December 29, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Roland Bitcon grew up with a father who could repair anything, build everything, and never needed to say much to say a lot. From a childhood on an Iowa farm to a Navy career that spanned decades and oceans, Russell E. Bitcon lived with purpose, humility, and grace. In this story, Roland delivers the eulogy he gave at his father’s funeral, a moving tribute to a man whose legacy was measured in work, wisdom, and quiet love.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, a
eulogy from Roland Bitcoin. On Saturday May fifteenth, twenty twenty one,
Roland's father, Russell Bitcoin, 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 keats saying, you should
have seen your father. 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 (00:49):
Was usually more reserved, and he wasn't a proud or
boastful man, and he lets such things speak for themselves,
but such as the nature of life. We're used to
turing on our children, but rarely do we get a
chance of sharing 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 it sure for my dad. My dad,
Russell Lee Bitcom was born on a farm two parents
(01:12):
were sharecroppers. The 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 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
(01:33):
a 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 doing farming and want 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 test
(02:01):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
My dad wanted to learn how to work on them.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Joined the Navy c of the world's the advertising slogan
right Whiles 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 Finland, to the Mediterranean Sea, and Corpus Christi, Texas.
(02:36):
He worked on the twin engine trainer. Little did he
know that sixty years later his grandson, my son ordering
his wings flying the name of the twin undred 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 Motes.
He finally married her and it was off to Puerto Rico.
(03:00):
That's where myself and my sister were born. From there
in norflk, Virginia, then the Cesa 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 growbing 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. There had
been some crashes of the A four Skyhawk. This was
(03:20):
the midst of the Cold War and these aircraft were
part of the West to turn against the Soviet aggression.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
All the highly educated engineers at McDonald.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Douglas and Patten and Winny 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, 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
(03:47):
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. He was told as similar team and get
to the hangar deck and demonstrate his procedure. Well, because
of that, he's received this letter accommodation in December nineteen
sixty four. This squadron received airframe bulletin two ninety three,
which required replacing of the engine main mounting bolts on
(04:09):
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 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
(04:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
That's my dad. That's my dad. Here's another one of
my favorite stories.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
In nineteen seventy Dad was tasked making sure all the
jests from his squadron made out of 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. Then 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 pilot 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
the 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 fortlass
on the flight deck, ran him up was high as
(06:00):
they would go, wrapped them in foil as to diet
skise the aircraft carrier as a freighter to radar signals
as they entered the straits. They ended up off the
coast of Syria. The Jordanian forces and the Palestinian forces
were battling and Syria was getting ready to move to
intervene on the behalf of the Palestinians. They went to
general quarters and loaded bombs and missiles all day. Dad
said at the time he didn't know what was going
(06:21):
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 near the plane
(06:42):
except my dad and those who he approved. That's my
dad that's my dad. 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 serious
sold during this time. In nineteen eighty, while Dad was
driving his truck listening to Pastor Lindsay on the radio,
(07:03):
he then pulled his truck over to the side of
the road surrendered his life to Christ. Since that day,
my dad has 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 (07:14):
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. He could fix repair anything, wood, middle, steel, concrete,
it didn't matter. He could just build something with it.
When it came time to repairing, it didn't matter if
(07:36):
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. He said, Son, you
bought a Ford. You know what that means. Fix a
repair daily. My dad was always a general motors guy.
Don't get me wrong. My dad had a library full
(07:57):
of repair manuals, but I never saw him read 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
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 SERFCE manual. Now these manuals were
several thousand pages long, held together by the big middle binders,
(08:21):
and he'd go right to say, you like page and
seventy eight 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.
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. My dad got into
model rocketry when I started surfing at the age of fourteen.
My dad took up surfishing just so could drive me
to the beach. My dad also loved gardening, growing to
(08:47):
made a plants, pepper squash, pegonias, and even water lily
was in his fish pond where he raised kroi and goldfish.
My dad was a fun 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 back and he always he would always
(09:07):
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 continue with our American stories. Up next, a
eulogy from Roland Bitcoin. On Saturday May fifteenth, twenty twenty one,
Roland's father, Russell Bitcoin, 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 keats saying, you should
have seen your father. 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 (00:49):
Was usually more reserved, and he wasn't a proud or
boastful man, and he lets such things speak for themselves,
but such as the nature of life. We're used to
turing on our children, but rarely do we get a
chance of sharing 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 it sure for my dad. My dad,
Russell Lee Bitcom was born on a farm two parents
(01:12):
were sharecroppers. The 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 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
(01:33):
a 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 doing farming and want 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 test
(02:01):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
My dad wanted to learn how to work on them.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Joined the Navy c of the world's the advertising slogan
right Whiles 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 Finland, to the Mediterranean Sea, and Corpus Christi, Texas.
(02:36):
He worked on the twin engine trainer. Little did he
know that sixty years later his grandson, my son ordering
his wings flying the name of the twin undred 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 Motes.
He finally married her and it was off to Puerto Rico.
(03:00):
That's where myself and my sister were born. From there
in norflk, Virginia, then the Cesa 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 growbing 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. There had
been some crashes of the A four Skyhawk. This was
(03:20):
the midst of the Cold War and these aircraft were
part of the West to turn against the Soviet aggression.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
All the highly educated engineers at McDonald.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Douglas and Patten and Winny 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, 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
(03:47):
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. He was told as similar team and get
to the hangar deck and demonstrate his procedure. Well, because
of that, he's received this letter accommodation in December nineteen
sixty four. This squadron received airframe bulletin two ninety three,
which required replacing of the engine main mounting bolts on
(04:09):
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 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
(04:32):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
That's my dad. That's my dad. Here's another one of
my favorite stories.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
In nineteen seventy Dad was tasked making sure all the
jests from his squadron made out of 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. Then 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 pilot 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
the 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 fortlass
on the flight deck, ran him up was high as
(06:00):
they would go, wrapped them in foil as to diet
skise the aircraft carrier as a freighter to radar signals
as they entered the straits. They ended up off the
coast of Syria. The Jordanian forces and the Palestinian forces
were battling and Syria was getting ready to move to
intervene on the behalf of the Palestinians. They went to
general quarters and loaded bombs and missiles all day. Dad
said at the time he didn't know what was going
(06:21):
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 near the plane
(06:42):
except my dad and those who he approved. That's my
dad that's my dad. 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 serious
sold during this time. In nineteen eighty, while Dad was
driving his truck listening to Pastor Lindsay on the radio,
(07:03):
he then pulled his truck over to the side of
the road surrendered his life to Christ. Since that day,
my dad has 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 (07:14):
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. He could fix repair anything, wood, middle, steel, concrete,
it didn't matter. He could just build something with it.
When it came time to repairing, it didn't matter if
(07:36):
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. He said, Son, you
bought a Ford. You know what that means. Fix a
repair daily. My dad was always a general motors guy.
Don't get me wrong. My dad had a library full
(07:57):
of repair manuals, but I never saw him read 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
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 SERFCE manual. Now these manuals were
several thousand pages long, held together by the big middle binders,
(08:21):
and he'd go right to say, you like page and
seventy eight 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.
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. My dad got into
model rocketry when I started surfing at the age of fourteen.
My dad took up surfishing just so could drive me
to the beach. My dad also loved gardening, growing to
(08:47):
made a plants, pepper squash, pegonias, and even water lily
was in his fish pond where he raised kroi and goldfish.
My dad was a fun 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 back and he always he would always
(09:07):
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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