Our S/Sgt Gustkey, Seymour Johnson & Key West PCS, was a native of Pennsylvania and served in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years. His specialty was avionics, including inertial navigation systems, terrain following radar systems, attack and fire control systems, Doppler radar systems, weapons supervision and handling, and some communications systems. He has worked on F-86s, F-94s, F-101Bs, F-102s, F-111s, and EC-12Hs. He also worked on Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS) and as in-flight maintenance.
In his career, Sgt. Gustkey was stationed at bases in North Carolina, Maine, Florida, Alaska, Massachusetts, Idaho, and in the Far East. He was stationed in Japan for two-and-one-half years prior to being assigned to Vietnam in 1969. He returned to the United States in May 1970, where he was stationed at Mountain Home, Idaho. From there, his unit was deployed to Korea for five months during the Poplar Tree Incident, which involved the killing of two U.S. soldiers attempting to remove a tree on the DMZ line. "We took 28 F-111s, men, and equipment from Idaho and deployed to Korea within 18 hours and were combat ready. That had never been done before," said Gustkey, whose squadron received the Presidential Unit Citation. He was stationed at Mountain Home for a total of seven years where he had served as avionics quality control superintendent. He retired there in 1977 with the rank of master sergeant.
Gustkey then located to Wise, NC, where his wife, the former Nancy Kay Paynter, was born. The couple have three children, Frank, Jr., Sheila, and Juanita, and two grandchildren, Rudolph and Brittany. He serves as the senior vice commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4096 in Norlina and is a member at-large of American Legion Post 79 at South Hill, VA. He is also a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans.
