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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Jan '91
Lewis Benjamin Castle Logan No.15429 Class of 1946
Died 9 June 1984 near NorthfieId, Minnesota, aged 60 years.
Interment: Lakewood Memorial Columbarium, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Born 1 September 1923 in Detroit, Michigan, Lewis
Benjamin Castle Logan was named after an uncle, Benjamin Castle,
who was a 1907 USMA graduate. Lew's father was an engineer and
the family moved frequently when he was a child. His high school
years were spent in Pennsylvania and he graduated from Germantown
High School, Philadelphia in the top tenth of his class. The
Philadelphia Yale Club gave Lew a full tuition scholarship to
Yale, where he studied engineering for two years. Lew's father
was in Alabama at this time and Lew joined him during the summers
to work in an explosives factory. It was there that a local congressman
offered Lew a fourth alternate appointment to West Point. This
fit well Lew's goals in life, for in addition to his namesake,
he had a cousin, Frederick W. Castle, Class of '30, in the Army
Air Corps who was to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously
during the Battle of the Bulge. With this tradition, Law had
always wanted to go to West Point, and in particular to fly like
his cousin. When the principal and first three alternates failed
to make it, Lew entered West Point on 1 July 1943 to become a
member of the Class of 1946.
Law had no trouble at West Point. With two years
at Yale under his belt, academics were easy for him. One roommate
recalls that Law possessed a unique combination of innate intelligence
and common sense, and was perpetually a tower of integrity. He
had an intense desire to fly and was extremely pleased to be
able to get into flight training. Lew had a mystical feeling
about flight. His brother recalls a moving letter from Lew about
his first night flight while he was training at Stewart Field,
New York. Lew reported that although it was a simple flight,
the experience was almost exaltation. Some of his favorite reading
during this period was Night Flight and Wind, Sand, and Stars,
both books putting into words something that Lew felt so deeply.
Graduation saw Lew win his pilot's wings as well as second lieutenant
bars. Lew married Mildred McAllen, also from Philadelphia, soon
after graduation. They had three children, Lewis, Constance and
Jean. It was truly a great sorrow in his life when, nine years
later, this marriage ended in divorce.
After transition training, Law was assigned to
B-29s. A classmate assigned with Law remembers him as an open,
unreserved, mercurial person. Once he got behind a project, his
enthusiasm and effort were boundless. He was almost naive in
his trust of other people and his assumption that they shared
his point of view. During a Christmas break in B-29 training,
Lew and his classmate were driving non-stop to Philadelphia.
The classmate awoke to find themselves hopelessly lost in the
middle of Baltimore. Law was confidently following a car down
the back street because "it had Pennsylvania plates."
After a tour as co-pilot of a B-29, Lew was assigned
to Wright Patterson Field, Ohio to study aeronautical engineering
at the Air Force Institute of Technology. Next came two years
in Alaska as rescue pilot and maintenance officer. There Lew
had the opportunity to fly a variety of aircraft and to make
the first ice landings on the Arctic Ocean in a ski-equipped
C47. In 1951, Law became aide-de-camp to the commanding general
of The Cambridge Research Center, Boston, Massachusetts. The
year 1952 saw Lew in Korea, where he flew 100 jet tactical reconnaissance
missions. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three
air medals for his service in Korea. He returned to Cambridge
and then was assigned to Sacramento Peak Observatory, New Mexico
for observation of missile firings; then in 1956 he was appointed
guidance and control officer for the Atlas Program in Los Angeles.
In 1960, Law resigned from the Air Force to become
central planning and control supervisor at Sperry Utah Engineering
Laboratory in Salt Lake City. An Army classmate, assigned to
the Sperry Utah plant at the time, recalls that Lew was one of
the most wonderful human beings that he had ever had the privilege
to know. He recalls that Law was a highly effective and extremely
competent senior planning officer. In 1962, on a ski trip, Lew
met Carol Pentz, then a flight attendant for Pan American World
Airways. They were married in June of that year in Staten Island,
New York. Their three sons, Neal, Guy and Steve were all born
in Salt Lake City. Lew moved in 1968 to St. Paul, Minnesota to
become director of planning at Federal Systems Division of Sperry-UNIVAC.
After taking early retirement from Sperrv-UNIVAC in 1981. Lew
became advanced programs manager for Defense Systems for Control
Data Corporation in St. Paul.
Law never lost his love for flying. He joined the
Minnesota Soaring Club where he learned to fly sailplanes. He
also joined a small flying club and became part owner of a Cessna
152. He took many exciting flights in that plane and flew in
to his 35th reunion at West Point. On 9 June 1984, Lew was killed
when the tow-plane he was piloting collided with the sailplane
he had been towing. He is survived by his wife Carol, two daughters,
Constance and Jean. and four sons, Lewis, Neal, Guy and Steve.
Law is remembered fondly by all who knew him. He
was a devoted family man, a loving husband and a caring father.
He was a true friend who willingly would do anything he could
to help others. He was a religious man whose faith remained strong
and guided and sustained him. His great sense of humor endeared
him to all who knew him. He was ardent in each and every undertaking--giving
his all for any worthy cause. Lew had previously had an aircraft
accident and returned to the air while still not completely recovered
and against the advice of many of his friends, Lew strongly believed,
"If you don't try, you can't succeed."
A friend from Lew's civilian life commented, "What
a man does is one thing. How he does it is another. Lew had integrity,
loyalty and friendliness (built in). He was a fine officer, gentleman
and a great friend."
Lewis Benjamin Castle Logan has left us to join
"The Long Gray, Line." His life was one of commitment.
Commitment to his family, his God, his friends and the principles
instilled at West Point that he esteemed so highly, "Duty,
Honor, Country." The memory of him will be with us forever.
'46 Memorial Article Project and his wife Carol
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