Chuck Osborne: Detailed Biography
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Early Years
Military Career
Aviation Career
Post-Aviation Career
Family
Education
Osborne Family Genealogy

Military Career

Upon graduation from high school, I completed a four-year enlistment in the U.S. Navy where I served as an aircrew member aboard anti-submarine patrol aircraft. My Navy squadron deployed overseas on two occasions.

The first deployment was to a Naval Air Facility in Sigonella, Sicily, where my squadron was deployed from June, 1969 through November, 1969. My Navy squadron, VP-23, home-based in Brunswick, Maine, flew WWII vintage aircraft called SP-2H “Neptune,” which were used as submarine hunters.

My second overseas deployment was split between two locations. The squadron was deployed in October 1970, from our home base in Brunswick, Maine, to the Lajes Air Force Base on the island of Terceira in the Azores. After a few months there, the squadron transferred to Rota, Spain, and then returned stateside in March, 1971.

My second overseas deployment with VP-23 marked the first deployment following the squadron’s transition to the P-3B “Orion” aircraft. 

I soon realized that I wanted to be more than an aircrew member; I wanted to be a pilot. As soon as possible, I took flight lessons on the G.I. Bill and earned my commercial pilots license and a flight instructor’s rating before being honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1972.

After my discharge, I supported myself by working as a flight instructor in Pontiac, Michigan, but soon discovered that I could not support my growing family. So, I returned to Maine, and for several years worked full-time as an estimator and salesman in the floor covering industry, but I continued to pursue my passion for flying by working weekends as a flight instructor.

My desire to return to flying fulltime led me to join the Army National Guard in 1975. My plan was to enter flight school for helicopter flight training and use this training to secure a civilian aviation career. However, flight-training slots were in short supply for the foreseeable future, so I applied and was accepted into a 15-month Officer Candidate School program with the Maine Army National Guard. I completed the program and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in June, 1977.

After completing the officer basic course at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and realizing the Maine National Guard would not have slots to flight school anytime soon, I transferred to the Kentucky Army National Guard. The Kentucky Army National Guard soon issued orders for me to attend flight school and in July 1978, I began helicopter flight training at the U.S. Army’s Rotary Wing Flight Training School in Ft. Rucker, Alabama. The nine-months of helicopter flight training were very challenging and rewarding and culminated with graduation on March 9, 1979.

I returned to Kentucky after flight school and was assigned to the 441st Medical Detachment where I flew a UH-1 helicopter, affectionately called the “Huey.” In addition to my duties as a pilot, I also filled various staff officer positions and rose to the rank of 1st Lieutenant while with the Kentucky ARNG.  

In September 1981, my guard unit spent its two-week summer camp in east-central Germany. This picture of me with the “Huey” was taken at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, just before departure for Germany in a C-5A Galaxy transport plane. Four UH-1 helicopters, seven trucks and over one-hundred personnel were loaded onto this one plane and flown nonstop from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, to Frankfurt, Germany. To learn more about the UH-1 helicopter, I recommend visiting either http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/uh-1.htm  or http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Rotary/Huey/HE11.htm .

I left the Kentucky Army National Guard in early 1982, but several years later joined the Ohio National Guard and served as a staff officer and a pilot for the 107th Air Calvary Regiment located at the Akron-Canton airport. There, I flew for approximately two years and held the rank of Captain when I resigned from the military for good late in 1990.

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