Doc Byram named to Iowa's Aviation Hall of Fame

Doc Byram (left) in Guatemala, June 1978

Burns M. "Doc" Byram, a Lucas County native whose grave is located in English Township's Spring Hill Cemetery, is one of two men inducted this week into to the Iowa Aviation Museum's Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame. The other is Larry Turner of Elliott, in Montgomery County.

Located at Greenfield Municipal Airport, the museum is dedicated to preserving Iowa's aviation heritage. The Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame, founded in 1990 --- before the museum --- honors Iowans who have contributed significantly to the growth of aviation. You'll find the museum's web site and much more information about it here.

As is the case with all other museums in Iowa, the Iowa Aviation Museum is closed now due to the COVID-19 situation, but likely to reopen to visitors later this year.

I've written about Doc Byram before --- and you can find those posts by following these links: A Scalpel of Thunderous Sound (February 2009) and Images of Burns M. "Doc" Byram, 1924-1978 (April 2018). Here is the Byram biography that was included in a news release forwarded to me a few days ago by Shirley Konz, of Greenfield.

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Burns Maxwell Byram II was born June 1, 1924, near Chariton. After graduation from Toledo High School in 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and participated in 30 missions over France and Germany during WWII as a B-24 navigator/bombardier. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Iowa in 1951. He and his family moved to Marengo where he began medical practice and was instrumental in establishing the hospital. He was named Family Physician of the Year in Iowa in 1961. After obtaining his private pilot’s license in 1954, he attained multiple ratings and acquired several aircraft including a P-51 Mustang, Tangerine. Dr. Byram became a FAA Airman Medical Examiner and was a member of numerous aviation and professional organizations. He became known in Iowa as the “flying physician.” On June 4, 1978, Dr. Byram was killed, when a P-51 he was ferrying for a friend from Guatemala to the United States, crashed in Mexico. After funeral services at Marengo, he was buried at Spring Hill Cemetery in Lucas County. His tombstone bears the image of a P-51 Mustang. 

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The flight-related images here are new --- and I found those by following a link provided by Trygve Johansen of Oslo, Norway, a Mustang enthusiast who contacted me after reading The Lucas Countyan posts. They are taken from this site and show Doc and others in Guatemala about June 1, 1978, just before the flight that would claim his life (the date on the images is wrong). The images below are from Spring Hill Cemetery and show the tombstones of Doc and his parents, Burns M. Byram Sr. and Gladys (Scales) Byram.

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And here's the biography of the other 2020 inductee, Philip Larry Turner, of Elliott:

Philip Larry Turner was born in 1938 at Red Oak and grew up on a farm near Elliott. After graduation from Stennett High School, he attended Iowa State University and University of Nebraska, Omaha. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He soloed in a T-34 on April 24, 1963, and began rotor wing training, ending with a helicopter solo in a Bell TH-13M on March 5, 1964. He was also trained to fly the Sikorsky UH-34D helicopter that he would eventually fly in Vietnam. He earned his Wings of Gold on April 28, 1964, and was deployed to Vietnam in August 1965. First Lieutenant Turner flew Sikorsky UH-34D helicopters with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron Three Six Two, “The Ugly Angels,” until December 1966. He was shot down 8 times and awarded 29 Air Medals and a Purple Heart. In July 1967, he retired from the military and moved his family to Elliott. He began Turner Copter Services, Inc. doing crop spraying and later offered heavy-lift operations with a helicopter similar to the one he flew in Vietnam. In 1977, he purchased a Sikorsky S-58J. He did hundreds of jobs lifting equipment all over the Midwest, used his helicopters to transport entertainers and politicians, and flew into local hospitals as Santa Claus to visit sick children. Larry’s flying continued until 2013 at an Ugly Angel Reunion in Oklahoma when he piloted for the last time in a refurbished Sikorsky UH-34D helicopter that he had flown in Vietnam. Larry Turner logged more than 20,000 flight hours in multiple aircraft and donated time and money to refurbish helicopters to be displayed in museums.