BOLIN, Eugene N.
July 24, 1928 -
September 4, 2024
Gene Bolin was born on July 24, 1928, in Spartanburg, SC, to James W. D. Bolin and Addie Mae Bolin. He passed away peacefully in Edmonds, WA, on the evening of September 4, 2024, at age 96, surrounded by his family.
Gene had five brothers and three sisters who remained close for their entire lives. The Bolin Brothers were all very interested in airplanes and flying from the time they were children-something they never lost. Gene's oldest brother, Don, became a B-25 co-pilot in the Army Air Force and survived numerous missions during the Pacific campaign of WWII. Gene's brother Chico was a Marine and was wounded in fierce fighting during the Battle of Iwo Jima in February of 1945.
Gene's brother Bunny co-piloted the well-known B-17 "Lazy Baby" in the massive, second daylight bombing raid on Schweinfurt when 60 planes were lost—including Bunny's entire squadron, the 364th. Bunny was injured in the bailout, captured, and spent the rest of the War in the German POW camp Stalag Luft III, the subject of the 1963 movie "The Great Escape."
Gene's youngest brother Louie suffered frozen feet fighting in the Korean War, narrowly avoiding amputations. The Battle of the Chosen Reservoir resulted in the loss of 7,000 U.S. servicemen in 1950, fighting in temperatures of 50 degrees below zero. All of the Bolin Brothers fortunately returned home to the South after their service, started families, and began successful careers. Between them, the Bolin Brothers had enough purple hearts, commendations, and medals to fill a cigar box. Gene would later add to the collection.
Gene enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1947 before receiving an appointment as a reserve officer in the new USAF, joining the first class of air cadets to train in jets. On the same day he was awarded his wings at Williams AFB in Arizona, Gene and a classmate chose to celebrate by flying their T-33 jets inverted through the Grand Canyon. Only Gene was caught and he was then unceremoniously tossed out of the Air Force.
Gene then enrolled at Georgia Tech, but he really wanted to fly fighter jets. The war-decorated Bolin Brothers and their father were somehow able to arrange a meeting with South Carolina's governor, Strom Thurmond, to discuss Gene's situation. A few weeks later, Gene was mysteriously permitted to return to the USAF. His first assignment on return was a 2-year probation of sorts in Newfoundland, Canada, flying de Havilland Beavers and monitoring the suspicious movements of large herds of Caribou.
In 1952, Gene and his young family were transferred to Langley AFB in Virginia where Gene finally returned to flying jets. He first joined an F-84 fighter squadron; was then promoted to an F-86 fighter squadron; and then promoted again to an F-100 fighter squadron, the Air Force's first supersonic fighter. Peacetime crashes were much more frequent in those days and Gene was injured when he was forced to eject from an F-100 in a flat-spin for 32,000 feet. Gene's wingman told him to bail out and he took his advice reluctantly in order to save his life. In 1957 Gene was transferred to Wichita and then Abilene to fly the new B-47 jet, which carried nuclear bombs.
In 1961, Gene and a group of other very good USAF pilots were hand-picked by their commanders to fly the successor to the B-47: the new B-58 Hustler. It flew more than twice the speed of sound with a ceiling of 65,000 feet and was designed for one purpose: to deliver nuclear bombs to targets deep inside the Soviet Union as fast as possible. He was on "alert" every third week during most of that time, living on base, wearing his flight suit 24 hours a day, racing to the flight line whenever an alert was activated, and taking off within 15 minutes.
Thanks to Gene's security clearances at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth, three of his four children were able to meet President Kennedy and his wife on the flight-line less than an hour before he was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Lt. Col. Bolin retired from the USAF in late 1966 after five years flying the B-58, and a very distinguished career. He was only 39 years old.
Gene was immediately hired by Boeing in Seattle and assigned to the Supersonic Transport (SST) program. Boeing had no pilots with supersonic experience anything close to Gene's so it was a perfect fit. After Congress killed support for the civilian SST in 1971, Gene was then re-assigned to the 747 program and eventually became the Chief Technical Pilot for that airplane. During the 27 years that Gene worked for Boeing, he flew every airplane made by the Commercial Airplane Division of the Company and was involved in flight test, production test, flight training, line training, public relations, and several special projects.
In 1973, Gene led a group of several Boeing 747 crews to Athens, Greece for two years. A customer (Aristotle Onassis) bought two 747-200s so his new wife (Jackie Kennedy) and children could fly back and forth between New York and Athens. Olympic Airways had no 747 pilots, so Boeing offered to include flight crews in the deal, to fly the two 747s for the time it would take Olympic Airways to train their own pilots. Gene became friendly with Onassis and the Kennedy family during this two-year assignment. This was especially true with young John F. Kennedy, Jr., who liked flying as much as Gene and would often ride in the cockpit with the flight crew.
Gene's last big assignment at Boeing was spent flying the most expensive 767 Boeing ever made, for the Sultan of Brunei. Gene was basically the Sultan's chauffeur and flight instructor for two years. The Sultan, a pilot himself, usually sat in the left seat while Gene gave instruction from the right seat on trips all around the world. Gene married his long-time partner, Bodil Wells, before they left for Brunei and they lived a care-free life on the beautiful Palace grounds, waiting for the Sultan's next trip to wherever he wanted to go. Life was grand. (The Sultan has since graduated to a Boeing 747-400 for his personal use).
After Gene retired from Boeing in 1996, FlightSafety Intl. asked him to provide simulator training to dozens of young pilots. But it wasn't the same as flying and after a couple of years, the golf course had more appeal to Gene than simulator training. Thereafter, he and Bodil regularly traveled to Sweden, Hawaii, and the South, played lots of golf and tennis, sailed, visited their extended families, and had more fun than most people their age. Gene also became a lap-swimmer and logged over 1,000 miles of pool time.
Modesty and good sense would prevent him from ever saying so, but Gene was very often the most handsome and charming man in the room; adept at conversation with almost anyone on almost any topic; kind and gracious to everyone he met; and a loving and generous brother, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and uncle. He made friends wherever he went. He will be missed by his family far more than they can possibly express in this writing.
Gene is survived by his wife, Bodil, of Tacoma; his daughter, Drenda Johnson, of Fort Worth; his son, Eugene N. Bolin, Jr. (Rebecca), of Edmonds; his step-son Alex Wells (Darcie) of Seattle; ten grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren (with another on the way); 3 great-great-grandchildren; and extended family members in South Carolina and Georgia. His first wife, Ruth Elaine; daughter, Linda Jean; and son, Marty Dean predeceased Gene; as well as all of his own brothers and sisters.
