Muncy is no stranger to flight. For more than 30 years, the Navy veteran was involved in aviation, from flying planes to working for the FAA in air traffic control.
His career began in 1940, immediately following his high school graduation when he joined the Navy. While in the service, Muncy initially worked as a second mechanic operating a PBY, a Navy aircraft used for water patrol and search and rescue. He stayed in this position for about a year, until the attack on Pearl Harbor, after which he was promoted to plane captain on a different PBY.
Credit: MVToday
Credit: MVToday
His squadron conducted submarine patrols from southern Georgia down to the southern Bahamas until it was decommissioned in the fall of 1942.
He was later nominated to attend air traffic control school through a collaboration between the Navy and the civilian school in Kansas City. He worked in air traffic control for the Navy until his enlistment expired in 1946.
He moved on to work as an assistant air traffic controller in the Columbus tower, then a controller in the Dayton tower before commissioning a new tower in Lansing, Mich. He was recalled to the Navy in 1950 and served as chief controller at the Naval air base in Adack, Ala. during the Korean Conflict. He continued this role through 1951, after which he returned to work in air traffic control.
Muncy retired in 1977 in Grass Valley, Calif. but returned to his hometown in 1999. Last year, the Ohio Masonic Home honored Muncy with a B-29 flight at the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport as part of the AirPower History Tour of historic aircraft that visited the area.
Dream Flights president and founder Darryl Fisher took a Dayton Daily News reporter for a preview flight on Wednesday, zipping around the clouds above Dayton’s airport and Vandalia.
The third-generation pilot said he’s worked with veterans who have flown throughout warfare, while others are unfamiliar with flight. He once flew with a WWII Air Force veteran who had never flown in a plane.
Although Dream Flights’ Stearman is not in the lineup of aircraft flying in the Dayton Air Show, it will be on display all weekend at Dayton International Airport.
The Stearman is the same kind of aircraft used to train many military aviators between the ‘30s and ‘40s.
How to go
The CenterPoint Energy Dayton Air Show is July 22 and 23.
Buy tickets and general admission parking vouchers at DaytonAirShow.com. Show leaders encourage guests to buy parking vouchers before the show.
Where: East side of Dayton International Airport. Take exit 64 at Northwoods Boulevard from Interstate 75. Follow signs to the new general admission parking entrance at Northwoods and Engle Road.
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