Harry Macha

Harry ended life with ten children, seventeen grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren but began life as an only child in Needville, Texas - a tiny farm town southwest of Houston. His early years were the privations of the Great Depression. In World War II, he joined the 13th Army Air Corps and flew as bombardier in a B-24 Liberator against Japan. After the war, he returned to Ellington Field, Houston. In 1946 when the Texas City disaster explosion occurred, he was among the many who helped. In that same year, he met and married Helen Jean Fisher. In 1949 he supported the Berlin Air Lift operations in Germany. This short assignment ended with orders to Offutt AFB, Nebraska. In early 1950's, he was back in Germany to Rhine-Main AFB in air traffic control at the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. From Germany, he transferred to Eglin, AFB in Florida. In 1958 Harry was assigned to Seville, Spain and then to Constantina, Spain. His next orders moved him and his family to Kansas City, Missouri assigned to the then secret alternate NORAD command center. This was during the Cuban Missile Crisis and security requirements prevented Harry from warning his family about the imminent nuclear threat from the Soviet Union. Each evening his family watched television news of the developing crisis but Harry had to maintain security silence.

Harry retired from the Air Force to Fort Worth, Texas in 1964 to begin a second career at the US Postal Service. It was then that he personally tended to his wife in their home until her death from Alzheimer's Disease in 2003. He loved his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and took great pride in them. His conduct showed the priority he gave living by faith, honor, integrity and keeping God close to his heart. He was taciturn but his actions and how he lived spoke volumes. It is unknown who said "may you live in interesting times" but Harry Henry Macha indeed did.

Children (birth order): Mark, Pam, Michael, Matthew{deceased}, Patricia, Mitchell, Patrina, Pilar, Miles, Micah.

For Floral coordination please contact In Bloom, 972-820-6451.

Memorials: Should friends desire, memorials may be given to Catholic Charity of Fort Worth.