentucky, died in his Coronado home of 58 years. He was 94.
A graduate of Franklin-Simpson County High School, Cecil enlisted in the United States Navy, September 13, 1948. Upon completing Photographers Mate "A" School, September 16, 1949 he was subsequently assigned Photographic duties at NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and Headquarters First Naval District at Boston.
It was at the USO in Boston, Massachusetts that he met and later married (September 1951) Pasqualina "Lil" A. Morganelli, a seamstress and tailor, who spent her evenings as a volunteer singer and a dancer at the USO. One year later a daughter Donna Marie was born, followed 3 years later by their son Steve.
Cecil's next assignment was at Naval Photographic Center Washington D.C.; Antisubmarine Squadron 27 based at NAS Norfolk and deploying to the Atlantic Fleet. In 1958 while attached to the Naval Photographic Center he attended the Photographic Quality Control course at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
"Sursum ab ordine" or "up from the ranks" Cecil's hands-on technical abilities, expertise and leadership skills earned him selection for commissioning in 1959 as a Photographic Limited Duty Officer. His last enlisted assignment was Chief Photographers Mate attached to RVAH-5, which flew the North American AJ-2P Savage deploying to the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Squadron 5, flew numerous missions, acquiring the sobriquet "The Savage Sons of Sanford" NAS Sanford, Florida.
Following his Commissioning as a Naval Officer in 1960, Ensign Ogles found his way to VFP 62, promoted to LTJG and assigned as Photographic Line Officer with VFP 62, NAS Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida. We lived modestly on Chateau Drive. On November 26, 1962, President John F. Kennedy personally presented the Navy Unit Commendation to the entire squadron on the NAS Boca Chica, Key West, Florida, Flight Line. Recognition of VFP 62's leadership and resourcefulness in delivering the clear concise photographic evidence that brought a negotiated conclusion to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
While stationed at NAS JAX, 17 years after his 1st flying lesson at age 16, Cecil obtained his Student Pilot Certificate on November 15, 1963 at Herlong Field, and on March 4, 1964 his Private Pilot's Certificate at Imeson Field, Jacksonville, Florida.
Cecil's next assignment was Photographic / Technical Services Officer, Atlantic Fleet Intelligence Center, NAS Norfolk, Virginia. Right about here - on the trailing-edge of 1964 and the cusp of 1965 Cecil wanted to own an airplane. He joined the EAA and would disappear on the weekends, occupied with learning new skills while being mentored in the rebuilding of a wrecked 1948 Piper Aircraft, PA15 Vagabond. In a distant garage under the supervision of a local A&P Mechanic, that "basket case" N4382H was slowly completed, piece by piece. The Vagabond's finished fuselage was skillfully towed behind our non-luxury laden 1962 Chevy Carryall Truck. Its final assembly, inspection and the issuing of its Airworthiness Certificate all occurred at the hub of General Aviation activity - in our area - South Norfolk Airport.
Just in time because Navy Lieutenant Ogles received PCS Orders to head west with his family of four. Going to California
30 hours and 42 minutes. Dad formulated an unheard-of father and son plan that frustrated and confounded both my sister and my mother, forever shaped my life and had a profound effect. He would fly the PA15 west in conjunction with PCS Orders to NAS North Island, Coronado, California.
Cecil loaded scant supplies, navigational sectionals, and tools onto the shallow 40lb max weight baggage compartment. My 12-year-old body with visions of California was seated on the Piper Vagabonds Hershey-Bar shaped bench seat next to him. He reached across, pulled the cabin door closed, pointed the Vagabond west and flew us away from South Norfolk Airport, Virgina in the early morning hours on April 29th, 1967. Low and slow we inched our way along a southern route, stopping along the way for AVGAS 80/87, weather, and overnights.
I dutifully sat next to him over a period of 5 days, at 87 mph, for 30 hours and 42 minutes. On May 3rd, 1967, we landed heroically and unceremoniously, early in the afternoon at Brown Field, San Diego, California.
I wiped off the bugs and the oil from the Vagabond while dad tied the airplane down to the Pad Eye grid on the concrete ramp area. He removed the wooden Sensenich Propeller as a final act to prevent stealage during our ensuing long absence while we tidied up the end of our East Coast lives. I'm pretty sure that we stayed at then LCDR Dick Thomas' house in Imperial Beach for the next couple of days. I think he still had a Bensen Gyrocopter in the garage. LCDR Thomas was assigned to Combat Camera Group, NAS North Island at the time.
Two days later on May 5th, from San Diego, Lindberg Field we flew on United Airlines, a DC-8 Jet Mainliner, back to Washington Dulles then a Piedmont Airlines, Martin 404 to Norfolk, Virginia. Back in Virginia Beach, Virginia our House on Iroquois Road sold and household goods were neatly packed aboard a Mayflower moving van. We were now embarking on a, terrestrial coast-to-coast travel trek. Behind that same non-luxury laden 1962 Carryall Truck a 24-foot Shasta Travel Trailer was in tow. It was also our civilian / military home for the next 4 months.
In short order Cecil purchased a circa 1927 home in Coronado, more or less settled us into it and then he was off to SERE school. While assigned to Combat Camera Group, NAS North Island, Lieutenant Ogles was assigned Officer in charge Det A Saigon, Vietnam. Time passed slowly and I vividly remember seeing him in the doorway of our Coronado home on that Welcome Home Day. He simply walked in unannounced through the front door. Mom was still at work doing military and civilian alterations in the back of Jake's Men's Shop on Orange Avenue. We knew he was coming home; but not quite sure exactly when his Western Airlines flight was landing.
Upon completion of a two-year course at the University of Southern California, LCDR Ogles then served as Commanding Officer Pacific Fleet Combat Camera Group. Cecil's next promotion to Commander on 17 November, 1975 gave him his 15th rank or rate held in 27 years of Naval Service. His last assignment(s) was Officer in Charge Fleet Air Photographic Laboratory, NAS North Island, VFP-63 Photographic Officer on the Staff of Commander Naval Air Force Pacific Fleet and Commanding Officer Pacific Fleet Audio Visual Command.
CDR. Ogles was awarded: Good conduct (2 stars) Navy Unit Commendation (1 star) Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Expeditionary Medal, National Defense (1 star), Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation (Civil Action Medal, First Class Color w/Palm), Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation (Gallantry Cross Medal w/Palm), Vietnam Service Medal (1 Star) and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, retiring after 30yrs of service on 30th June 1978.
"Brakes & Hot!" In his off-duty days during his active-duty military years in the mid 1960's, at South Norfolk Airport, through his mid 1990's post military retirement years, General Aviation was a lifelong avocation. Cecil rebuilt and maintained a small collection of 1940's and 50's era short winged Piper Aircraft (including two Piper Vagabonds in the carriage style garage of our 1927 Coronado home - one of them, a PA17 N4696H was mine at age 16) eventually earning his A&P License. Beginning in Virgina, and ending at Brown Field, San Diego, Hemet Ryan, Riverside, California and Gillespie Field, San Diego, California General Aviation was a part of daily life.
Cecil pursued travels by Private Plane, Camper, Motorhome, Ocean Liner and Perfect Attendance Airline Travel passes. Always traveling with his best friend Pasqualina, his wife of more than 60 years.
A Lifetime member and an active annual volunteer for the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) at the annual Fly-In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Cecil also spent occasional weekends volunteering at EAA Chapter 14 San Diego Brown Field. He was the Author and publisher of Vagabond News and later a contributor to The Short Wing Piper News.
To keep up with Lillian's love of the beach he was instrumental in establishing the Volunteer Campground Hosting program at the Silver Strand State Park RV Campground, Coronado, California.
A member of Coronado VFW Post 2422, Cecil thoroughly enjoyed setting up his RECYLE FLYER sales display on the freshly cut grass in front of the Henry D. Styer, VFW Hall. Always engaging. He would patiently fill his customers ears with answers explaining the details and processes of his build technique for each of the Recycle Flyer Airplanes. He made and sold several thousand of these uniquely detailed aluminum creations over the years from 1984 through 2017; generously donating a percentage of the sales proceeds each year with VFW Post 2422.
In Cecil's nonagenarian years, his close Coronado neighbors, out of kindness and friendship, kept a watchful eye on him, lending a hand when needed. He enjoyed the weekly Saturday chauffeured trips to the North Island Commissary. His dear friend Fred Baker would often hitch a ride with us. I always made a best effort to have Fred, the retired O6 and Cecil the retired O5 promptly outside the NAS North Island Commissary together, their grocery carts at the ready for the legacy 07:30-08:00 Senior's Earlybird opening. On more than one occasion Commissary trips were conveniently followed by a request for a medication pickup at the NMRTU North Island or sideline to the Touch'nGo convenience store for "beverages". When the chauffeured grocery trips came to an end, Fred began his solo, mobility scooter-borne visits to Cecil's house. Fred's visits remained a cherished mainstay of their friendship every Saturday morning to the very end.
Commander Ogles wanted to laude the medical care he received. Whether care was at the VA Medical Center, San Diego, or with the Hospital Corpsmen during middle of the night ER visits to Naval Medical Center "Balboa Hospital" San Diego, Orthopedics at NBHC, Naval Training Center, Point Loma, uptake at SHARP Coronado, or Hospice in-home care. Cecil remained appreciative and grateful for TRICARE for Life and the myriads of medical professionals to the end.
He was predeceased by his wife Pasqualina "Lil" (Morganelli) Ogles, and daughter Donna M. (Ogles) Jewell. Cecil is survived by his son Steve, niece Sandra (Peter) and two grandchildren.
Steve - who sat at a laptop in Cecil's Workshop, endeavoring to recap a storied life in less than two-thousand words. I won't say it's the hardest job among the myriad tasks of bereavement -- unloading household goods, jettisoning and relocating the lifetime collections and photographs, contacting the endless parade of decedent settlement officials, but it can be daunting and difficult and laced with latent grief and happiness. An obituary, a memoriam, a tribute marks the end, it can nicely handle the sometimes-messy tangle of a career military family's love, life and loss.
Honor and Respect. In keeping with Cecil's wishes, no service, no ceremony, "I had 30 good years in the US Navy photo community 1948-1978." His ashes were scattered at sea off the coast of San Diego, California.
Steve Ogles, son.
Webmaster: I met Lt.jg Ogles in the VFP-62 hangar Photo Maintenance Shop when he arrived at VFP-62. He was the most "Squared Away" (Navy-speak for immaculate uniform) officer I ever saw. The squadron was large, with many detachments. Unfortunately, our paths never crossed again.
He was a so-called "Mustang Officer," rising from enlisted ranks to officer--highly respected by enlisted men.
Information on VFP-62's role in the the peaceful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis can be found on this site's "Cuban Missile Crisis" page. Also, on this site's VFP-62 Memorabilia's page, use the page navigation link "1960-67 Newsletters and Detachments" and scroll down to the June 62 Newsletter information contributed by Steve Ogles, his son.
It is always a pleasure to work with family members contributing memorial information. This is an unique memorial for the information and photos supplied. I enjoyed working with Steve on this effort.
Cecil at work in his workshop
Cecil as a young photomate carrying an aerial camera/ wearing 1940's Navy hat/Lieutenant (junior grade)July 18, 1961
VFP-62 Officers by RF-8 Crusader
Back row: L-R: ?, ?, Frank Wolle PHC, Cecil and ? Front row: ?, Cdr. Robert Koch, Lt.jg B. W. Kortge (Click to enlarge)
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