Honoring Our Veterans Jim Lether
 | Author:
Matthew Nelson
MT43 News Correspondent |
Honoring Our Veterans Jim Lether
Matthew Nelson
Jim Lether served in the U.S. Air Force from September of 1956 until November 1959, most of the time at Misawa AFB in Japan. Although his career field was technically that of Small Arms and Special Weapons, he never really worked it.
Originally he is from Holiday Utah, about 20 miles South of Salt Lake City. One of Jim’s friends from high school encouraged him to go join the Air Force. His basic training was at Lackland AFB near San Antonio, Texas. From there he went to Lowry AFB outside of Denver, where he was given his training on Small Arms and Special Weapons. At the time a B-52 was there, and he was trained on some of the weapon systems on it.
Upon graduation, initially, Jim was assigned to go to Europe, and another man was assigned to Japan. However, that guy asked Jim to trade with him, and it didn’t matter much to Jim, so that’s how he ended up going to Misawa AFB, located on the Northern end of Honshu Island.
Before he left San Francisco for Japan, he was riding with some friends going to Reno, and their car was in a head-on collision with a semi-truck. They wound up in a river. Jim was riding in the back. All of them managed to get out by breaking the windows, but the man next to Jim ended up drowning, and Jim was swept down the river about a mile. He managed to grab onto a tree branch and bring himself to safety. Some people on the other side of the river saw him and yelled for him stay there, and they came and got him and then found the two men who had been riding in front seat. All were taken by ambulance to Placerville, CA. They were in the hospital for a few days, and after Jim was released he proceeded on to Japan flying in Lockheed Super Constellation, the C-121.
Between the approximately 24 hours of flight time to Tokyo, and another 24 hours by train to Misawa, and a series of misadventures, he finally made it. The base commander met him asked Jim why he was there. Jim said “I have no idea why I am here.” The commander told Jim that he was going to be reassigned, he shouldn’t be there. He was there for 2 ½ years not being reassigned! He didn’t really have anything to do. All he had to do was maintain contact with the squadron, and volunteered for many duties just to keep busy. He did do some work with the small arms, but what he liked better was doing a lot of hunting and fishing. He was assigned to a barracks with two-man rooms. They had to pay $2.00 a month for the Japanese people who came in and cleaned their rooms, including changing their sheets, and another $2.00 a month for the Japanese people who did K.P. Rough life! All Jim had to do every weekly morning was to report for roll call at the hangar at 7 AM.
He met a Captain who was a supply officer, and also a T-33 jet pilot. This Captain grew up in a town in Utah not far from where Jim grew up. Although Jim was enlisted and the other guy was an officer, they established a good friendship. Part of the mission of the Air Force in Misawa was to map South Korea. One day The Captain had to take a part over to Korea, and asked Jim if he would like to fly over there with him. That was the start of the two of them flying together often, and eventually the Captain taught Jim how to take-off, fly, and land the T-33.
After Jim was honorably discharged from the Air Force, he went to work with the original Frontier Airlines in the operational area, selling tickets, handling baggage, fueling aircraft, etc. When Frontier went under in 1986, Jim transferred to Northwest Airlines. While living in Bozeman, Jim did a lot of hunting and fishing, and eventually moved to Townsend so he could be close to Canyon Ferry Lake. He said he had been fishing the lake for 40 years, and also he had sold real estate for 40 years. Also, in Bozeman he was instrumental in starting the Gallatin County Search and Rescue team. He and other people became diver certified, and unfortunately, recovered several drowning victims. Jim was with the team for 13 years, and even now has a lot of emotion in his voice as he described what he did.
Jim and his wife Pat moved here about three years ago. They are the parents of one daughter and three sons, and they have six grandchildren. They are members of the Trailhead Christian Fellowship Church, which they can easily see from their house.
Jim is a very strong Christian, and also is a very strong patriot. He started being a patriot the day he was born, on July 4th! God Bless.
Article Images
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Image 1 Caption: Jim Lether, U.S. Air Force Veteran
Photo by Matt Nelson
Image 2 Caption: Pat and Jim Lether
Photo Courtesy of Jim Lether
