Late Coast Guard pilot honoredBy ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.comBILOXI --A retired Coast Guard pilot and longtime Biloxi resident was honored posthumously Monday as the last enlisted Coast Guard aviator.
ADCMAP John Pershing Greathouse, USCG - the last enlisted Coastie
pilot seen in his 1974 reenlistment photo. (Don Boyd photo) Master Chief John P. Greathouse was remembered for 35 years of service in a dedication held at the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile. The main boulevard at the Training Center was dedicated in his name.
The ceremony also included the placement of his picture and biography in the Bottoms Hall Lobby. His picture and biography also are displayed at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum and alongside remembrances of the Wright Brothers in Kitty Hawk, N.C.
Greathouse died Aug. 30, 2005, of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Biloxi VA. He was 86. He had lived in Biloxi 26 years.
His widow, Doris Greathouse, celebrated her 80th birthday Monday by attending the ceremony in Mobile, where Rear Adm. David Kunkel, commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami, was keynote speaker.
Kunkel noted the accomplishments of Greathouse, who set several Coast Guard records, such as being its first to bail out of a helicopter.
The Wills Point, Texas, native was a World War II veteran and attended Texas A&M.
At the time of his retirement in 1979, he had logged more flight hours in the Coast Guard than any other on record, relatives said.
