SUZANNE GRUBBS

by

[Ann Grubbs, Suzanne's Mother - October 2004]

( Ann Grubbs:  Passed away 9/16/06 in her home in Fairmont, Minnesota )

( Cliff Grubbs:  Passed away 5/1/95 -  Ph.D, Professor Emeritus University of Texas at Austin, served country as Major - U.S. Marines in Korea )

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Suzanne - so this will be a poignant account to you of how I saw her and how, I hope, others can come to know her better.

Suzanne was born May 10, 1955, in Ft. Worth, Texas. She seemed to love being out-of-doors the minute she was born so we had her out every night on a blanket, looking up at the trees, the coming night and the stars. I always think that perhaps this was the beginning of her yearning to fly.

Her first three years were spent in Boston where her father was finishing up his Ph.D. at Harvard. She was inventive, slightly restless, but also had a quietness about her. She took off from our house one morning at the age of two, headed down a very busy street for the little shopping center. I found out where she was and asked her where she was going. She said, "I'm going for some gum". Thus, the beginning of her "outward" journey! It was also in Boston where she first began to swim and love being in the water.

We then spent a year in Amherst at the U. of Massachusetts. She had her own little room in the house we were renting and it was there that she began to paint and draw, a very fine talent she used the rest of her young life.

We left Amherst for her father's first teaching job at the U. of Colorado. She was then 4 years old, where she attended pre-school and started kindergarten. Suzanne began showing her creative side more and more, painting, building things, and finding unique things to do. We moved to a little farm in the country just outside Boulder where we inherited a horse, Sugar, and a small creek that ran through our property. She there began her love of riding, trying to catch minnows, tobogganing down the hill in front of the house, pulled behind her dad's car. It was a lovely period for her, as she grew to love the out-of-doors and all the little creatures that she championed.

We always encouraged the girls to try everything, being as careful as possible in doing it, so early on, Suzanne and Lisa had little fear of the unknown and a great desire for new adventures.

The family left Boulder and Colorado University (and Sugar!) for the U. of Texas in July of 1965, where we bought a house on Meriden Lane, and lived there until 1989. Suzanne's father taught at the U. of Texas in the Department of Economics. Suzanne went to Casis Elementary School, which afforded her a wonderful education with a lot of emphasis on art. She spent a lot of her summers at the little park around the corner, swimming, playing ball, and riding her bike. Junior High at O'Henry happened during The Viet Nam War, the Free Speech Movement, the Hippie Movement, and beginning of the Women's Movement. All these things affected Suzanne. She was never much of a joiner, but she watched her world carefully, and developed a deep sense of compassion. Then on to high school at wonderful old Stephen F. Austin.

During her junior high years, she was intensely interested in Carl Sagan's TV series "Cosmos", thus her further thrust into space! Her years at Austin High were spent doing a lot of art, sports and making the honor roll. She cherished many good friends there, at which time I sensed in her a deep concern for those who had less than she and for doing the right thing. She held various jobs at the sports store in Northcross Mall, the Barn, and making pizzas.

But the best part of her summers was going to the family cabin in Colorado - 8900 feet of forest and clear stream where she helped her father and sister build our cabin. Summers were filled with hiking and driving around Boulder in her mom's red convertible. She also loved spending time in Ft. Worth with her Grandmother and Granddaddy Grubbs. Then, in about 1973, she discovered Scuba Point out of Lake Travis in Austin and fell in love with snorkeling and diving and all those she worked with. She received her Certificates as Advanced Divemaster, Basic NAUI and PADI; also certified as Instructor, NAUI. She loved her trips to Belize and various other areas for deep sea diving and snorkeling. About that time, she was also learning to sky dive and parachute; she informed us of this only after she had completed the training and necessary jumps!

Upon graduating from High School, she was enrolled at UT with a major in aerospace engineering and minor in math. Not only did she graduate at the top of her class in high school, but also was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, the national freshman honor society at UT. During this time, she also completed her pilot training and received her pilot's license in 1976. The first thing she did with it was rush home, pick up her mother and they flew back and forth over Lake Travis. What a great celebration!

She attended UT for two years, and then in 1976, she received her appointment to the Naval Academy, a choice she felt would enable her to fly. This was a very hard four years, for it was the first class of women to be accepted into the Academy. 1,274 midshipmen were inducted in the summer of 1976, eighty-one of them women. It was a tough four years, but Suzanne was graduated in 1980 with 54 other women. She received her Bachelor of Science degree and was assigned to Flight School in Pensacola, one of two women from the Academy to be the first women graduates sent to Flight Training.

She finished the basic training in Pensacola and then was assigned to Training Air Wing Five at Whiting Field where she was recognized by the Navy for her " superior performance in both the flight and academic phases of primary training" and placed on the Commodore's List of Distinction. Only 5% of the more than 900 students assigned to the Navy's Flight Training Program at the Naval Air Station in Milton, Fla., achieve this distinction. She completed her flight training and received her wings and naval aviator designation at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in August of 1981.

Needless to say, Suzanne was very proud and happy that "she had made it". She took some needed time off, spent a part of the summer at the Colorado cabin, and then headed off to her first assignment at the Naval Air Station, VR-24 in Sigonella, Sicily, a NATO base. There she flew the C1-A and T-39 to and from various locations in Europe, Italy, Greece and Spain, with her main duties taking her to the Sixth Fleet aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea. She fell in love with carrier aviation, having accumulated over 40 arrested landings and 600 flight hours. At this time, she was recommended for Carrier Transport Plane Commander because of her outstanding performance. This was in 1983 at a time of great upheavel in the mid-east when 200 Marines were killed in a bomb blast in Lebanon and many terrorist activities were being reported. Suzanne was spending a great deal of time flying back and forth to the carriers, but was looking forward to flying back to Sigonella from Palma, Spain, for Thanksgiving with all her buddies on November 23, 1983.

Two C-1A's were flying back together to Sigonella somewhere over Sardinia where their planes disappeared and were not heard from again. Suzanne and two others were in one plane and four other personnel were in the other; all 7 were listed as missing, a result the Navy officials announced as a probable mid-air collision. We will never know what really happened; there was very little debris in the water, with a small oil slick, but nothing else. It was a terrible loss to seven families. A memorial service was held at Sigonella for the lost at sea.

Hopefully, this account will give her friends a chance to share her life and accomplishments, and to celebrate the joy with which she lived. All the young women in that first class at the Naval Academy are to be congratulated and honored for their various achievements. Suzanne was fortunate, indeed, to share this experience with them. She was 28 years old when she died and lived fully every minute of those years. She loved the Navy and her country so much. Her sister, Lisa, now lives in Whitefish, Montana. She, too, has received her private pilot's license. I think Suzanne must be very proud of her.

One of my sweetest memories is of Suzanne rushing home late one afternoon, very excited, saying "Come quick, Mom, get in the car and go with me to see the beautiful sunset on Mt. Bonnell." Truly, it is the moment that counts.

Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. -

Address by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy in accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award on 12 May 1962