Life for Joseph D. and Diana McGraw seems pleasant. The handsome retired Oak Harbor couple live in a home in one of the island’s most scenic areas, they’ve raised five successful children, they enjoy their grandchildren, they have friends, interests and hobbies.

J.D. McGraw, as he is called, says he has fulfilled “almost” every one of his life’s desires. Most probably consider him lucky for that. But, until McGraw tells his life story, one cannot imagine just how lucky he has been. Then again, it’s probably not simply luck, but rather the right combination of drive, determination, professionalism, the will to survive, and a strong sense of patriotism (mixed in with a bit of luck) that carried McGraw successfully through a period of nearly 30 years of his adult life.

McGraw is a retired U.S. Navy captain who was in action during two wars. He is a World War II flying ace. He is a skilled fighter pilot.

And, he tells his war stories with such excitement and vividness that the listener can envision the tales.

“I was always an airplane nut,” McGraw said of his boyhood. “I made model airplanes.”

He credits his father for giving him a sense of direction while he was growing up. One of eight children, McGraw says his dad gave the boys some solid advice of the time.

“Don’t get drafted. Pick something that you want to do, and pick the best … Try to get into something that you like to do and want to do. Don’t let them hand you a rifle and crawl in the mud,” McGraw recalls his father’s admonishment.

“I thought, ‘Man, that’s a good idea’,” McGraw says now with a laugh.

In 1942, McGraw joined the Navy. He tested out as qualified to learn to fly, and he went to flight school. He saw combat often.

Flying Wildcats off the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), McGraw became an Ace after shooting down five Japanese aircraft during combat. Additionally, he is credited with three “probable” downings. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, McGraw flew the last aircraft off the USS Gambier Bay before it was sunk, and he continued to fly from a sister ship for the remainder of the battle. McGraw earned the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts to save the fleet.

After World War II, McGraw left military service.

“I had plenty of points so I got out . . . I wanted to study aeronautical engineering,” McGraw said.

McGraw completed his degree at the University of Chicago, and while there, he joined the “flying reserves,” where he flew with an F-8-F Bearcat Squadron.

He was called back into service for the Korean War, when he flew off the USS Boxer. He furthered his flying career with an additional 61 combat missions on top of those flown during World War II.

After the Korean War he decided to stay in the Navy and make it his career. He became a Navy test pilot for the Douglas X-F4D-1 Skyray Interceptor. He retired from active duty in 1968, which he finds to be regrettable for the nation.

During the late 1960s,. McGraw said, the military cut back on World War II-era personnel, forcing them to retire at 25-and-a-half years. Everyone who wanted to stay in, including himself, was forced out. Then Vietnam erupted.

“They needed experienced people to man the air groups and the CAGS and as executive officers on carriers and skippers on carriers,” McGraw said. “And, so they didn’t have us.”

Officers of the appropriate rank were pulled from desk positions at the Pentagon to head out into battle, he said.

“Our operational losses jumped from our normal three-percent to five-percent up to six- and seven-percent losses,” he said.

While battles raged on in Southeast Asia, McGraw was offered a civilian job as a test pilot for Douglas, but that meant the family would have needed to live in the Los Angeles area. The McGraws decided they did not want to raise their five children in “the concrete jungle,” he said.

The family relocated to southwestern Colorado, where McGraw proceeded with a second career as a rancher and a slurry bomber pilot, fighting forest fires for the Forestry Service.

Ones the kids were grown, the McGraws relocated to Whidbey Island in 1983, after seeing the area while visiting.

J.D. and Diana McGraw will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year. The move to Whidbey Island was for his wife, McGraw said.

“Diana is a California girl. I promised her … I’d take her back to the ocean,” he said. Always a man of his word, he kept his promise.