[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 55 (Friday, March 24, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E692-E693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      TRIBUTE TO COL. NORME FROST

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB FRANKS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 24, 1995
  Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a 
remarkable individual, Col. Norme Frost, of Tryon, NC. Earlier this 
year, Colonel Frost turned 99 years of age, and his local newspaper, 
the Tryon Daily Bulletin, briefly recounted a few of Norme's many 
contributions to our Nation. Norme is especially renowned in the field 
of aviation, where he was an early pioneer, and flier in both world 
wars.
  Mr. Speaker, Norme has an equally outstanding wife, the former Betty 
Doubleday. Betty is related to Abner Doubleday, who is credited with 
inventing our national pastime, baseball. Betty met Norme overseas as a 
Red Cross executive during World War II. Today, Betty continues her 
charitable efforts by assisting many of the local charities in Tryon. 
Betty is also Tryon's unofficial town historian. I am sure that Norme 
owes much of his success to his lovely wife.
  Mr. Speaker, Norme was not only a witness to history, he was also an 
active participant in making the history that has preserved and 
enriched our Nation. I congratulate Norme for his 
[[Page E693]] many accomplishments, and commend the following article 
to my colleagues' attention:
             [From the Tryon Daily Bulletin, Jan. 25, 1995]

               Col. Norme Frost: Still Flying High at 99

                             (By Bob Witty)

       Today is the 99th birthday of Norme Frost, a legend in his 
     time.
       Born in another century, Jan. 25, 1896, to be exact, he has 
     left a fascinating trail behind as he made his way from 
     Central Lake, Michigan, to his beloved bower on Wilderness 
     Drive.
       He came out of an era when everyone started to work and 
     contribute at an early age, out of a family where hard work 
     was the watchword. To make ends meet in their cash-poor, 
     small village environment, his mother ``took in'' washing, 
     taught school, hung wallpaper and worked the family farm. His 
     father was a musician, carpenter, master craftsman and 
     inventor. It wasn't until one of his inventions, a different 
     and progressive design for a motor boat, succeeded that 
     things looked up for the Frosts.
       Norme was the quintessential ``American boy.'' Handy with 
     his father's tools, always obsessed with gadgets, engines and 
     woodworking, he tried his hand at everything that Michigan in 
     the early 1900s afforded.
       His jobs included hardware store clerk, farm hand and 
     fishing guide, running a machine in the local factory, an 
     attendant at the Insane Asylum at Traverse City, bellhop at a 
     hotel, and as a conductor on the Saginaw Interurban Railway.
       World War I interrupted his career as a jack-of-all-trades 
     and he buckled down as a buck private, toting a rifle and 
     preparing to make the world safe for Democracy. That 
     adventure was short circuited when the war ended in 1918, 
     whereupon he returned to Michigan.
       His life took a new turn when he paid an itinerant barn-
     stormer to take him for his first flight in a patched up 
     ``Jenny'' left over from the war. That was it!
       As soon as possible, he enlisted as a Flying Cadet, pawned 
     his saxophone and arrived at Brooks Field, San Antonio, with 
     three dollars in his pocket, prepared for flight training. A 
     50-year odyssey in the AirCorps/Air Force had begun.
       The rickety wood and fabric flying machines of the day were 
     mostly leftover warplanes. But it was a wondrous time for a 
     fledgling flyer. Norme remembers with fondness his favorite: 
     ``The SE-5 was a Sopwith pursuit plane that the RAF made 
     famous in combat. It was light as a feather on the controls 
     and could turn on a dime. My alltime favorite.''
       After graduation from famed Kelly Field, he was assigned to 
     a tactical unit, and was the 733rd officer to be rated 
     ``pilot'' by the Army. His serial ``733'' was one number 
     behind Hoyt Vandenberg, who was later to be Chief of Staff, 
     USAF.
       Those were the wild and woolly days of flying. Generations 
     of pilots still thrill and marvel at Norme and his cohorts 
     performing at air races; tiny pursuit planes dancing their 
     mad pas de deux around the pylons on a tight course, 
     sometimes as little as 25 feet off the ground in a vertical 
     bank! Daring young men indeed.
       In World War II, as a Colonel, he served in General 
     Doolittle's 15th Air Force as a Deputy Wing Commander. He 
     took part in the first B-17 strike on the sub-pens and 
     shipping at Naples, using the smoldering Mount Vesuvius as an 
     initial point for the run-in to target.
       But all the fun came to an end, and after his 1951 
     retirement parade at Hickam Airfield in Hawaii, he brought 
     ``whats 'er name'' back here to their Wilderness Drive 
     woodland and built her a house--with his own hands. There 
     today, with bird-song at dawning and the cacophony of 
     trilling tree-frogs at dusk, he lends his talents and 
     energies to local activities, much as she devoted them to his 
     flying career. He has performed so many feats of magic in 
     lighting, photography, audio and construction for the Tryon 
     Little Theater, The Fine Arts Center and other groups, that 
     there is no room here to list them.
       Let the words of the late Lou Perrottet as published in the 
     Tryon Litter Theater Bulletin in 1978, speak for ``Frostian'' 
     skills. ``Colonel Norme Frost continues to leave his 
     footprints on the cultural creations of this community. Not 
     the least of accomplishments is his ability to merge 
     technical disciplines with moments of sheer emotion and 
     feeling.''
       Norme justified this accolade with his renowned production 
     of ``The Drama of Nature,'' and ``A Place on Earth,'' his 
     slide shows with music and narration.
       And now, this man who saw both the automobile and airplane 
     bow onto the world stage, has landed with both feet into the 
     Computer Age. It would not surprise any of us if he were to 
     become a full-fledged member of the ``Fiber-Optic'' journey 
     into the future.
       The 28 World War II military pilots now living in this area 
     (the Helmet and Goggles and Scarf crowd) salute their 
     compatriot, Colonel Norme Frost, pioneer aviator, naturalist, 
     and gentle man. The poem which follows has become the most 
     famous anthem to airmen ever written. It has, of course been 
     quoted again and again, most notably by President Reagan when 
     he addressed America at the time of the Challenger disaster. 
     It was written by 19 year old RCAF pilot John Magee in 
     England in 1941; he died in his Spitfire only a few weeks 
     later:


                              high flight

     Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
     And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
     Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
     Of sun-split clouds--and done a hundred things
     You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung
     High in the sunlit silence Hov'ring there.
     I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
     My eager craft through footless halls of air.
     Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
     I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace.
     Where never lark or even eagle flew--
     And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
     The high untrespassed sanctity of space.
     Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

       Happy Birthday Norme. Dominus Vobiscum.
       

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