THE HISTORY AND MILITARY SERVICE of 12-07's AUX Member JAMES PLACKIS

I FROM THE BEGINNING
Born in New York City, 1925, to immigrant parents from Sitia, Crete; a widower
in good health, with four children and five grandchildren

II EDUCATION
A graduate of: Virginia Polytechnic Institute (B.S. Degree, 1949);
University of Richmond (M.A. Degree, 1951); first year McGill University Medical School, (1952);
C.A.A. Test Pilot School , (1957)

III MILITARY
A WW-II Combat Pilot and Senior Pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps/U. S. Air Force/Air National Guard, (1943-1951)

IV GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT
An FAA career as the Chief Test Pilot, Aerospace Engineer and Manager of
the Eastern Region's Flight Test Branch, (1956-1995)

V PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
A. The FAA, (as a retiree, from 1995 to the present): Safety Counselor; Test Pilot and Aerospace Engineer
"Designee"; Flight Instructor; and Airline Transport Pilot,
B. The National Transportation Safety Board Association, active Member
C. The International Society of Air Safety Investigators, active Member
D. The Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association, active Member
E. The Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Lifetime Member
F. The Society of Aviation Flight Educators, Charter Member
G. Former Adjunct Professor, State University of N.Y., Aviation Dept.
H. U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Auxiliary, Staff Member
I. USAF Civil Air Patrol, former Chief Check-Pilot
J. The American Legion Aviators Post 743, Member/Chaplain

VI HONORS, AWARDS AND RATINGS
A. The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), (the highest military aviation award), earned in 1944,
for heroism, courage and resourcefulness in saving his crew and their heavily damaged
B-24 "Liberator" bomber, following aerial combat over the Phillipines. This was his 16th
combat mission out of the 40 that he conducted in the Pacific Theater, bombing the Japanese.
As the Crew Commander and Pilot, he was still a "skinny, scared" 19 year old "teenager".
B. The U.S. Air Force Air Medal, with six Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, earned during his other
combat missions.
C. The FAA Airline Transport Pilot Rating (ATP), with 24 "Type Ratings" as Pilot In Command of
jet transport airplanes and helicopters, such as four different Boeing Transports and four
different Gulfstream Business Jets; the Jetstar; the Sabreliner; the Citation; and Bombardier's
CL-600 and CL-601.
Nine of these Ratings are in helicopters, such as the Boeing CH-47 Chinook and the CH-46
Sky-Knight; the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane, the S-61 Sky-King, the S-61R Green Giant, and
the SK-76 Spirit; plus the Bell 412, the 212 and the 206. He has flown and tested over 150 types
of Landplanes, Seaplanes, Helicopters, Gliders and Hot Air Balloons over the past 74 years as a
Professional Pilot.
D. He was awarded FAA's coveted "Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award", following 50 years of piloting.
E. He was honored by the FAA in the 1960's when he was selected as the FAA-Designated "Air-Force-One" Test
Pilot, for the conduct of Flight Test Programs on President Lyndon Johnson's Boeing 707, (AF-1 # 26000),
and on Vice President Hubert Humphrey's "Air-Force-Two" Jetstar, which he always completed expeditiously.

VII IN CLOSING
At age 92, James Plackis still maintains currency as a Pilot and Test Pilot, actively performing
test flights for the Federal Aviation Administration as a DER ("Designated Engineering Representative"),
whenever they are unavailable to handle programs. He has been piloting for 74 years, and
has accumulated over 13,600 flight hours, mostly as a test pilot His most recent project for the FAA was in
performing the flight test evaluation of a Russian passenger jet, ("Roussiya Airlines"), in Shannon, Ireland, last April,
2017. This was a Boeing 737-800, the same plane that he had previously evaluated in the Czech Republic during
December, 2016, for transporting U.S. passengers, and which he declined to approve at that time.

ANACO-DVd David G. Porter
USCG Auxiliary, 1SR

African Americans in the US Coast Guard

The Long Blue Line: African-Americans in the U.S. Coast Guard (Part 1)

Posted by PA2 Diana Honings, Thursday, February 2, 2017

This blog is part of a series honoring the long blue line of Coast Guard men and women who served before us. Stay tuned as we highlight the customs, traditions, history and heritage of the Coast Guard. 

The all African-American Life-Saving Service crew at Pea Island. For decades, the station served as a singular success story in a service with few other examples of racial progress. Coast Guard Collection.

Written by William H. Thiesen
Coast Guard Atlantic Area historian

The history of African-American participation in the Coast Guard and its predecessor services dates back to the very founding of the service in 1790. In over 225 years of Coast Guard history, African-Americans have been the first minority group to serve, first to fight and the first to sacrifice. In fact, the first known service death in the line of duty was a black cutterman lost off Revenue Cutter South Carolina in 1795.

During the early years of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, many African-American cuttermen were slaves as well as free men of color. Regardless of their status, blacks served side-by-side with their white shipmates. In the Quasi-War with France of the 1790s and the War of 1812, African-American cuttermen were among the first to fight against Royal Navy warships. The youngest prisoner-of-war in Coast Guard history was a black 15-year-old cutterman who was captured off Revenue Cutter James Madison during the War of 1812. In 1836, the service experienced its first African-American combat loss when assistant keeper and freedman Aaron Carter died defending the Cape Florida Lighthouseagainst a Seminole Indian attack.

The Cape Florida Light, where slaves helped stand the watch in the early 1800s and the first African-American Coast Guardsman died in combat during the Seminole Wars. Coast Guard Collection.

War often serves as a catalyst for cultural change and it did for African-Americans in Coast Guard predecessor services. During the Civil War, blacks comprised 5 to 10 percent of the crewmembers aboard Revenue cutters. Given the small size of cutter crews, this proved a de facto form of integration. As the status of countless African-Americans changed from slave to freedman, the U.S. Lighthouse Service began hiring former slaves, or "contrabands," to work at southern installations. For example, in 1863, a contraband crew operated the Fishing Rip Lightship, near the captured city of Port Royal, South Carolina. Soon after the war, the Lighthouse Service hired African-Americans to operate lighthouses in the southeast and, by the late-1870s, black keepers supervised some lighthouses while all-black crews manned other lights.

In the 1870s, the newly-formed U.S. Life-Saving Service hired African-American watermen along the southeast coast who were known for their boathandling skills in shallow water and heavy surf. As a result, the service assembled interracial "checkerboard" crews of white and black surfmen. In 1875, five out of six surfmen in the crew at the Cape Henry Station were black. In 1876, African-American Jeremiah Munden was among the service's first surfmen to die in the line of duty. By 1880, the service appointed African-American surfman Richard Etheridge as station keeper of the all-black Pea Island Life-Saving Station. In 1896, this Pea Island crew performed the Gold Life-Saving Medal rescue of survivors from the wrecked schooner E.S. Newman.

Capt. Michael Healy, Revenue Cutter Service captain, skipper of the Bear and the first African-American to command a federal sea service vessel of any kind. Coast Guard Collection.

The late-1800s saw other opportunities for African-Americans. Receiving a Revenue Cutter Service commission in 1865, "Hell Roaring" Mike Healy was the first commissioned officer and ship's captain of African-American heritage in the history of the nation's sea services; he became famous in the 1880s and 1890s as the captain of the Arctic Revenue Cutter Bear. The Spanish-American War also served as a minority highlight of the late-1890s. The Cutter Hudson's steward, Moses Jones, and cook Henry Savage received specially-struck Congressional Bronze Medals along with rest of the enlisted crew for heroic service in the hard-fought Battle of Cardenas Bay, Cuba. It was the first such recognition of African-Americans in U.S. history.

African-Americans continued to break barriers, becoming the first of many different roles within the Coast Guard. Check back next week to continue learning about the many achievements and firsts African-American Coast Guardsmen and women have accomplished.

ANACOd David G. Porter

USCG Auxiliary, 1SR

646-523-1213 cell