Hi Guys,
Meaker and I became very close friends while we both were in the 85th. He picked up our brand new L-20 at the Toronto factory and checked me out in March of 1954. We took a couple of long canoe trips in Canada fishing before his courts martial and transfer to the 11th FIS at Duluth. We lost contact with each other after I went to Germany and El left the USAF. He had a job testing T-33's for Trans Ocean and then a long period as a production test pilot on fighters for Douglas. I ran into Ellis again in 1962 in Syracuse, NY where he was working as a sales and demo pilot for a local company. I lost track of him again when I went back to Germany. I located Meaker in Santa Paula, CA just prior to our first reunion and I spent a couple of days with him in Santa Paula in 1998. He was retired but still flying the CAF's C-46 out of Oxnard. He had a lot of C-46 time after spending four years flying in Laos and Viet Nam for Air America. He was in good health, still drinking and full of stories that could keep you laughing for hours. Ellis could not make it to our reunions so I never saw him again. We did continue to stay in touch with each other by phone. He never learned to use a computer. The last few times we spoke I could tell Ellis was beginning to have memory problems. When I tried to call him last week I found his phone had been disconnected. A Google search produced a phone listing for him in Tubac, AZ. When I called the number I got his brother who had moverd Ellis to live with him in Tubac. His brother had been called by the Santa Rosa police saying that Ellis could no longer care for himself. His brother placed him in a care facility for senior men in Tuscon when he could no longer recognize even him. He says Ellis seems happy where he is and except for the mental problems is in good health.

Be well, do good work and stay in touch,
Jim Vorhies