If you kill one of us, we'll make more

Wally Barney loved Airplanes. His sister Evelyn said that he was always carving airplanes out of soap and out of wood....out of whatever he could get his hands on (which is about the only way you were going to get a toy airplane if you happened to be growing up during the depression in Escalante, Utah). After Wally's death in the war, his sister Juanita had a son who she named "Wally" in honor of her beloved brother.  Nature has a habit of restoring and repeating its favored patterns such that death is never the final story.  Therefore it should be no surprise to us that Wally 2.0 also loved airplanes and he in fact spent his career flying them for the United States Air Force.

In his own words, Wally's nephew Wally writes:

"From as long as I can remember, I wanted to fly airplanes.  I loved any movie that had flying in it.  It wasn’t until my mission, when I was in Calgary Alberta, Canada, that I made up my mind I was going to pursue flying.  We lived near an airport and I would watch the airplanes fly over head and I decided when I returned home, I would go back to BYU and join AFROTC and would become a pilot in the Air Force.  I first learned to fly and I was able to get my private pilot’s license at Provo Airport as part of the ROTC FIP (Flight Instruction Program).  After graduating, I joined the AF and went to Vance AFB, Enid OK for pilot training.  I flew and trained in the T37 and T38 aircraft and really loved that challenging program.  I then went to Shaw AFB, Sumter, SC to learn to fly the RF4C fighter/reconnaissance aircraft.  The Vietnam War was going on and I thought I might go there after but got an assignment to Bergstrom AFB, Austin, TX instead.  The war ended at the end of that assignment so I missed out on that.  From there I went to Kadena AB, Okinawa,  Japan, then back to Mather AFB, Sacramento, CA to fly the T37 trainer instructing navigators.  Then, back to Bergstrom to requalify in the RF4C and then on to Zweibrucken AB, Germany.  My last assignment was to Eglin AFB, Fort Walton Beach, FL.  All my assignments were flying assignments, at my request.  I never wanted to get out of the cockpit."   ~Wally  Alvey

RF-4 & Wally Alvey

T37 Tweet

T-37 and Wally

T38 & Wally Alvey