Anyone from the Carolinas has seen Joe and his F4U Corsair and T-6.
We've lost another good one....
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/4492076.htm
Posted on Mon, Nov. 11, 2002
Veteran pilot died doing what he loved
By MONIQUE ANGLE
Staff Writer
Several years ago, Korean War veteran Joe Tobul thought of a way to pay tribute to disabled veterans unable to attend the Midlands' Celebrate Freedom Festival.
He decided to fly his restored, dark blue Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair, named Korean War Hero, over Dorn VA Medical Center, said his son Jim Tobul. A flight over the hospital became a permanent part of the air show, now in its sixth year.
On Sunday, in a tragic finale to the three-day festival, Tobul, 68, made his final flight.
As he flew southeast toward the hospital in a five-plane formation that included his son and two grandsons, Jimmy, 17, and Sean, 13, Tobul's World War II-vintage plane began smoking and spiraled earthward, crashing into a marshy field.
Joe Tobul was the lead plane in the formation of fighter planes on Sunday. Around 12:45 p.m., as the planes headed to the hospital, Jim Tobul could see his father was having engine trouble. Using his radio, he tried to help him.
But it was too late.
Tobul pointed the plane into a wooded area to avoid homes that were 75 feet from the crash site, his family said.
"When everything went wrong, he did it all right," said Ken Breivik, a Celebrate Freedom Foundation spokesman who spoke for several pilots and family members.
Jim Tobul, 45, seemed to capture the spirit of his father when he spoke of Joe Tobul's love of flying and his respect for America's veterans.
"For him, it was an honor to fly it because it represented the heroes," Jim Tobul said. "This was his true passion."
Flying was a passion he passed down to his son and his grandchildren. At 9 years old, Jim Tobul, with his father alongside him in the cockpit, flew for the first time.
Tobul's love of aviation began early in life.
He was born in Painesville, Ohio, and became a Marine Corps pilot. About the same time he bought the vintage corsair in the early 1980s, he started a hydraulics company, Tobul Accumulator Inc. He eventually built a company plant in Bamberg and relocated to Santee.
"Aviation was always his passion, on the corporate side and the hobby side," Jim Tobul said.
It took 10 years for the father and son duo to restore Korean War Hero, traveling across the country to find parts and manuals. After the plane was finished, Tobul took it to air shows about 20 times each year.
The Celebrate Freedom Festival was Tobul's last scheduled air show of the year. He's flown in the festival since its creation six years ago.
Tobul was retired but wasn't the type to sit still, Jim Tobul said
"He wasn't the kind who could take the meaning of the word retire," he said. His father traveled all over the country for air shows and still was active in company sales.
On Tobul's Web site, koreanwarhero.com, a page from his guest book lists dozens of messages from people who had met him at air shows and relished the excitement of seeing the old war plane in action.
One person left a message on the site Sunday after hearing of Tobul's death. It said: "Although I did not know him, he allowed me to fulfill one of my dreams -- to see an F4-U Corsair in flight, in person."
That message essentially summed up his mission, friends and family said. Educating others about the country's history, while paying tribute to veterans .
"Those of us from Korea kind of got a bad deal because we're not as well remembered as veterans from other wars are. But we're not angry," Joe Tobul said in an interview with Florida Today in 2001. "We do this out of respect for all other veterans.... We're honoring all veterans of all wars."
Jim Hamilton, manager of Owens Field airport, said Tobul's death is a huge loss to the aviation community.
"It's a sad day for us," Hamilton said. "He's a great patriot, and we'll all miss him.
"He was a good friend and was loved by all who knew him."
Tobul leaves behind a wife, Nancy, two daughters, a son and six grandchildren.
We've lost another good one....
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/4492076.htm
Posted on Mon, Nov. 11, 2002
Veteran pilot died doing what he loved
By MONIQUE ANGLE
Staff Writer
Several years ago, Korean War veteran Joe Tobul thought of a way to pay tribute to disabled veterans unable to attend the Midlands' Celebrate Freedom Festival.
He decided to fly his restored, dark blue Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair, named Korean War Hero, over Dorn VA Medical Center, said his son Jim Tobul. A flight over the hospital became a permanent part of the air show, now in its sixth year.
On Sunday, in a tragic finale to the three-day festival, Tobul, 68, made his final flight.
As he flew southeast toward the hospital in a five-plane formation that included his son and two grandsons, Jimmy, 17, and Sean, 13, Tobul's World War II-vintage plane began smoking and spiraled earthward, crashing into a marshy field.
Joe Tobul was the lead plane in the formation of fighter planes on Sunday. Around 12:45 p.m., as the planes headed to the hospital, Jim Tobul could see his father was having engine trouble. Using his radio, he tried to help him.
But it was too late.
Tobul pointed the plane into a wooded area to avoid homes that were 75 feet from the crash site, his family said.
"When everything went wrong, he did it all right," said Ken Breivik, a Celebrate Freedom Foundation spokesman who spoke for several pilots and family members.
Jim Tobul, 45, seemed to capture the spirit of his father when he spoke of Joe Tobul's love of flying and his respect for America's veterans.
"For him, it was an honor to fly it because it represented the heroes," Jim Tobul said. "This was his true passion."
Flying was a passion he passed down to his son and his grandchildren. At 9 years old, Jim Tobul, with his father alongside him in the cockpit, flew for the first time.
Tobul's love of aviation began early in life.
He was born in Painesville, Ohio, and became a Marine Corps pilot. About the same time he bought the vintage corsair in the early 1980s, he started a hydraulics company, Tobul Accumulator Inc. He eventually built a company plant in Bamberg and relocated to Santee.
"Aviation was always his passion, on the corporate side and the hobby side," Jim Tobul said.
It took 10 years for the father and son duo to restore Korean War Hero, traveling across the country to find parts and manuals. After the plane was finished, Tobul took it to air shows about 20 times each year.
The Celebrate Freedom Festival was Tobul's last scheduled air show of the year. He's flown in the festival since its creation six years ago.
Tobul was retired but wasn't the type to sit still, Jim Tobul said
"He wasn't the kind who could take the meaning of the word retire," he said. His father traveled all over the country for air shows and still was active in company sales.
On Tobul's Web site, koreanwarhero.com, a page from his guest book lists dozens of messages from people who had met him at air shows and relished the excitement of seeing the old war plane in action.
One person left a message on the site Sunday after hearing of Tobul's death. It said: "Although I did not know him, he allowed me to fulfill one of my dreams -- to see an F4-U Corsair in flight, in person."
That message essentially summed up his mission, friends and family said. Educating others about the country's history, while paying tribute to veterans .
"Those of us from Korea kind of got a bad deal because we're not as well remembered as veterans from other wars are. But we're not angry," Joe Tobul said in an interview with Florida Today in 2001. "We do this out of respect for all other veterans.... We're honoring all veterans of all wars."
Jim Hamilton, manager of Owens Field airport, said Tobul's death is a huge loss to the aviation community.
"It's a sad day for us," Hamilton said. "He's a great patriot, and we'll all miss him.
"He was a good friend and was loved by all who knew him."
Tobul leaves behind a wife, Nancy, two daughters, a son and six grandchildren.
