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On the afternoon of 7 March 1979, while flying aerobatics, Colonel Thomas McAdoo Love, United States Air Force Retired, left our earthly skies to become the wingman of the Lord.</div>
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<em>Thomas McAdoo Love</em> was born on 6 December 1917 in Dallas, Texas, to Edgar Palmore and Kathryn Burnett Love, members of a prominent Dallas family. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, soon afterwards.</div>
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Tom’s lifelong passion for flying began as a child when the Postmaster of St. Louis took him on trimotor airplane flights inaugurating air mail routes to other cities. At age 13 Tom enrolled in an airplane mechanic’s course at Lambert Field where a squadron mate of Charles Lindbergh taught him to fly. Although underaged, he soloed. He was the mascot of the “<em>St. Louis Robin</em>,” the first airplane to stay aloft for a month while circling St. Louis. By age 15 Tom could fly, was an accomplished mechanic, owned a “hotrod” and was the business chauffeur for his father who could not drive. These experiences developed his characteristic courage, versatility, poise and superb confidence.</div>
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Tom’s introduction to the military came at Christian Brothers High School, a military school, and was reinforced by two years at Texas Agriculture & Mechanical College where he studied Mechanical Engineering. In 1937 he returned to St. Louis to work as an engineering draftsman. When Tom decided to go to West Point to become a military pilot, he obtained an appointment by his inate ability “to cut the Gordian knot”—he sought out his Congressman and went to work for him.</div>
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At West Point Tom took cadet life in his stride. As a cadet corporal and platoon sergeant, his leadership was persuasive and his plebes were treated with dignity. In 1942 when his class was sent throughout the country for Primary Flight Training, Tom’s leadership resulted in his being appointed First Captain at his field. Tom hated sham and his humor was dry and self-depreciative. His cheerfulness and sincerity won him the respect and friendship of his classmates.</div>
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Upon graduation Colonel Love attended transition and gunnery courses and served as fighter pilot instructor in P-40s and P-47s before joining the 55th Fighter Group in Europe. There he was known as “an aggressive fighter pilot always eager for the next mission.” In February 1945 while on his 45th combat mission, he was shot down while strafing an airdrome near Osnabnick, Germany. Explosive flak disabled his plane at an altitude of five feet and a speed of 350 miles per hour rendering him unconscious with a head wound. As his P-51 bounced on the ground, he revived enough to lift it over a hangar before he blacked out again. He awoke with the Germans pulling him from the wreckage of his ship which had come to rest in a small clearing surrounded by tall pine trees. This incident strengthened Tom’s already deep faith in God and instilled an enduring sense of optimistic fatalism. He wrote, “The Lord had really done an excellent job of crash landing my ship as I was ‘out of this world’ at the time. My spirits quickened for I had been lucky enough to have the Lord pick the only landing site and land the ship for me—I must have been destined to live.”</div>
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With a wounded head and a locked knee Tom walked over 500 miles as the retreating Germans moved the prisoners of war from camp to camp toward Southern Germany. A fellow POW writes, “How he made that long walk in that condition is beyond comprehension.” He adds, “Tom was an inspiration to all who knew him there at Moosburg. He was a strong, determined individual who could bear up under any hardships and make the most of any situation.”</div>
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Following World War II Colonel Love was assigned to the 4th Air Force Jet Cadre and to the 27th Fighter Squadron. After a tour with Reserve Officers Training Corps at the University of California at Los Angeles, he attended the Air Force Institute of Technology. In 1948 he was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base before going to the 57th Fighter Interceptor Group in Alaska. On his return, he was assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron in Rome, New York, as deputy commander.</div>
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From 1953 to 1955 he served in the Air Force Defense Command at Ent Air Force Base, Colorado. In 1956 he graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College followed by 12 years in various planning positions in research and development and in aerospace research in the Baltimore/Washington area. In 1968 he was assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Headquarters in Naples, Italy, followed by three years as Chief of Long Range Plans in Headquarters, United States Air Forces Europe in Germany. He retired in December 1972.</div>
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Colonel Love was the rare combination of an imaginative dreamer and a realistic engineer. His tireless enthusiasm and impatient drive overcame the doubters and the lethargic to achieve his dreams of the future.</div>
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Behind the name of Colonel Thomas McAdoo Love are many firsts in military aviation. In 1945 he served as instructor pilot with the original 4th Air Force Jet Cadre, whose select pilots pioneered jet aviation flying P-59s. He was among the first to fly the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. In 1940 he conceived, planned, and named “Operation Comet” wherein the first massed flight of P-80 Shooting Stars crossed the United States ushering military aviation into the jet age. He was project officer for the first mobility test of jet aircraft (P-80s).</div>
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In 1953 Air Defense Command assigned him as project officer to establish The Pinetree Line, the first belt of air defense radar across the North American Continent. Later he organized the first Jet Know-How Symposium which transferred hard won Air Force experience to our civil airlines and helped then enter the jet age.</div>
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During subsequent assignments in the Air Force research and development community, he devised the first Five Year Development Plan for Basic Research. It was he who modernized the Air Force applied research program with the first “systems oriented” approach. With the advent of the first Sputnik, Colonel Love was the co-author of the first Air Force military space program and he was one of the architects of the present Air Force Systems Command. Colonel Love’s decorations include the Legion of Merit, The Distinguished Flying Cross, The Meritorious Service Medal, The Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, The Purple Heart, The Air Force Commendation Medal, The Presidential Unit Citation and the Distinguished Unit Award.</div>
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On retirement Colonel Love devoted his full energy to flying, designing race cars and sailing. He founded Love Aviation in Centreville, Maryland, and specialized in teaching aerobatics. It was truly a labor of love—the civilian extension of his fighter pilot dream. As usual he excelled. A student writes, “Every once in a great while a person comes across a great teacher who infuses you with enthusiasm and learning through his love of the subject...His other students like me will carry forward this love and enthusiasm in his teaching. Great teachers have this kind of immortality you know...”</div>
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Colonel Love acquired and flew dangerous racing and experimental aircraft because “it provides me with the feeling of meeting a great challenge and keeps me excited with the joy of living an adventure that keeps the senses keen and the reflexes sharp...There is a certain gut-wrenching thrill in pursuing dreams that provide the total spectrum of anxiety and suspense.”</div>
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Tom had a Federal Aviation Agency clearance to perform aerobatics at 200 feet, however, an unrestricted, low-level aerobatic clearance was a challenge his pride could not ignore. He crashed pursuing that dream. One who had watched him said, “I used to judge acrobatic flying and he’s real good. He’s been doing it for years. That’s why I figure it was some kind of incapacitation.”</div>
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His family and friends had remonstrated with him on the hazards of low-level aerobatics at his age, but he said, “When it’s my time, that’s the way I want to go.” Of this another writes, “If one ends his time on earth doing what he wants to, then I think he can ask for no more...Tom would have agreed and one can almost hear his enthusiastic voice adding his favorite expression, ‘What a way to go!’”</div>
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Tom Love was a legend in his time on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Newspapers and magazines perceived in him and in his daring the romance of the barnstormer and frequently featured him in such articles as: “Love—Nobleman of Aviation,” “Tom Love: No Duffer of the Airways,” “Kent Island Pilot May Be The Last of a Dying Breed,” and the final, “Stunt Pilot Killed in Wye Crash.”</div>
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With Tom’s departure we have lost a gallant officer, a generous friend and a devoted husband and parent.</div>
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Colonel Love leaves his wife, Jane Hazelton Love, and four children: Paul Love, Anne Love Harlow, Thomas Love Jr, and Sally Love, all of Centreville, Maryland. He had seven grandchildren.</div>
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The ashes of Colonel Thomas McAdoo Love were scattered on the waters of Chesapeake Bay. His spirit still flies in American skies and in the hearts of those who loved him.</div>
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