By Thomas W. McMahon

We who remain on earth are diminished by the death of one of the Navy Air Traffic Controller community greats, Jim Hill. This one, who on many occasions escaped the surly bounds of earth in his airplane, sailing boat or Harley, made his final ascent on Saturday, June 11. I use the word, “ascent” purposely because he recently indicated to me that he was confident of his salvation through Christ.

When we first met, Jim was a Senior Chief Petty Officer. We both had the privilege of serving together on the Navy’s newest and finest (and now the oldest and finest) super carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63). We were deployed on the first of its many Far East cruises, and we made a second cruise of nine months, most of it in the South China Sea, while sparring with Communist despots in Indochina. At the end of the cruise 41-years ago, we sailed back to San Diego but were nearly redeployed in August 1964, after the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Flight operations were extensive during that cruise. When we were at sea, which was most of the time, we put in 16-hour days. Jim and I spent most of those days together in the Carrier Air Traffic Control Center, and we ate our meals together in the chief’s mess hall. When flight operations were over, we were so keyed up that we unwound with a cup of coffee in the chief’s mess hall, where Jim would regale me with his many stories — stories of flying down the Columbia River in his airplane or other adventures. Like Jonathan Winters, he not only told you the stories, he embellished them with all of the sound effects! No matter how tense I may have been when we entered the mess hall, by the time we left, my tension had dissolved with laughter.

When you spend that kind of time with a person, you get to know them at the deepest level, their passions, values and talents. The better I got to know Jim Hill, the better I liked him. Besides story telling, he was a great teacher and encourager. Although I was a brand new Chief Petty Officer when he reported aboard the Kitty Hawk, he was an ardent supporter and always encouraged me to stretch, to reach for the stars. I did that literally when I applied for one of the Navy’s commissioned officer programs while we were on the long cruise. No one was more delighted about my selection at the end of the cruise than Jim who continued to support me throughout my years of service as an officer.

Contrary to popular belief, leaders are made, not born. Any success that I may have had as a leader, I learned primarily from Navy Chief Petty Officers like Jim Hill. After his retirement from active duty, he continued to enrich the Navy Air Traffic Control community by working as an educational specialist at NAS Whidbey Island. Just as he influenced me so positively as a young chief, similarly he influenced many air traffic controllers to be better than they thought they were or ever could be. And, just as I think he took pride in my success throughout the years, he was justifiably proud of the success of those he mentored as a civil servant. We are saddened by his passing, but happy for his reunion with his beloved Rita and many of his other shipmates, who before him, received their final orders from their celestial Commander-in-Chief.

Captain, U.S. Navy (ret.)