Photo by Reilly Dixon
Honoring Lewis
- Published: February 29, 2024
Longtime local resident and Korean War veteran Joe Lewis, 93, was honored for his service in the United States Air Force with a brief ceremony Friday, Jan. 26, at Friends Care Community, where Lewis currently resides.
Present at the commemoration were Friends Care staffers, community members, several of Lewis’ family members and Gov. Mike DeWine. Lewis was presented with a commemorative pin and certificate for his military service.
Lewis enlisted in the Air Force in 1950 — just three years after the branch’s establishment — and studied electronics, eventually training as a Doppler radar technician in Mississippi. Later, amid the Korean War, Lewis was assigned to an air rescue squadron based in Japan, where, during a four-year tour, he maintained radar systems on planes bound for Korea, occasionally picking up downed airmen who had fallen from planes with nonworking radar systems.
While working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Lewis moved to Yellow Springs with his family in 1963. During his career, Lewis became an electronic specialist and programmer, eventually helping to develop coding sheets that were input into the first generation of IMP computers for use throughout the Air Force systems.
After his retirement, Lewis served on Village Council beginning in 1991, and later as president of the group.
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