{"id":66251,"date":"2022-05-02T08:09:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retireenews.org\/?p=66251"},"modified":"2024-08-27T20:57:49","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T20:57:49","slug":"check-six-kurt-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/2022\/05\/02\/check-six-kurt-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Check Six: Kurt Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/files\/2022\/05\/screen-shot-2022-05-01-at-14.25.35.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66253\" style=\"object-fit:cover\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <em>Photograph captured off the Ulu Ulu video<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kurt Johnson<\/strong>&nbsp;was a distinguished member of the 199th Fighter Squadron, and the Hawai\u2018i Air National Guard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kurt joined the Air Force in 1951. After his commissioning and receiving his pilot wings, he flew&nbsp;North American&nbsp;F-86E Sabres during the Korean War. He left the Air Force in 1955 and joined the Hawai\u2018i Air National Guard the same month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his 29-year HIANG flying career, he flew North American F-86s, Convair F-102 Delta Daggers, and McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantoms. During the Vietnam War, he was one of the 199 FS pilots who volunteered to participate in Palace Alert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his career, he designed many things that remain part of the 199th Fighter Squadron today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He designed the 199th Fighter Squadron logo, which was approved in 1951.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the F-102 era, he designed the Hawaiian pattern tail flash that the HIANG, which reflect the mountains, volcanos, primary islands, and ocean channels.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the F-4C era, he gave each assigned aircraft the name of the Hawaiian bird.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.com\/post\/retireenews.org\/33480\">His fini flight was on June 23, 1984<\/a>. Col.&nbsp;<strong>John \u201cSaigon\u201d Lee<\/strong>, who was the 154th Composite Group commander, wrote this about Kurt in his monthly newsletter column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the flying arena, we were respectful of the \u201csoft touch\u201d he had flying any aircraft. He was as patient and understanding as any top flying instructor that we have known. He retains his distinguished title in the fighter squadron as a \u201cfighter jock\u201d \u2026 I don\u2019t believe there is anyone as current and proficient as a fighter pilot at age 55 as Kurt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yesterday\u2019s Star-Advertiser featured an article about Eddie Kamae and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.staradvertiser.com\/2022\/05\/01\/features\/on-the-scene\/new-songbook-celebrates-eddie-kamaes-musical-journey\/\">a new website<\/a>&nbsp;that features his music with the Sons of Hawaii musical group. Imbedded in the website are two links to an 1994 interview of Kurt Johnson talking about Eddie Kamae\u2019s music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Kurt is not talking about flying, it is a refreshing memory of Kurt and his calm demeanor we all remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interview with Kurt Johnson recorded on October 1, 1994 for the documentary &#8220;The History of the Sons of Hawai\u02bbi.&#8221; Colonel Kurt Johnson, a member of the 199th Fighter Squadron and the Hawai\u02bbi Air National Guard remembers hanging out at the Sandbox with about ten other pilots and mechanics from his squadron listening to the Sons of Hawai\u02bbi. Johnson speaks of each member of the Sons of Hawai\u02bbi. He recalls his mother saying about Gabby Pahinui, &#8220;&#8230; his voice is quintessentially Hawaiian.&#8221; Johnson also recalls his introductions of Eddie Kamae to Mary Kawena P\u016bku\u02bbi and Pilahi Paki, who became two of Eddie Kamae&#8217;s kumu (teachers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/uluulu.hawaii.edu\/titles\/22753\">Interview with Kurt Johnson 10\/1\/94 tape 1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/uluulu.hawaii.edu\/titles\/22754\">Interview with Kurt Johnson 10\/1\/94 tape 2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:10px\"><em>The appearance of external hyperlinks did not constitute endorsement by Retiree News, this included the linked websites, information, products, or services contained therein. Retiree News did not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Additionally, some of the sites linked to may limit the number of stories you can access without a paid subscription. All links were provided with the intent of meeting the mission of Retiree News.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kurt Johnson&nbsp;was a distinguished member of the 199th Fighter Squadron, and the Hawai\u2018i Air National Guard. Kurt joined the Air Force in 1951. After his commissioning and receiving his pilot wings, he flew&nbsp;North American&nbsp;F-86E Sabres during the Korean War. He left the Air Force in 1955 and joined the Hawai\u2018i Air National Guard the same [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":66253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"50624,12539,7139,33867,59612,12393","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12393,12386],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020s","category-check-six"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}