Edward G. Schultz, Ca. Early 1940s

Major Edward Graf Schultz died July 29, 1943 near Yangkai, China. He landed about 15 years earlier at Tucson, Tuesday September 11, 1928. He was flying Cessna NC5035, and he carried a single passenger, R.W. Yahner. Based in Pittsburg, KS, they were westbound from El Paso, TX to Yuma, AZ.

They were competing in the 1928 National Air Races cross-country event named "On to Los Angeles." Please direct your browser to the event link to learn more about the race and its competitors and winners. Schultz and Yahner ultimately took fourth-place in Class B.

It is rare that the family of a Register pilot has taken the time to memorialize him (or her, as is certainly a possibility among Register pilots) on the Web. Pilot Schultz' family has developed two Web entities in his memory. The first, here (ca. 2002), is part of the Early Birds site, but the information was provided by Ed Schultz, Jr., son of pilot Schultz. This is a very brief biography, consisting mostly of news articles and anecdotes. It exhibits photographs of pilot Schultz.

The second, here, is a biographical treatise by Edward Schultz, II built in 2003. It is more extensive than the Early Birds texts, delving into the motivation and background for his family, especially his sons who were very young when he died, to build a global memorial to him. This work is sensitive and probing, calling to mind the "peeling the onion" metaphor for searching, uncovering and exposing deeper layers of information. Some of the links at this site no longer work, but this is a minor inconvenience to understanding the care (and frustration!) the Schultz family took to build the site.

From these links you'll learn that our pilot Edward Schultz was at various points in his short life an Early Bird, Marine aviator, prison convict, pilot for Pan American, flight instructor, and, finally before his death, Major in the US Army Air Corps in WWII. The links do not, however, reveal knowledge of his participation in the 1928 National Air Races.

Please direct your browser to fellow Register pilot Jay B. Sodowsky. There you will find a link to a video that shows Schultz during his early WWII flight training days. He taught Army Air Corps flight students at the Spartan School in Tulsa, OK. A frame captured from the video exhibited on Sodowsky's biography page shows him as a young trainer with the obligatory helmet and goggles. Below, aother frame from the film.

Ed Schultz, Ca. Early 1940s (Source: Regan)

His participation in the 1928 Race, and his presence in the Register showed up in a Google search and was noted by his daughter-in-law (wife of Schultz' youngest son) and granddaughter, who contacted me and said, "He flew for Pan American until 1938 or so, then set up a civilian training program in MO for the war effort. He finally ended up flying B-24 Liberators out of China and was killed in July, 1943." I am pleased that dmairfield.org provides for his family another layer of the onion.

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UPLOADED: 03/27/09 REVISED: 06/28/11, 12/15/11