Louis William Ford

Col. Louis W. (Tad) Ford died on July 17 from the after-effects of open heart surgery. He passed peacefully with family around him. His characteristic positive outlook was unflagging to the end. He was 91.

A great man of the Greatest Generation, Tad was an early hero of World War Two and a pioneering U.S. Air Force pilot. Less than a month after Pearl Harbor, he was dispatched to New Guinea with the 22d Bomb Group, the first American bomber group to see combat in the South Pacific. Just two months after arriving, he was hit by ground fire and forced to crash land his B-26 behind enemy lines. He led his crew for 47 days through the jungle to safety. All survived, and at age 22 Tad was given his nation´s second highest award for valor. Then his planes were shot down three more times in the year and a half before he returned home from the War—one of the few pilots in his original group to make it back alive.

He came back alive indeed, and just a month afterward he married the girl of his dreams and the love of his life, Lucille. Their marriage and their devotion lasted 67 years, until death did them part. They grew a family and moved around the world, as Tad moved up through the ranks of the newly created independent Air Force and into the jet fighters of the Air Defense Command. Tad flew F-86s in the air war in Korea in “MIG Alley,” the most intense direct air combat between pilots of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For that and his service in what he always called “War Two,” he also received a Bronze Star and four Air Medals.

In the late 1950s, as Commander of the renowned 78th Fighter Group in Northern California, Tad was the only pilot in the U.S. Air Force—possibly the only pilot anywhere, ever—to be combat ready in four different supersonic aircraft simultaneously. Later, as Operations Officer of two major air divisions in the SAGE system (the 25th and 29th), he saw and oversaw some of the earliest large developments of the military’s Digital Age. But his vocation always was for flying the world’s fastest combat aircraft, which he did until he retired as Wing Commander at McChord AFB in 1966.

After the Air Force, Tad had a second career with The Boeing Company foreign military sales. In that job, with the Air Force, and in retirement, he travelled the world, touching down many times on every inhabited continent. Age didn’t slow him much. Twice, he took his family on extended sailing adventures to remote parts of the Fijian Islands of the South Pacific, fulfilling a promise he had made to himself during his war years there. He body surfed and golfed well into his 80s, coming close, but never quite managing, to shoot his age.

Tad devoted his last years to the care of his beloved Lucille, as they fought the debilitating effects of her polymyositis. Their mutual devotion was unceasing. Tad put himself at risk, delaying for years his own heart surgery, so he could be there for her without interruption. He was with Lucille, as he always was, when she died at home last winter. When he then agreed to the heart surgery he had so long needed and put off for her, it was too much for his body to take, and he joined her in death, literally dying of a broken heart.

Tad´s wisdom, compassion, generosity and humor were gifts to all who knew him. He is survived and mourned by his children and their families, Lauri Ford Mitchell and her husband Grant; Tim and Barbara Ford and Tad and Lucille's grandchildren, Lucas and Kendall; and Dr. Brian Lee Ford and Patty Cleary. He is also sadly missed by dear family friends Kathie Arcide and James Fletcher and many other colleagues, friends and neighbors. At Tad’s request, there will be no memorial service, but remembrances can be posted on this website. Please make any donations in his memory to Overlake Hospital Foundation, Critical Care Unit, 1035 116th Ave NE Bellevue, WA 98004, or https://www.overlakehospital.org.

You can view Lucille's memorial page by googling Lucille Ford Sunset Hills Funeral Home.