Vietnam-era Air Force crew chief followed in father’s footsteps

BENTON, Kan. (KSNW) — Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, is best known as being the hometown of Joe Namath. It’s also the birthplace of retired Air Force Staff Sergeant Jerry Palyash.

While Namath is the son of a steelworker, Palyash is the son of a World War II Navy crew chief. Inspired by his father, Palyash chose a career as a crew chief in the Air Force.

“He would talk about his adventures in the Navy and being a crew chief, and that stuck with me as a teenager,” he said.

Palyash, who owns two airplanes in a hangar at Stearman Airfield in Benton, joined the Air Force two years out of high school.

“So, when I went down and talked to the recruiter, he says, ‘You have to take a test.’ I said, ‘OK.’ So, I tested, and he come back, and he says, ‘Your results are so high, you can do any job that you want in the Air Force. What would you like to be?’ And I said, ‘Well, my dad was a crew chief.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, we have crew chiefs.’ And he says, ‘So, my next question is, do you want to be on large airplanes, two to four-engine aircraft, or small fighter aircraft?’. And, of course, fighters was what I selected,” he said.

Palyash went through basic training and technical school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. Then he was sent to Bitburg, Germany, where he learned all about the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom.

“I was a flight line crew chief. So, the flight line is where they have the aircraft set overnight, and each morning they’re configured for that day’s missions. And the crew chiefs configured the aircraft for the missions,” he explained.

By this time, Palyash was married, and he didn’t want to travel to other countries for long periods of time and leave his wife alone in Germany. So, he requested to stay on the Air Force Base in Bitburg and conducted phase inspections on incoming F-4s.

“That was my first assignment. And during that assignment, the Vietnam era was still on, and we would get jets … F-4s that I worked on trained on from Vietnam, and they would have armament plating on them. We had to do inspections on these aircraft,” he said. “So, one of the very first things we had to do is take this armament plating off to gain access to the panels that we had to inspect underneath and the equipment. And so I saw a number of F-4s coming back from Vietnam.”

In 1974, Palyash was sent to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He was asked to re-enlist but declined and was discharged from the Air Force in 1977. With an A&P license in his pocket, his civilian career took off when he went to work for Learjet. 

“While I was in Tucson, I was an A&P mechanic on brand new Learjets. And it’s like working on a brand-new car. It’s about the smell. The aroma of the interior was so sweet. And everything was clean and in perfect operating order, you know. And we were just doing routine inspections,” he said.

After three years with Learjet, Palyash was hired by an engine manufacturer in Phoenix as a technical representative.

“I was one of 26 technical representatives worldwide for the company Garrett. We make turbofan engines and turboprop engines,” he said.

It was during this time that Palyash worked on a top-secret assignment at Area 51 for two and a half years.

“And it was very much just like everybody says. It is kind of a cloak and dagger. But it was very secretive, and we couldn’t say anything,” he said.

He went back to Tucson and worked for Learjet for another eight years. Then he was asked to move to Paris, France. Garrett became known as Honeywell during this time. He moved to Wichita in 1991.

“And I continued to work as a technical representative to them until I retired in 2019 with 38 years in service for Honeywell,” said Palyash.

Palyash took pride in being a workaholic. In the service.

“I loved my job as a mechanic so much that if I had to go to the stockroom, which was across the hanger, I would not walk. I would run to the stockroom, grab the parts that I needed and run back to the aircraft and continue to wrench,” he said.

Palyash also learned to fly while he was in Germany.

“Flying, I think it’s so unique in that it gives you another dimension in life. That you’re up there in the sky, and it gives you a level of freedom, and I just love it,” he said.

In addition to owning a Cessna 150 and a Cessna 172 B, Palyash is currently building a Vans R-V 6-A all metal, low wing with side-by-side seating and a sliding canopy at his hangar at Stearman Field.

If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, email KSN reporter Jason Lamb at [email protected].