June 19, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, listener Russel Bitcon presents the eulogy he delivered for his father.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we returned to our American story. Up next, a
eulogy from Roland Bitcom. On Saturday May fifteenth, twenty twenty one,
Roland's father, Russell Bitcom, went to be with his Lord
after eighty seven years of a life well lived. You're
about to hear the eulogy Roland delivered or his father
(00:32):
honoring his father at a church in Jacksonville, Florida. Here's Roland.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I remember coming home from a football game where I'd
scored a touchdown and my mom cat saying.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
You should have seen your father.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You should have seen your father who is jumping up
and down and saying, that's my boy, that's my boy.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I found that a little eye because my dad.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Was usually more reserved, and he wasn't a prouder boastful man,
and he lets such things speak for themselves, but such
as the nature of life. We're used to turning on
our children, but rarely do we get a chance of
sharing our parents. So if you don't mind, I'd like
to take a few moments here to tell you about
my dad, and maybe, just maybe I'll just stand up
and say a cheer for my dad. My dad, Russell E. Bitcom,
was born on a farm. Two parents were sharecroppers. The
(01:13):
Rock Island railroad line ran right through the farm. This
started my dad's life long love of trains. My dad
would run along beside the train and hop on one
of the cars and got rides into town. And here
of the summer they would chase cows out of the
ponds they go swimming. So as you can see, a
childhood of safe, clean, healthy living can lead to a
(01:33):
long life of eighty seven years.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That's my dad. That's my dad.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He worked hard than the farm and would also work
the hayfields of surrounding farms. He said it was very
hard work, but it paid several times that the kids
were making in town. As my dad graduated high school,
he said he's done with farming and wanted to get
far with from from the farm as he could, so
he joined the US Navy. He took a train from
Iowa to San Diego for Navy boot camp. Dad got
a top score of all the enlisted men on a
(02:01):
test the Navy gave the new recruits, which gave him
first choice of what he wanted to do. It was
nineteen fifty two, don of the jet age. The airplane
was the latest sicknology and the fastest machine on the planet.
My dad wanted to learn how to.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Work on them.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Joined the Navy c of the world's the advertising slogan
right while in the place and my dad were stationed
San Diego, California, Norman, Oklahoma, Corpus Christie, Texas, Kingsville, Texas,
back to San Diego, Hawaii, fall In, Nevada, Memphis, Tennessee,
Puerto Rico, North Fork, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida. He also did
several deployments on aircraft carriers to the North Atlantic off
the coast of.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Finland to the Mediterranean Sea.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
From Corpus Christi, Texas, he worked on the twin engine trainer.
Little did he know that sixty years later his grandson,
my son Or during his wings flying the Navy twin
enter trainer of Corpus Christie, Texas, who take leave from
time to time and go back to Iowa to visit family,
That's where he met and fell in love with Ruby Motz.
(02:56):
He finally married her and it was off to Puerto
Rico and that's where myself and my sister were born.
From there in norflk Virginia, and then ces of Field
in Jacksonville. There are so many experiences and cool stories
my dad would tell over the years about his time
in the Navy and growbingk on the farm, And just
when we thought we heard them all, it seemed like
you'd tell us a new one. Here are just a few.
(03:17):
There had been some crashes of the Afour Skyhawk. This
was the midst of the Cold War and these aircraft
were part of the West to turn against the Soviet aggression.
All the highly educated engineers at McDonald, Douglas and Patten
and Whinny determined the problem with the A four was
the engine mounting bolts. They devised a way to fix
the program. The process would take ten point five man
hours per plane. When Dad heard this, he thought, no way,
(03:39):
they're going to have us working around the clock NonStop.
Within minute, my dad thought through the situation. With my
dad's intimate knowledge of detail of the aircraft. Typical of
my dad, he had the ability to understand every detail
about anything. He went to the commanding officer and said,
there's a better way to fix this problem. Who has
sold as similar team and get to the hangar deck
and demonstrate procedure. Well, because of that, he's received this
(04:02):
letter accommodation. In December nineteen sixty four. The squadron received
airframe bulletin two ninety three, which required replacing of the
engine main mounting bolts on all squadron aircraft. Procedures outlined stipulator,
removal of the tail section and supporting the engine with
the engine stand while affecting replacement of the bolts. Program
time was ten point five nine hours per aircraft. After
careful analysis of the situation, you devised a method whereby
(04:25):
the necessity for a movement tail section was eliminated and
the overhead crane was used to support the engine while
replacing the bolts. Your Mythod reduced it through card time
to thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Per aircraft.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
All VA seventy two aircraft were fixed in one night.
Your Mythod was soon made known to Commander Naval Air
Forces Atlantic, who disseminated it to all other Air Force squadrons.
You're hereby I committed for your initiative, professional bility, and
your performance of duty. That's my dad. That's my dad.
Here's another one of my favorite stories. In nineteen seventy
Dad was tasked making sure all the jests from his
(04:59):
squadron made it out cease of field because they were
getting ready to be deployed on the USS John F. Kennedy,
which was a station just off the coast of Cuba
at the time. There was a problem with a few
planes and Dad had to stay behind to give them
up and going ven. Dad was flown to Guantano Bay
where he was put on a landing craft and taken.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Out to the Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Once he was on the Kennedy, the skipper announced they
were going to radio silence until further notice. They went
full throttle from the Caribbean all the way to the Mediterranean.
As they approached Spain, they repainted one of their planes
a solid color with no markings. The pilot was to
fly on the NATO base and rode to Spain to
receive orders for the carrier Grew, which was still under
radio silence. The plot was told to return to the
(05:38):
Kennedy in the middle of the night. He was to
be at a certain place at a certain time to
meet up with Kennedy. The landing lights would be off
for one minute. When the time came, they turned on
their landing lights. The plane landed three seconds later. They
needed to enter the Mediterranean sea in secrecy, so before
they went to the Straits of Gibralto, they put all
the planes in the hangar deck. They put the fort
lists on the flight day, ran him up high as
(06:00):
they would go, wrapped them in foil as to skise
the aircraft carrier as a freighter to radar signals.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
As they entered the straits, they ended up off the
coast of Syria.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
The Jadinian forces and the Palestinian forces were battling and
Syria was getting ready to move to intervene on the
behalf of the Palestinians.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
They went to general.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Quarters and loaded bombs and missiles all day.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Dad said at the time he didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Know what was going on or where exactly they were at,
but the planes were taken off fully loaded and coming
back empty. During that time, my dad was tasked with
loading one of the A sevens with an atomic bomb
to be on standby. My dad's responsibilities to make sure
that plane was ready to go at a moment's notice.
A group of Marines guarded the plane twenty four to seven.
The Marines were under strict orders to let no one
(06:42):
near the plane except my dad and those who he approved.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That's my Dad, that's my dad.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
He retired from the Navy after twenty years of service
in nineteen seventy one. He eventually was hired by Sears
and Robot Company as a repairman. He quickly learned how
to repair just about everything Seious sold during this time.
In nineteen eighty, while Dad was driving his truck listening
to Pastor or Lindsy on the radio, he then pulled
his truck over to the side of the road surrendered
his life to Christ. Since that day, my dad has
(07:08):
been faithful to Jesus Christ and his church, and I
also served as a deacon.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
My dad's always been a voracious reader.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
When we were going up, there'd be some evening, so
we were told there'd be no TV tonight. Everyone has
to pick a book and read it. See, my dad
had this incredible gift from God of being able to
understand how things worked and how to build things and
repair them. If he could fix repair anything, wood, middle, steel, concrete,
it didn't matter.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
He could just build something with it.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
When it came time to repairing, it didn't matter if
it's gas or electric, he could fix that too. When
I buy my first car, my dad told me the
very first thing you need to do if you buy
a car is go buy a repair manual so you
know how to work on it.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
He said, Son, you bought a Ford. You know what
that means.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Fix a repair daily. My dad was always a general
motors guy. Don't get me wrong. My dad had a
library full of repair manuals, but I never saw them.
But every once in a while he'd go to check
on something and immediately turn it to the exact page
he needed. I remember a story told me he was
in the Navy working on jet engines. A discussion came
(08:10):
up on how to repair a particular problem. So I
told me exactly what to do, but they didn't believe me.
So went into the SURFCE manual. Now these manuals were
several thousand pages long, held together by the big middle binders,
and he'd go right to say you like page and
seventy and point right to the middle of the page.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Right there, it says.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
He says, you don't have to do that very often
before they finally figure out you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
My dad was also involved in my boy Scout troop.
We built model airplanes together and flew some of them.
When I got into model rocketry.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
My dad got into model rocketry when I started surfing
at the age of fourteen.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
My dad took up surf fishing just so could drive
me to the beach.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
My dad also loved gardening, growing to made a plants,
pepper squash, pegonias, and even water lily is in his
fish pond where he draised koi and goldfish. My dad
was a fine guy to be around. He loved to laugh,
even at himself. He loved to tell a good story,
and he loved a good joke. Because of my dad
that I have the courage and the ability to accomplish
what I have. In his life, he always had my
(09:05):
back and he always he would always be able to
figure out whatever obstacles we encountered. I owe him greatly
for this, and even though he came from how old beginnings,
he set the stage not only for himself to succeed,
but also for his children and his grandchildren. There's so
much more to tell about this great man, but I
hope I've honored him here today.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's my dad, and that's my dad.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
That's my dad, that's my dad. In the end, there
are two kinds of fathers. A father who gets a
eulogy written about him like that, and the father who doesn't.
And so if you're a father listening, be that father.
A special thanks to Roland Pitcoon, and a special thanks
to all of our contributors here on our American Stories
And we returned to our American story. Up next, a
eulogy from Roland Bitcom. On Saturday May fifteenth, twenty twenty one,
Roland's father, Russell Bitcom, went to be with his Lord
after eighty seven years of a life well lived. You're
about to hear the eulogy Roland delivered or his father
(00:32):
honoring his father at a church in Jacksonville, Florida. Here's Roland.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I remember coming home from a football game where I'd
scored a touchdown and my mom cat saying.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
You should have seen your father.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You should have seen your father who is jumping up
and down and saying, that's my boy, that's my boy.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I found that a little eye because my dad.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Was usually more reserved, and he wasn't a prouder boastful man,
and he lets such things speak for themselves, but such
as the nature of life. We're used to turning on
our children, but rarely do we get a chance of
sharing our parents. So if you don't mind, I'd like
to take a few moments here to tell you about
my dad, and maybe, just maybe I'll just stand up
and say a cheer for my dad. My dad, Russell E. Bitcom,
was born on a farm. Two parents were sharecroppers. The
(01:13):
Rock Island railroad line ran right through the farm. This
started my dad's life long love of trains. My dad
would run along beside the train and hop on one
of the cars and got rides into town. And here
of the summer they would chase cows out of the
ponds they go swimming. So as you can see, a
childhood of safe, clean, healthy living can lead to a
(01:33):
long life of eighty seven years.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
That's my dad. That's my dad.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He worked hard than the farm and would also work
the hayfields of surrounding farms. He said it was very
hard work, but it paid several times that the kids
were making in town. As my dad graduated high school,
he said he's done with farming and wanted to get
far with from from the farm as he could, so
he joined the US Navy. He took a train from
Iowa to San Diego for Navy boot camp. Dad got
a top score of all the enlisted men on a
(02:01):
test the Navy gave the new recruits, which gave him
first choice of what he wanted to do. It was
nineteen fifty two, don of the jet age. The airplane
was the latest sicknology and the fastest machine on the planet.
My dad wanted to learn how to.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Work on them.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Joined the Navy c of the world's the advertising slogan
right while in the place and my dad were stationed
San Diego, California, Norman, Oklahoma, Corpus Christie, Texas, Kingsville, Texas,
back to San Diego, Hawaii, fall In, Nevada, Memphis, Tennessee,
Puerto Rico, North Fork, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida. He also did
several deployments on aircraft carriers to the North Atlantic off
the coast of.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Finland to the Mediterranean Sea.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
From Corpus Christi, Texas, he worked on the twin engine trainer.
Little did he know that sixty years later his grandson,
my son Or during his wings flying the Navy twin
enter trainer of Corpus Christie, Texas, who take leave from
time to time and go back to Iowa to visit family,
That's where he met and fell in love with Ruby Motz.
(02:56):
He finally married her and it was off to Puerto
Rico and that's where myself and my sister were born.
From there in norflk Virginia, and then ces of Field
in Jacksonville. There are so many experiences and cool stories
my dad would tell over the years about his time
in the Navy and growbingk on the farm, And just
when we thought we heard them all, it seemed like
you'd tell us a new one. Here are just a few.
(03:17):
There had been some crashes of the Afour Skyhawk. This
was the midst of the Cold War and these aircraft
were part of the West to turn against the Soviet aggression.
All the highly educated engineers at McDonald, Douglas and Patten
and Whinny determined the problem with the A four was
the engine mounting bolts. They devised a way to fix
the program. The process would take ten point five man
hours per plane. When Dad heard this, he thought, no way,
(03:39):
they're going to have us working around the clock NonStop.
Within minute, my dad thought through the situation. With my
dad's intimate knowledge of detail of the aircraft. Typical of
my dad, he had the ability to understand every detail
about anything. He went to the commanding officer and said,
there's a better way to fix this problem. Who has
sold as similar team and get to the hangar deck
and demonstrate procedure. Well, because of that, he's received this
(04:02):
letter accommodation. In December nineteen sixty four. The squadron received
airframe bulletin two ninety three, which required replacing of the
engine main mounting bolts on all squadron aircraft. Procedures outlined stipulator,
removal of the tail section and supporting the engine with
the engine stand while affecting replacement of the bolts. Program
time was ten point five nine hours per aircraft. After
careful analysis of the situation, you devised a method whereby
(04:25):
the necessity for a movement tail section was eliminated and
the overhead crane was used to support the engine while
replacing the bolts. Your Mythod reduced it through card time
to thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Per aircraft.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
All VA seventy two aircraft were fixed in one night.
Your Mythod was soon made known to Commander Naval Air
Forces Atlantic, who disseminated it to all other Air Force squadrons.
You're hereby I committed for your initiative, professional bility, and
your performance of duty. That's my dad. That's my dad.
Here's another one of my favorite stories. In nineteen seventy
Dad was tasked making sure all the jests from his
(04:59):
squadron made it out cease of field because they were
getting ready to be deployed on the USS John F. Kennedy,
which was a station just off the coast of Cuba
at the time. There was a problem with a few
planes and Dad had to stay behind to give them
up and going ven. Dad was flown to Guantano Bay
where he was put on a landing craft and taken.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Out to the Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Once he was on the Kennedy, the skipper announced they
were going to radio silence until further notice. They went
full throttle from the Caribbean all the way to the Mediterranean.
As they approached Spain, they repainted one of their planes
a solid color with no markings. The pilot was to
fly on the NATO base and rode to Spain to
receive orders for the carrier Grew, which was still under
radio silence. The plot was told to return to the
(05:38):
Kennedy in the middle of the night. He was to
be at a certain place at a certain time to
meet up with Kennedy. The landing lights would be off
for one minute. When the time came, they turned on
their landing lights. The plane landed three seconds later. They
needed to enter the Mediterranean sea in secrecy, so before
they went to the Straits of Gibralto, they put all
the planes in the hangar deck. They put the fort
lists on the flight day, ran him up high as
(06:00):
they would go, wrapped them in foil as to skise
the aircraft carrier as a freighter to radar signals.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
As they entered the straits, they ended up off the
coast of Syria.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
The Jadinian forces and the Palestinian forces were battling and
Syria was getting ready to move to intervene on the
behalf of the Palestinians.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
They went to general.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Quarters and loaded bombs and missiles all day.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Dad said at the time he didn't.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Know what was going on or where exactly they were at,
but the planes were taken off fully loaded and coming
back empty. During that time, my dad was tasked with
loading one of the A sevens with an atomic bomb
to be on standby. My dad's responsibilities to make sure
that plane was ready to go at a moment's notice.
A group of Marines guarded the plane twenty four to seven.
The Marines were under strict orders to let no one
(06:42):
near the plane except my dad and those who he approved.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That's my Dad, that's my dad.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
He retired from the Navy after twenty years of service
in nineteen seventy one. He eventually was hired by Sears
and Robot Company as a repairman. He quickly learned how
to repair just about everything Seious sold during this time.
In nineteen eighty, while Dad was driving his truck listening
to Pastor or Lindsy on the radio, he then pulled
his truck over to the side of the road surrendered
his life to Christ. Since that day, my dad has
(07:08):
been faithful to Jesus Christ and his church, and I
also served as a deacon.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
My dad's always been a voracious reader.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
When we were going up, there'd be some evening, so
we were told there'd be no TV tonight. Everyone has
to pick a book and read it. See, my dad
had this incredible gift from God of being able to
understand how things worked and how to build things and
repair them. If he could fix repair anything, wood, middle, steel, concrete,
it didn't matter.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
He could just build something with it.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
When it came time to repairing, it didn't matter if
it's gas or electric, he could fix that too. When
I buy my first car, my dad told me the
very first thing you need to do if you buy
a car is go buy a repair manual so you
know how to work on it.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
He said, Son, you bought a Ford. You know what
that means.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Fix a repair daily. My dad was always a general
motors guy. Don't get me wrong. My dad had a
library full of repair manuals, but I never saw them.
But every once in a while he'd go to check
on something and immediately turn it to the exact page
he needed. I remember a story told me he was
in the Navy working on jet engines. A discussion came
(08:10):
up on how to repair a particular problem. So I
told me exactly what to do, but they didn't believe me.
So went into the SURFCE manual. Now these manuals were
several thousand pages long, held together by the big middle binders,
and he'd go right to say you like page and
seventy and point right to the middle of the page.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Right there, it says.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
He says, you don't have to do that very often
before they finally figure out you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
My dad was also involved in my boy Scout troop.
We built model airplanes together and flew some of them.
When I got into model rocketry.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
My dad got into model rocketry when I started surfing
at the age of fourteen.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
My dad took up surf fishing just so could drive
me to the beach.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
My dad also loved gardening, growing to made a plants,
pepper squash, pegonias, and even water lily is in his
fish pond where he draised koi and goldfish. My dad
was a fine guy to be around. He loved to laugh,
even at himself. He loved to tell a good story,
and he loved a good joke. Because of my dad
that I have the courage and the ability to accomplish
what I have. In his life, he always had my
(09:05):
back and he always he would always be able to
figure out whatever obstacles we encountered. I owe him greatly
for this, and even though he came from how old beginnings,
he set the stage not only for himself to succeed,
but also for his children and his grandchildren. There's so
much more to tell about this great man, but I
hope I've honored him here today.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's my dad, and that's my dad.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
That's my dad, that's my dad. In the end, there
are two kinds of fathers. A father who gets a
eulogy written about him like that, and the father who doesn't.
And so if you're a father listening, be that father.
A special thanks to Roland Pitcoon, and a special thanks
to all of our contributors here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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