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Maj. Thompson
Flies Tran’plt Organ
U. S. Air Force Major John E. Thompson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mangus L. Thompson, Amissville, recently was diverted from a routine KC-135 Stratotanker training mission to fly, . crosscounty, and deliver a kidney for use in an emergency transplant operation. While airborne, Major Thompson, a navigator with the Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) 380th Aerial Refueling Squadron at Plattsburgh AFB, N. Y., and fellow crew members were directed by Plattsburgh officials to land at Monroe County Airport, Rochester, N. Y. The Air Force base had been contacted for assistance since no commercial airlift was immediately available. The KC-135 crewmembers were met at the airport by Doctor Abraham Cockett of Strong Memorial Hospital who delivered the kidney to them.
They flew from Rochester to Seattle, Wash., where a 37-yearold woman awaited life-saving surgery at University Hospital. The successful operation was completed in little more than an hour after the major’s aircraft had landed at Seattle.
He regularly flies JKC-135 missions, helping SAC fulfill one of its assigned responsibilities as USAF’s single manager for all aerial refueling operations. SAC’s primary mission is nuclear deterrence.
Before beginning his assignment at Plattsburgh, Major Thompson served at Homestead AFB, Fla. He holds the aeronautical rating of senior navigator. The major, a 1953 graduate of Ceres (Va.) High School, received a B. S. degree in 1958 trom Virginia Polytechnic Institute where he was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps program.
His wife, Phyllis, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl S. Umberger of 2 Kennedy Drive, Portsmouth, Va.
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