Earl C. Strobeck

Earl C. Strobeck, Jr. was born on December 29, 1925 in Eaton, Colorado to dairyman Earl C. Strobeck, Sr. and Louise Miller Strobeck. The youngest of three sisters and two brothers, Earl fell out of a tree as a six-year-old and spent 18 months in a body cast. His sisters used to joke that he spent those months squirming, growing and cracking casts. After his parents divorced when he was in grade school, Earl moved to Denver with his mother (who worked as a caterer for Denver's high society) and siblings and moved in with his grandmother Miller. As a youth, he and his brother Sherman, had a large Denver Post delivery route in the Civic Center area in the afternoons. They eventually advanced from using bicycles to having an old car, once Sherman got old enough to drive and they had saved a few dollars for the car. Earl would sit on the hood of the car and fling the papers to the porch while Sherman drove. Earl attended West High School. In October 1943, he decided to enlist in the Army Air Corps, because he wanted to be a pilot and ""see the world"" as well as to avoid being drafted. The Army allowed him to finish high school and graduate in January 1944, before enlisting him on February 3, 1944. After basic training and aptitude tests, the Air Corps decided he would make a better mechanic than a pilot. He was assigned to Lowery Air Force Base in Denver, where he was certified in power turret and gun sight repair. He was eventually assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and the 69th Depot Repair Squadron – part of the 14th Air Force famed Flying Tigers. He was on a transport ship to China via India for one entire month before arriving in India in March 1945. There began his big adventure as he drove a GM transport truck over the famous Burma Road in a convoy to deliver goods and equipment to the southern China town of Kunming, where the U.S. flight crews would come for aircraft repair. Although he never saw any combat, he said his convoy was attacked by Chinese bandits. He made life-long friends with the men in his unit and was active to the very end of his life with the 69th DRS and 14th AF veterans associations. More details regarding his military service follow below in a scholarship-winning essay written by his dear granddaughter, Claire Colgrove, which was based on interviews with her Grandpa. Upon discharge from the Army in June 1946, Earl entered the work force back in Denver at a local car dealer. A friend told him about an opening at the Ford Motor Company Denver District Office, and since it paid a few cents more per hour, he decided to apply. He got the job as a car washer, and that began a 35-year love affair with Ford, Lincoln-Mercury and cars. He landed a quick succession of promotions, including driving a parts delivery truck and delivering mail. His potential was eventually noticed and he took the position of a sales trainee for the Lincoln-Mercury Division. He became a Sales Rep for that division for a seven year period in the late 1950's and early 1960's covering seven western states and spending much of his time on the road visiting dealers. At 34 years old, he became the District Administration Manager, a position that he held until he retired in 1982. In the late 1940's, Earl was set up on a blind date by the cousin of his future bride, the beautiful Iona McLean, also a graduate of West High School. On their first date with the cousin and her friend, they went ice skating in Evergreen, where Iona promptly fell and broke her arm. Iona was a popular girl who was dating someone else at the time, so Earl eventually faded. But when Iona couldn't escape the memory of his charm, kindness and handsome good looks, she decided to pursue him. She and her cousin drove by his house and put a note under his windshield wiper telling him she hadn't seen him in a while and asking him to give her a call. She was still not an easy catch, though, and eventually declined his first two marriage proposals. She smartly accepted his third proposal, because Earl always joked that he wasn't going to ask her again. Iona and Earl were married on September 16, 1950 at University Park Methodist Church near DU and promptly moved into their first new home – a $9000 bungalow in west Denver. With Earl in a stable career and Iona a secretary at an insurance company, they were off and running, beginning a wonderful 62-year life together. In 1953, they welcomed their first child, daughter Louette, into their lives, and she quickly became the apple of her parents' eye looking just like her mother. Iona left her career to become a stay-at-home mom, and so began their idyllic life in the suburbs in the 1950's. They moved into a new suburban home in 1956, the same year Gordon was born, a toe-headed boy with his father's bright blue eyes. The family was very involved in school, sports, music and their church, when they got what they often referred to as a surprise ""bundle of joy"" in 1964. Darling Gwen (blond and blue-eyed like her dad) lit up their lives and changed the family for the better forever. Since Earl retired at the early age of 56, he and Iona were free to begin many years of travel adventures together all over the world. They loved watching their children grow up, marry wonderful spouses and succeed in life. Earl adored his three grandchildren, Gordon's son Joshua Strobeck, 19, and Gwen's children, Claire Colgrove, 18, and Chad Colgrove, 12. Earl's sudden death at home on April 7, 2012 is a shock to everyone, and his profound influence and loving ways will be felt by everyone who knew him forever. A Visitation will be held from 2:00 to 5:00 P.M., Sunday, April 15, 2012, and a Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Monday, April 16, 2012, both at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 5303 East County Line Road (one block to the west of South Holly Street) in Centennial, Colorado. A Graveside Service will follow at Fort Logan National Cemetery ~ Pavilion B, 3698 South Sheridan Boulevard, in Denver, Colorado. Please share your memories of Earl and condolences with his family by signing the guestbook. Flying Tigers Scholarship Essay by granddaughter, Claire Colgrove It is the year 1943. My grandpa Earl Strobeck is a seventeen year old high school senior. My grandpa had said that he always wanted to serve the country in some way. He had made the decision at seventeen to go into the military. Being a part of the military had been a dream of his since he was a young teenager. My grandpa decided to enlist himself into the military, so he could finish up high school and graduate instead of going in right away. He ended up graduating a semester early towards the end of January. On February 5th, 1944 he officially started his military service in Kessler, Mississippi where he was put through basic training. His enlistment number was #17147384. He spent 4 1/2 months there training, because he knew that he would be going into World War II a few months later. A month later my grandpa was shipped out to Denver, Colorado to a tech school called Lowery Field. During his time there, he learned how assemble guns and turrets. My grandpa excelled at this job and was assigned to be a part of the 69th repair squad shortly after. My grandpa was only there for a month. Shortly after leaving Lowery Field, he was sent to a training center in San Antonio, Texas where he went through more intense training. My grandpa wasn't at the Kellyfield Training Center for long. He was only in Kellyfield for a month. In October of 1944 my grandpa was sent to New York City, New York where he was sent to attend Sperry Jeryoscope School. After attending Sperry Jeryoscope School for a couple of months, he was sent home to spend time with his family until he was called to serve in the war. He spent a total of three months until he was called to service in the war. In January of 1945, he was told to go to Los Angeles, California, because he would be traveling by ship to Bombay, India. The trip to Bombay, India lasted for a month, and he arrived there with many other people towards the beginning of March 1945. Once he arrived in Bombay, India, he had to take a train to Calcutta, India. The train ride was five days long. The group my grandpa had been traveling with was called the 14th Air Force, but the Chinese gave them the nickname of The Flying Tigers. Once in Calcutta, India, the group of about 300 men plus my grandpa were put into groups and told to drive 6x6 trucks to China down a road called Burma Road. My grandpa was one of the many drivers for all the different groups. My grandpa recalls this being the scariest part of being a part of The Flying Tigers group. He says this, because Burma Road was a long road with many sharp turns, and he was in charge of his whole group since he was a driver. He told me that it took twenty-five days to get to China, and that they drove 1, 700 miles to get there. He was sent to Kunming, China when he first arrived. He was in Kunming, China from May 1945 to December 1945. When he was there he was part of the China Burming India Theater of Operations. During his time there, he also got a job as an office clerk secretary. This job included typing many documents and issuing supplies such as guns. In January 1946, he was sent to Shanghai, China. Once he was in Shanghai, China, he was given an executive job position of military policeman. His duties included patrolling other soldiers and keeping a close look over military base operations. He had this job for the rest of his time in the war. As the war was coming closer to an end, my grandpa told me about how many people started to leave the war, because they had enough points to get out. My grandpa told me that he was in China a little while longer than most of the people he was with, because he didn't have enough points to get out of the war. He was one of fifty people still left in China. My grandpa had said that if you wanted to leave the war you had to have forty points to get out, but he only had twenty-four points. My grandpa had said that many people started to get out of the war in May 1945. This was a very interesting fact to me, because I didn't even know you had points in the war. He said that he earned points by helping tear down the base camp and returning weapons back to where they got their weapons from. It took only a month for my grandpa to finally get enough points to get out of the military. He was discharged on June 6, 1946. He took the ship ride back to San Francisco, California and took a plane ride back to his hometown of Denver, Colorado and spent time with family. My grandpa told me about how he was able to learn many of the things he did so quickly, because he took engineering and electrical courses in high school, which helped him with many of the jobs he had during the war. My grandpa finished telling me his story about his time in the war saying how glad he was that he decided to go into the military, because it made him experience a lot of new things, and he was able to take away a lot of good things from his time in the war.