Page 110 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

Aubrey “Skeet” Pollack
t’s always a challenge to
encapsulate nine+ decades
Ion two or three pages, but
the life of successful oilman
Aubrey “Skeet” Pollack of
Lubbock is so full that a book
wouldn’t do it justice. Even
though his memory “isn’t
what it used to be”, he can
regale a person for hours with
inspiring, unbelievable and
often funny stories. Skeet grew
up an only child; he and his
wife had no children, and she
passed away in 2005. But he
isn’t alone. Everyone around
him at Wedgewood South
enjoys his sense of humor and
positive outlook, and he has
accumulated more friends than
he can count.
110 Lubbock Senior Link
He Isn’t Alone
by Jane Bromley
Skeet was born in 1924 make them.” During a leave
in Corsicana, Texas, in December 1944, he married
just in time for the Louise, his sweetheart from
Great Depression. He Pampa.
went to school in a
two-room schoolhouse A lot of young pilots were
near Pampa in little trained at Indian Springs, NV.
overalls his mother They would fly for hours in old
made for him out of C54 transport planes, just to get
feedsacks. Later, when them over being seasick. “They
he attended school were like boxcars. There wasn’t
in Pampa, he “had to really anything to train on.”
wear shoes and clean Skeet’s crew was sent to
britches.” His dad Honolulu, then Kwajalein
worked for Magnolia to fuel up, then on to Guam,
Oil Co. for 40 years and where they were based. Each
helped start Mobil Oil mission took about 18 hours,
Co. when they were up and back. “It wasn’t like in
still using mules to dig
wells. Europe, where they had to fight
their way in and fight their way
He only attended high school out. We didn’t face opposition.
until 10 grade, when he Because of the distance, our
th
enlisted in the Army Air Corps. biggest concern was running
“When Japan attacked, we out of fuel. We didn’t even
didn’t have an air corps. The have enough time to circle the
US was desperate for defense. island.”
They would take anybody.” The load of fuel would be so
After basic in Lawton, OK, he heavy that the pilot would
trained at Sheppard in Wichita have to rev the engines up to
Falls in B-17s. “The B-29s hadn’t top speed just to lift off before
been built yet.” He was sent running out of runway. “The
to a base in Kansas where he takeoff was the hairiest part of
formed a crew of 11 for the very the trip.” On one mission, they
first B29. “There was no school. were loaded down with 208
We were writing the curriculum 100# napalm bombs. They had
as we went.” After the B17, so much fuel, it was running
the B29 was “a jewel to ride out on the wings. They were
in.” But the Army was “using barely airborne when one of the
them faster than the boys could