I WISH I had known my father the first 30 years of his life. When he made friends, they were friends for life. However, I did have the privilege and honor of being his son.
His military career began at home. His father was a West Point graduate, Class of 1901. Officially it began in the summer of 1929, after he was appointed from the 6th district of Ohio, the same district from which his father received his appointment and where his grandfather lived. He was commissioned in the Field Artillery. His first tour was three years at the Presidio of Monterey, then Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. After a year in Hawaii he obtained a detail in the Ordnance Corps, and served in that branch the rest of his career.
While stationed at Monterey in 1934, he married my mother, Emily Harris, of Pacific Cove, California. Her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were also West Pointers, classes of 1829, 1869, and 1899. My sister, Suzanne Shinkle, from my mother's previous marriage, was born 1 August 1931 at the Presidio in San Francisco. Mother died in 1965 and is interred at West Point with Dad.
After Hawaii, Dad attended a two-year course in the Ordnance School at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, which included a year at M.I.T. where he received in 1939 a master’s degree in Engineering. Aberdeen was followed by a short detail with the Logistics Division of the War Department as Chief of the Programs Branch. The following year he was sent to the China Theater. When he returned in 1947, he took command of the San Fran-cisco Ordnance District. Next he was assigned as the Ordnance member of the Joint Brazil—U. S. Military Commission in Rio de Janeiro. At the request of Brigadier General George Eddy, he assumed the duties as Director of Technical Operations at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. He then served as executive officer for the Assistant Chief of Ordnance in Washington. In 1956 he was assigned as deputy commander at Redstone Arsenal. He was named the first commander of the Army Rocket and Guided Missile Agency on 31 March 1958. In June 1960 he became the Commanding General of White Sands Missile Range. His last assignment was in 1962 with NATO, to lead the Naval and Missile Section in Paris, France. He retired in August 1963.
After his military career, he was a consultant to Stanford University doing weapons analysis. He then became Director of the Apollo Manned Space Project with NASA in Florida. The last job he had was with the Grumman Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1967, he married Peggy Barns of Cocoa Beach, Florida. She passed away in November 1994.
When he finally retired in Florida, he was involved in several local projects, Rotary, Retired Officers Association, golf and his hobbies. He was inducted into the White Sands Missile Range Hall of Fame in 1990.
His careers placed him in the middle of some of the most exciting engineering events in history. The military was responsible for computer development in the 1950s. Every time I look at my computer, I feel proud that my father was part of the early development. An Army Redstone rocket launched the first American satellite. My Dad was director of a NASA project that eventually put the first man on the moon, and he was considered one of the top 150 missile experts in the country.
My other sister, Miriam Shinkle Paroissien, was born in 1938 in Washington, DC. I, John Michael Shinkle, came along in 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. Our father gave us the best that anyone could want. We always felt comfortable around him. His home was always our home, too.
He collected minerals from all over the world and had one of the best collections in the country which he donated to Smith College, Massachusetts, where Miriam received her master’s degree. His orchid collection was just as complete. My boys loved the corsages they got for all the high school dances.
His roommate wrote the following in the 1933 Howitzer.
“Seemingly odd that this shy curly-head with the hesitating smiles should be facing the crowd. Yet watch him when, as class president, he conducts a class meeting. Modest he is at first, almost diffident, suggesting rather than dictating. But watch closely as his point comes to issue. Note the steady unruffled calm as he proceeds to champion his views. Do not trifle with him, or seek to intimidate him; for that capable calm activates itself into a most convincing determination.
Without a doubt Johnny is at his best under fire—an invaluable military virtue. Fretting little over the metaphysical uncertainties, he injects himself purposefully into the affairs of the hour. Here his discerning, well-balanced, rational intelligence finds fit field. Distasteful to him the pomp and panoply of high place; yet inevitable does he graduate in that direction. For whenever there is important work to be done, he will be sought.”
He was always my hero, mentor, advisor, and friend. Always an officer and a gentleman, he lived the creed and maintained the standard of Duty, Honor, Country. With his wonderful sense of humor, he gave my sisters and me a guided tour of the world and showed us how to see the real beauty in it. There are so many things that he shared with us. All that I can say is, thank you, for so much. We’ll miss you.