The Iceman begot the Spy Man

Yes it happened right here in Southwest Nebraska. A master spy, well actually he was the pilot in the U-2 “reconnaissance” aircraft that flew at ultra-high altitude taking pictures over both friendly and not so friendly territory almost the world over. Gerald (Jerry) McIlmoyle was born on February 24, 1930 in McCook and sadly passed away, last week, on March 24th in Venice, Florida

The dad was Eugene McIlmoyle better known as Red. In your writer’s experience Red delivered ice for kitchen iceboxes to residents in McCook Iceboxes the forerunner of refrigerators, preserved food in the normal non-air conditioned homes of that era. The ice came in 100 pound blocks but one could, by placing notices in their windows, order 25 or 50 pound blocks of the crystal clear ice. In a lot of cases with the mom of the house gone Red would carry the ice into the kitchen and place it in the ice box to be paid later.

The ice was manufactured in the “ice house” on the corner of A and West 3rd Street and carried across the street on an elevated conveyer into the Grainger building, now Loops Brewery, to be placed in and cool freight cars carrying produce on the Burlington Railroad of the day. On special occasions my Mom would stop by the plant and buy a 25 pound block of ice that we would chip off into a hand cranked ice cream freezer for a real Sunday treat.

Jerry was the eldest of seven children born to Eugene and Catherine. He and all his siblings matriculated through the McCook School System and that included two years at McCook Junior College which at the time was a part of the McCook school system. Red was active in coaching little league baseball and other athletic activities for kids of that era. All the McIlmoyle kids were good students and have made successes of their lives. McCook can be proud!

Out of MJC Jerry joined the Air Force to learn to fly and thereby earn his commission through the Aviation Cadet Program. Along the way he married his school sweetheart Patty McBrien whose dad incidentally was our rural mail carrier when I grew up south of town. Eventually he became a pilot in the hush-hush, at the time, U-2 program. A solo pilot dressed in a full pressure suit at the extreme altitudes flown he did reconnaissance, taking high resolution pictures from earth’s pole to pole. When the Cuban Missile crisis hit Jerry was with the unit that flew over and took photographs that proved the USSR was installing guided missile units that were capable of delivering nuclear weapons throughout the East Coast of the United States. It was his friend and mate Rudolf Anderson Jr. that was shot down and killed flying the same mission that Jerry had flown the day before. Those pictures proved what the USSR was doing and eventually Nikita Khrushchev backed down and made an agreement with President John F. Kennedy to remove his missiles whereby the Cuban crisis came to a close.

On through the Cold War Jerry flew reconnaissance missions over the USSR, China and North and South Vietnam. Promotions and staff assignments followed and he eventually did a tour at the Pentagon as the Deputy Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There he achieved his a long time goal the one star rank of Brigadier General. He retired on July 1, 1981

Then a second career as a real estate agent in Florida his chosen retirement home. Eventually he chose a third career as the office manager for a cardiac rehab medical clinic in Venice. Also in his retirement years he wrote and published a book of his experiences when a U-2 pilot. Admirably he included short personal stories of the many people in his U-2 squadrons in his book “Remembering the Dragon Lady”. Those vignettes described the short job descriptions of the multitude of people that care for the pilots and maintain the aircraft that make the U-2 mission a success. Admirably, in my way of thinking, these mostly unsung heroes are the people whose long hours of dedicated labor make such complex operations a great success.

Note to our youth of today. Jerry’s great career accomplishments illustrate what a kid that born and raised in southwestern Nebraska can do. Dream big and then just go out and do it. You came from the best stock in the world and nothing is impossible. Jerry did it!

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No there is no crisis on our southern border today according to President Biden and his lackeys. Sure a lot of young foreign trespassers have over crowded our immigrant facilities but that is a small price for them to pay to come to our promised welfare state where they will be given free education, free medical care and a donation of money enough to exist in the land of plenty. Exist that is until through chain migration they can be joined by their parents and other relatives ad infinitum. All they have to do is vote Democrat to keep the handouts coming. Remember that all you fellow citizens when you pay your ever increasing taxes and especially when you vote in the next election.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail