He was born in 1928 on a 56 acre cotton farm in Red River County, NE Texas, the son of sharecroppers. The farm was midway between Bogota, Fulbright and Rugby TX, with Rubgy being the closest town. School was a 2 mile walk into town where all 11 grades were in a 3 room school at a farming crossroads. The whole family and transient farm workers picked cotton, worked in the corn fields and baled hay from their meadow.

When he was 10 his Grandparents (Dozier) died and they moved into town, Bogota, TX. They lived in the largest house in town as his Grandfather had been one of the early settlers and a rather prominent merchant.

When WWII started they moved to New Boston, TX in Bowie County where his Dad worked at the government munitions plant until he died in 1960 and his mother helped set up the school cafeteria system and worked there until she retired.

Tom played on the football team at New Boston High School where they were undefeated and unscored against for 4 years. This was quite an accomplishment as this is football country and one of the rival high schools had Dan Blocker, (Hoss Cartwirght) playing on their team.

He had always been drawn to the sky and when he graduated high school at 16 he enrolled in the North Texas Agricultural College, the farm school for Texas A&M Collete and later to the Universidy of Texas in Arlington TX. He studied aeronautical engineering and was involved in senior ROTC when he enlisted in the Navy for 2 years.

He was trained in San Diego and assigned to a ship, the USS Chimaera (AEL33) in Long Beach, traveling to San Francisco, Hawaii and to Tsing Tao, China for a year. He visited Peking for 11 days while there. When the shop was decommissioned he was one of 4 sailors who stayed on the preserved ship to tend lines while it was towed to the mothball fleet in San Diego.

Once he mustered out he enrolled at Northrop Aeronautical Institute and obtained his FAA aircraft and powerplant license and went to work for them working on the B35 and B49 Flying Wings. Once the contract was cancelled he went to Lockheed and worked on the P2V, T33 F94C and the Constellation before he was recalled to Northrup. Back at Northrup he worked on the C125 transport and the F89 fighter. While there he took courses at California School of Flyers.

Leaving Northrup in 1951, he went to work for General Electric as a technical field engineer, where he remained for 35 years. There were numerous field moves and assignments, including but not limited to, Paine AFB, Geiger Field, Larson AFB all in Washington state. He then went to Lockheed Palmdale, CA as flight test support then back to Larson AFB and then back to Palmdale. He then moved to North American in Palmdale where he supported the flight test of the A3J Vigalante. He was then reassigned to China Lake Naval Weapons Test Station in support of the Sidewinder missle program then to Edwards AFB to help write and direct a program of flight safety for worldwide districution on F104 aircraft. He then went to George AFB in Victorville, CA then onto McDill AFB in Tampa, FL and then to Davis Monathan AFB in Tucson, Az. He was transferred to Miramar Naval Air Station, (Top Gun) in San Diego, CA where they had 14 squadrons of F4B aircraft and he was promoted to senior rep.

From there he went to Danang, VietNam then back to Edwards ABF for traiing on the C5A and remained on that assignment at Altus AFB in Altus, OK. Finally he was assigned to commercial post with the DC10s at Los Angeles International Airport where he was responsible for American Airlines, United Airlines and 26 other domestic and foreign airlines. He moved over to the Western Airlines engine shop and after a short stint at United Airlines engine overhaul in San Francisco, CA he moved to Douglas-Long Beach for flight test support and to run the FAA certified repair shop for CF^ engines. After four years he was back at LAX and with the Flying Tigers where he helpsed set up the program for them to operate the DC-8RE (re-enginge) aircraft. Then he moved to Western Airlines as a senior res and then to Continental Airlines until her retired from GE in 1986.

1987 brought him back to Douglas Aircraft - Long Beach where he worked for six years as a flight test engineer on C17 aircraft.

He then retired and went to work on a part time basis as an alfalfa inspector for the Port of Los Angeles. At this time he also signed up to be an extra in the movies. He made several movies and several commericials but the love of aircraft brought him back to the air.

During his years in the Los Angeles/Long Beach area he volunteered his time being involved in the restoration of the Northrop Flying Wing, N9MB for Planes of Fame Museum in Chino CA. He also worked there on the PT-17 wings, Fokker DVII wings, and Boeing FB5 (1927) fighter.

A huge project for him was assisting in the restoration of the 1926 Douglas M2 aircraft and was part of the crew that took it to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. for permanent display.

He was a Director of Aircraft Restoration for El Toro Marine Air Command Museum before it moved to Miramar in San Diego. Additionally he helped assemble and install the props on the Spruce Goose when it was put on display in the Long Beach Dome. Several years were spent working on maintenance and repair crew for that airplane.

He helped restore Northrup N3PB for the Norwegian Air Force, now on display in Oslo, Norway in addition to helping restore XAT6E aircraft for the Museum of Flying at Hawthorne Airport in the Los Angeles area.

He received special GE recognition for duty in Vietnam, a Managment Award from GE for customer support in addition to a certificate for TV program director. Tom served as historian for the Aero Club of Southern California and served on the board of directors and as a Director of Aircraft for the El Toro Marine Air Command Museum.

He was a member of the American Aviation Historical Society, lectured at USC's Flight Safety Institute program in investigation aircraft accidents and was a past master in the Toastmaster's Club in addition to having been a member of the Moose Lodge while in Washington. Tom wrote an article for "Sabrejet Classics" on the 498th FIS, Geiger Tigers.

All along he continued to go to school. He attended Compton College, San Diego State, University of California - San Diego, University of Arizona, East Los Angeles College, Antelope Valley College, Apply Valley College, Bakersfield College, El Camino College and Cal State University Dominguez Hills where he received a BA in education and continued on to receive an MA in Public History.

Through this he managed to move his family around with him. He has a son, Tom J. Dozier who is also involved in the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, and a daughter Leilauni Holtz. Additionally he has a granddaughter, Kyrstie and 3 great grandchildren, Devan, Alexandra and Sierra. Additionally he has 2 step daughters and 6 step grandchildren, plus another grand daughter and her 2 children.

Tom has had numerous other interests and was heavily involved with his HAM radio. His call letters were WA6FME, Willie Able 6 Foul Mouthed Eskimo. He taught classes in Morse Code and volunteered with his club to monitor desert races, sitting out at check points to make sure everyone was safe. He bought a ski boat and took everyone skiing whenever possible.

Tom passed in Menifee, CA and is buried in the Riverside National Cemetery, in California.

Tom Dozier (1928)