[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 100 (Thursday, July 15, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H5684-H5685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO ADMIRAL DONALD D. ENGEN

  (Mr. OBERSTAR asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Admiral Donald D. 
Engen, a truly great American whose life was taken in a tragic plane 
crash on Tuesday.
  Our country owes Don Engen a great debt of gratitude for his service 
to our country in three wars and later as a test pilot, a member of the 
National Transportation Safety Board, administrator of the FAA, and, at 
his death, Director of the National Air and Space Museum.
  I believe Don Engen's greatest contribution was to aviation safety. I 
recall particularly his courageous order prohibiting U.S. and foreign 
airlines from removing over-wing exits on 747 aircraft, while he was at 
the witness table, in the midst of a hearing I was conducting on that 
issue.
  All air travelers owe Don Engen a great debt of gratitude for his 
gigantic contribution to aviation safety. He stands as a giant in the 
field of aviation.
  I extend to his widow, Mary, my very heartfelt deepest sympathy and 
love.

               [From the Washington Post, July 14, 1999]

Air & Space Director Engen Dies in Crash--Naval Aviator Also Headed FAA

                   (By Martin Weil and Don Phillips)

       Donald D. Engen, 75, the director of the National Air and 
     Space Museum who also was a decorated Navy pilot and a former 
     chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, died yesterday 
     in Nevada when the glider plunged to the ground from two 
     miles up, disintegrating as it fell, authorities said.
       Engen, of Alexandria, and another man were killed near 
     Minden, just east of Lake Tahoe, about 1 p.m. Pacific time in 
     a glider

[[Page H5685]]

     fitted with a small motor, according to the Douglas County 
     sheriff's office. Witnesses told investigators that as the 
     glider began spiraling down, ``major portions of the wings'' 
     and other parts of the aircraft fell off, the sheriff's 
     office said.
       Engen, a former test pilot and a retired Navy admiral who 
     served in three wars, was killed instantly, along with 
     William S. Ivans, 89, of Incline Village, Nev., who was a 
     holder of many glider flight records, the sheriff's office 
     said. It was not immediately clear who was at the controls.
       Engen, a World War II dive bomber pilot sank a Japanese 
     cruiser, held the Distinguished Service Medal and the Navy 
     Cross, which is awarded for extraordinary heroism. He took 
     over at Air and Space three years ago, in the wake of a 
     controversy over display of the Enola Gay, the airplane that 
     dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan.
       Engan ``labeled himself as part of the fix'' of the museum 
     when he took over, ``and he was,'' said David Umansky, a 
     spokesman for the Smithsonian Institution, of which Air and 
     Space--the world's most visited museum--is part.
       Engen also was the prime mover behind plans to open an 
     annex to Air and Space at Dulles International Airport. A 
     target opening date in 2003 has been set for the facility, 
     which is to provide vastly increased exhibit space for the 
     museum's aeronautical holdings.
       ``He has been the guiding light behind the Dulles center,'' 
     Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said last night. 
     ``It was his big project.''
       ``Don has been a wonderful director for the past three 
     years,'' said Smithsonian Secretary Michael Heyman.
       Calling Engen's death a ``terrible tragedy,'' Jane F. 
     Garvey, administrator of the FAA, said Engen continued to 
     offer ``advice and counsel'' on aviation issues and to show 
     concern about the welfare of those who had worked for him at 
     the agency, she said.
       ``People just had enormous respect for him, ``Garvey said.
       Donald Davenport Engen, who was born in Pomona, Calif., on 
     May 24, 1924, had flying and the Navy in his thoughts since 
     boyhood.
       When he was in the fourth grade, he told his parents that 
     he wished to be a ``naval officer and go to sea'' On Dec. 7, 
     1941, only a few months after he entered Pasadena Junior 
     College at 17, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and Engen 
     got a strong push toward realizing his early ambition.
       After the attack, he dropped out of college and enlisted as 
     a seaman second class in a Navy training program, according 
     to a memoir he published in 1997, ``Wings and Warriors: My 
     Life as a Naval Aviator.''
       By 1943, he was headed west across the Pacific, where he 
     was based on the carrier USS Lexington and took part in the 
     campaign to liberate the Philippines.
       He was involved in fierce combat.
       ``Almost everyone experienced fear from time to time,'' he 
     wrote. But, he said, ``we junior pilots felt invincible, even 
     though our loss rate seemed to indicate otherwise.''
       After the war, he gave civilian life a try, enrolling in 
     the Naval Reserve and flying on weekends. That did not 
     satisfy his passion for life in the air, and he reenlisted 
     for active duty. Given a second chance at a Navy career, he 
     said, ``I could have walked on water.''
       He made a career as a test pilot, helping to develop many 
     of the safety mechanisms that have become standard for the 
     aviators who were to follow him.
       A test he made of an ejection seat at a factory in 
     Philadelphia left him with a compressed disc in his spine. He 
     regarded the sacrifice as worthwhile, however, for the seat 
     was credited with helping to save the lives of more than 
     6,000 pilots.
       In 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, Engen was an 
     officer on board the USS Valley Forge. While flying from its 
     deck, he took part in the first aerial strike over Pyongyang, 
     the North Korean capital.
       Later, he commanded a squadon and an air wing during the 
     Vietnam War, although he did not see action there. While 
     serving in the Navy, he received a bachelor of science degree 
     from George Washington University in 1968 and also attended 
     the Naval War College.
       He served as commanding officer of the USS Katmai and the 
     USS America and of the Navy's Carrier Division 4. He was 
     deputy commander in chief of the U.S. naval forces in Europe 
     from 1973 to 1976 and of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet from 1976 
     to 1978.
       He advanced through the officer ranks to vice admiral.
       After retiring from the Navy in 1978, he become general 
     manager of a division of the Piper Aircraft Corp. and in 1982 
     was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the National 
     Transportation Safety Board--one of the agencies that is 
     investigating his death.
       Engen encountered some turbulence during his 1984-87 FAA 
     tenure. Public attention focused on his agency in 1987, in 
     particular, when airline passengers complained about flight 
     delays. He warned early in the summer vacation season that 
     delays would occur, largely because there were not enough 
     airports to handle increased traffic.
       Speaking not long after the NTSB warned that there had been 
     ``an erosion of safety'' in aviation, Engen called U.S. 
     aviation the world's safest, asserting that criticism of the 
     system was often based on ``emotion and misinformation.''
       In a speech at the National Press Club, the soft-spoken 
     admiral said that the holder of his post would never lack for 
     critics looking over his shoulder.
       ``There is a fine line between constructive oversight and 
     unconstructive meddling,'' he said.
       Engen said more airports were needed, rather than re-
     regulation of the airlines, as some critics had proposed.
       The reasons for his resignation were not made known, but in 
     aviation circles it was said that friction had occurred 
     between him and then-Transportation Secretary Elizabeth 
     Hanford Dole. The FAA is part of the Transportation 
     Department.
       Of his departure, Engen said only, ``There's never a good 
     time to leave, but the time has come.''
       After a long search, he was picked in June 1996 to head Air 
     and Space. Critics had contended that the proposed Enola Gay 
     exhibit depicted the United States as the aggressor during 
     World War II. At the time of his appointment, one of the 
     critics called Engen ``a true aviator,'' and said ``we are 
     all exalted.''
       Engen married the former Mary Ann Baker in 1943, and they 
     had four children.

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