Ol'Harry

HIGH POINT AVIATOR HAS NO COMPLAINTS

High Point’s Frank Montgomery must have wondered where he went wrong.  As an Army Air Corps fighter pilot, why was he helping off-load Marines and equipment from a landing craft during the Invasion of Iwo Jima?  And why was a Navy Beachmaster ordering him, “Get these vehicles off the beach?”

MONTGOMERY AS P-51 PILOT FLYING FROM IWO JIMA

Montgomery was a P-51 pilot with two problems – his P-51 was in route from Guam and the Marines were yet to wrest an Iwo Jima runway from the Japanese.  Both problems were solved expediently -- Montgomery would be one and one-half kills short of becoming an Ace by war’s end.

Montgomery took a respite from active duty after the war – built a place at the beach, purchased a family farm in Trinity, enrolled at NCSU, married Cynthia Smith, and built a house for them to live in.

Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, Montgomery trained new flight instructors for the B-25 bomber at Connolly Air Force Base in Waco, Texas.  A series of moves took him to air force bases in Selma, Alabama; Dover, Delaware; Greenville, South Carolina; West Palm Beach, Florida; Iceland, Denver, Colorado; and Amarillo, Texas.

By 1966, Montgomery was flying the C-130 Hercules.  His home base for the next 33 months was Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.  “The C-130 was noisy but versatile – there wasn’t much we couldn’t do.  We ran special operations, supported USAF strike aircraft, dropped personnel, equipment and supplies, and flew many rescue missions.”

MONTGOMERY WAS SILVER STAR RECIPIENT FLYING C-130 HERCULES (LEFT)
DURING VIETNAM WAR -- HAD 3 1/2 KILLS FLYING P-51 DURING WW II

Montgomery’s most vivid memory of Vietnam is May 12, 1968, “That was Mother’s Day.  My family was living on Okinawa at the time, but I could not get over to be with them.  Just as we were returning to base after flying most of the day, we were ordered to proceed to Kham Duc on an extraction mission.

Cork-screwing into the mountainous landing strip, we could tell the Special Forces Camp had been over-run.  We saw smoke, fires, two crashed C-130s and a helicopter along the runway as we went in.  Under heavy small arms and mortar fire, debris and wreckage down the runway -- and no visible survivors to extract -- I turned the aircraft around and prepared for a reverse take-off.

LT COL FRANK MONTGOMERY USAF (RET) SERVED DURING THREE WARS

Suddenly, U.S. Special Forces troops, South Vietnam troops and Vietnamese civilians appeared from all directions and swarmed under our propellers and into the back of our C-130.  I told the loadmaster to push everyone aboard and close the hatch – we were leaving in five minutes.”

For that Mother’s Day mission Lieutenant Colonel Frank Montgomery was awarded a Silver Star.  “When it was all over, we had brought 180 people out, plus two pigs!  The Vietnamese didn’t leave much behind!  I wish that Silver Star could have been cut into five pieces – my crew deserved it just as much as I did!”

After 28 years, eight months, 22 days, and over 20,000 flight hours, Frank Montgomery retired from the Air Force and returned to his High Point roots.  He chronicled his service during three wars and entitled it to fit his persona, “No Complaints -- I flew on the first day and I flew on my last day.”   

As a civilian, he promptly reverted to his propensity to build.  He and his sons formed Montgomery Investments, dealing with residential real estate.  At 93, Montgomery has turned everything over to his family.

Cynthia Montgomery died in 2003 – they had been married 56 years.  From the marriage came four sons, nine grands and four great-grandchildren. 

The Montgomerys were life-long members of First United Methodist Church – High Point.  “My Montgomery grandfather was a charter member of First UMC,” says Frank Montgomery.  “My Cranford grandfather gave five acres of the family farm on which Fairview United Methodist Church was built.”

After Ray Street Elementary and Ferndale Junior High, Montgomery graduated from Central High School.  He ran track for Central and set a state record for the one-half mile run in 1940.

FRANK MONTGOMERY WAS TRACK STAR AT
HIGH POINT CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

Frank Montgomery and his brother, James, a World War II sailor, were named to the Central High School Hall of Fame in 2016.

An interesting aside, Frank Montgomery’s chronicle of his service includes a photo of him and six others who left for the Army Air Corps on February 19, 1943.  One of the “others” is former Guilford County Sheriff Sticky Burch.  Burch had never seen the photo.  When shown the 74-year old photo, he exclaimed, “That was a London Fog I was wearing!”

19FEB1943: CANDIDATES LEAVING GREENSBORO FOR AVIATION CADET TRAINING AT MIAMI, FLORIDA -- FRANK MONTGOMERY (KNEELING CENTER)
STICKY BURCH (SECOND FROM LEFT STANDING) 

Over 74 years later, Montgomery and Burch met again – but that’s another story.