Congratulations Senior Chief McBroom. FRA is proud to
honor you on the 116th Birthday of CPOs!
Senior Chief McBroom served in the Navy from 1950 to 1972,
including on the USS Wasp (#2) as part of a flight squadron. He and my
mom have raised 7 children, Donnie Raeford, Reginald David, Barry Lynn,
William Jr., Robert Todd, Timothy Ryan and the only girl, Leigh
Maria. The family is a total of 7 kids, 14 grandchildren, 11
great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild.
As told by his daughter Leigh:
Dad was born in Monroe, Louisiana on Oct 30, 1929. He
was in the VP29 Flight Crew 8 with Commander Huffman during the winter
of 1952/53 (see picture) and on the USS Wasp VS31 Flight Crew under
Commander ES Fritz (see picture). He was on the USS Wasp during
the Cuban Missile Crisis in Nov of 1962. He was also on the wasp
when they picked up Nasa's Gemini space capsule on 12-16-65 (I was one
month old!). Dad had over 200 successful landings on the USS Wasp
as part of his flight crews. Toward the end of dad's Naval career,
we were stationed in Keflavik, Iceland, which was pretty
cool (pardon the pun). I was just a baby so I don't remember it.
There is a picture of us that was taken for our passport. The
oldest son, Donnie, was already in the Navy. Once dad retired from the
Navy, he went on to have 2 other successful careers. He owned a
Fleet (truck) Maintenance business and had a successful political career
serving as the Country Treasurer in the county of Bernalillo, the largest county in New Mexico, for
two terms. They retired in 1984 and moved to Hot Springs,
Arkansas, where they have enjoyed living a very eventful retirement
which includes seeing all of their grandkids growing up, dad playing
golf and winning several trophies (he's got a great game!) and as a
hobby, they enjoy going to many Arts & Crafts festivals throughout
the south and selling several varieties of nut brittle for a local candy
company. They are well known and loved throughout the A&C
community and people look forward to seeing them every
year.
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Mom as a bathing beauty.
she had a friend take as a
cheesecake shot for him
while he was out to sea!
Who wouldn't want to
marry her?
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Mom and Dad's original wedding
at the justice of the peace
in Hamburg, Arkansas
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The group
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Proudly standing by as his oldest son, Donnie, was sworn in to the
Navy.
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The Wasp out to sea...
and picking up the Gemini  in 1965!
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Mom and Dad
at Donnie's
Swearing
in Ceremony.
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