Blue skies Cook Cleland

[Race5]

We have lost one of the greats.

[ignomini]

Wow. What a giant loss. He was on my top ten of aviation figures. My condolences to his family.

[Victor Archer]

Blue skies... A great pilot indeed.

I think I need to create something special for this...

[AAFO_WSagar]

Oh this is a blow on top of... and I don't even know if we even acknowledged here, that... one of our greatest heroes and undoubtedly one of the finest fighter pilots... one of the greatest men of all time passed recently as well.. Gen. Robin Olds heart finally gave up recently after a long and valliant fight with congestive heart failure.. I never got to meet Cook but I did get to meet Gen. Olds...

God, there will never be another generation like these men!

Blue skies to them both!

[David E. Wells]

I met Cook when he talked at the Checkered Flag Club, he was at the NCAR to visit his F2G...I wish he'd written a book!...D

[Lockheed Bob]

Blue Skies to a great innovative race pilot. I was at the Air Races as a kid & saw him fly. I was with Jimmy DeSanto at the time.

[speeddemon]

I was a frequent visitor of 'Cleland Antiques' when I was stationed in Pensacola. I went from a stranger kid in a store of old people looking for bargains, to ultimately a guy who Cook would sit on the front porch of the shop (which was an old plantation house) and go through his racing scrapbooks with. What a wonderful, lovable bear of a guy....reminded me a lot of Jerry Janes. I remember the inside of his shop had faded, but beautiful, paintings from the Thompson Corporation calendars of him winning the Thompson in '47 and '49. I had him sign a lot of photographs for me too, before I transferred.

A lot of people don't remember that he was not only a two-time Thompson Trophy winner, but also a bona-fide Navy ace....in an SBD Dauntless, of all planes!

CAVU, Cook....

[taichi]

Blue skies...

http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com

taichi

[ShermB]

Gone, but never forgotten.
Can you just imagine the gathering of our heroes up there?
Blue skies and tailwinds.
Betty

[Jason S.]

Originally Posted by speeddemon

I was a frequent visitor of 'Cleland Antiques' when I was stationed in Pensacola. I went from a stranger kid in a store of old people looking for bargains, to ultimately a guy who Cook would sit on the front porch of the shop (which was an old plantation house) and go through his racing scrapbooks with. What a wonderful, lovable bear of a guy....reminded me a lot of Jerry Janes. I remember the inside of his shop had faded, but beautiful, paintings from the Thompson Corporation calendars of him winning the Thompson in '47 and '49. I had him sign a lot of photographs for me too, before I transferred.

A lot of people don't remember that he was not only a two-time Thompson Trophy winner, but also a bona-fide Navy ace....in an SBD Dauntless, of all planes!

CAVU, Cook....

I’m sure most have heard of the show Legends of Airpower. Wouldn’t it be cool to see one done on Mr. Cleland?