This piece originally ran in the August 2020 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
With a love of history and deep respect for veterans, Eric Rood, EAA Lifetime 192552, is a perfect fit to volunteer with EAA’s Timeless Voices of Aviation oral history project, which collects the stories of veterans and other aviation personalities, well-known or unheralded, to preserve for future generations. Eric first volunteered with Timeless Voices at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2006 and has been a mainstay with the program for more than a decade.
Eric’s father was in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and in the Air Force during the Korean War. After putting together a program for a reunion of his father’s Korean War unit in 2003, Eric began to interview some of the members of the unit for his own oral history project. By the time he finished researching and accumulating the equipment he’d need, it was 2006. Eric interviewed a few of the veterans that summer. Then he attended AirVenture and began to assist with Timeless Voices for the first time. Since then, Eric has done more than 200 interviews. Of those 200, three have stood out: Robert “Bob” Shroats, a member of the 388th Bomb Group who flew shuttle bombing missions from England and Italy against Axis targets and then landed at friendly bases in the Soviet Union as part of Operation Frantic during World War II; Bob Arn, a C-46 pilot that flew missions over the Himalayas; and Walter Klarin, who worked on the electric propellers that would eventually be used on the B-29s that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“You get to know stories that have never been told or written down,” Eric said. “The things you hear, you don’t know about it. It’s nowhere else. … It’s very rewarding. You’re just in awe of what they did.”
As someone who didn’t have much experience conducting an interview when he first got started with Timeless Voices, Eric made sure to credit his mentors Mike DiMiccelli and Mel Smith for helping him get to where he is now. Currently, Eric is looking to pay it forward, as many EAA volunteers do.
“It’s been a great program,” he said. “I’m kind of looking for somebody to mentor, to carry it on.”
If you’d like to talk to Eric about his volunteer work, send a note to editorial@eaa.org and we’ll connect you. – Ed.
Volunteers make EAA AirVenture Oshkosh — and just about everything else EAA does — possible. This space in EAA Sport Aviation is dedicated to thanking and shining the spotlight on volunteers from the community. Sadly, it cannot capture all of the thousands of volunteers who give so much to the community every year. So, next time you see a volunteer at AirVenture or elsewhere, however they are pitching in to make EAA better, be sure to thank them for it. It’s the least we can do. Do you know a volunteer you’d like to nominate for Volunteer Spotlight? Visit www.EAA.org/submissions.