Staryl C. Austin

World War II

Austin enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He qualified as an Aviation Cadet and was assigned to a pilot training unit at Spence Field in Georgia. After completing basic pilot training, he went on to P-47 transition training in Richmond, Virginia. Upon graduation, Austin was assigned as a P-47 instructor pilot at Dover, Delaware. A year later, he joined the 410th Fighter Squadron, part of the 373rd Fighter Group in Belgium.

Austin stayed with the 373rd Fighter Group through the end of the war. The unit's main mission was to help Allied ground force advance by destroying German army ground targets. During his time in European theatre, Austin completed 58 combat missions in Belgium, France, and Germany. Counting himself lucky, he recalled a near miss involving 88mm flak from the Germans "that went up close to the nose of my plane... "

In 1963, Austin was appointed as Oregon's Assistant Adjutant General and promoted to brigadier general.

On October 30, 1981, Austin was presented with the Order of the Sword. The award recognizes military leaders who made a significant contribution to the Air Force enlisted corps during their career. He retired from the Air National Guard in December 1981. After his retirement, Austin and Colonel John H. Barden, an executive officer in the same unit, were honored by a military review and flyover at Portland Air Base. Each had served in the military for 37 years. One of Austin's tasks at ODVA was to oversee a $5 billion home and farm loan program that had run into financial difficulty. Some of his budget-balancing efforts, such as raising interest rates on variable-rate loans, met with resistance and in some cases lawsuits. Supporters, including the governor and state treasurer, gave him credit for taking unpopular steps to improve the program's fiscal condition. An Associated Press article in 1984 described Austin's tenure at ODVA as "four turbulent years in one of the state government's most visible hotseats."

After retiring from ODVA, Austin worked as a volunteer serving on the Governor's Veterans' Advisory Committee and the board of directors for the Veterans Care Centers of Oregon. In 2005, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski presented Austin with a special Governor's Commendation Award, recognizing over 60 years of public service.

At the time of his 2005 interview with Northwest Senior News, he was national vice president of the P-47 Thunderbolt Pilots' Association. In 2007, he was inducted into the Oregon Aviation Hall of Honor. The induction ceremony was held at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. He died in Salem on January 1, 2015, at the age of 94.