KSLA Salutes: Waldo Cecil, Air Force veteran

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Waldo Cecil was born in Dallas, Texas in 1930. He and his family moved to Shreveport in 1935. He graduated from Byrd High School and went to college at Centenary College and Louisiana Tech until the Korean War.

”I always wanted to fly, so I went to Barksdale and applied to be an aviation cadet,” Cecil said. “They gave me a 90 day deferment, which ended in June of 1950. They told me to go ahead and enlist in the Air Force and they would call me when my class came up. My class came up in April, I went through flight school for one year, graduated May 1952, and at the time the Korean War was going very strong. Many of my class went to gunnery school and then went to Korea.”

Cecil flew 100 combat missions; he recalled one where they flew over a dam, hoping to destroy it.

“When we got there, they were waiting for us,” Cecil said. “The sky turned black and I saw what looked like silver confetti.”

Another plane had been hit. He instructed the pilot to bail out in the ocean after they flew over Pyongyang, the North Korean capital city.

”How it flew, I’ll never know,” Cecil said. “The front of the aircraft was totally gone including the front landing gear. Part of the outside left wing was gone and the tip tank was gone.”

Cecil served in the Air Force for five years.

“I am extremely proud of my service because I served with some wonderful people, all very brave,” Cecil said.

He and his wife Nancy have lived at The Oaks of Louisiana for the last decade. They are celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary this month.

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