Family History

Summary of Don's family history:
or go to the extended version

Don grew up and graduated from high school in Moscow, Idaho. He completed a B.S. in Biology from Willamette University in 1980, and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Idaho in 1981. He entered active duty in the Air Force and earned his pilot wings in 1982. He flew C-141�s at Norton A.F.B. California until 1988 when he accepted a civilian airline position with US Air in Pittsburgh. He was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis just after making this transition.

He continued to fly with the Air Force Reserve, first in C-141�s at Andrews A.F.B. and later in C-130�s at Youngstown, Ohio. He stopped flying for the Reserves and served as an Admission Liaison Officer for the Air Force Academy until deteriorating health forced his retirement. Don flew almost all the airplanes in the inventory at US Airways, while he was there. He went out on disability in January 2002.

Don married Nancy Berry just before leaving active duty. Their first son, Wilson was born while Don was activated for the first Gulf War in May 1991. Evan was born in January 1993, and Nathan followed along in August 1996. Don�s family life was his primary concern and he enjoyed working with Nancy as the boys� Cub Scout leaders, baseball and soccer coaches, and in all their other activities. Nancy and Don separated in June 2001. Nancy moved the boys to Madison, Wisconsin in October 2004 and she and Don were divorced in September 2005.

Don remains active. He continues to coach soccer and is an Elder at Hanover Presbyterian Church. He greatly looks forward to visits from the boys during the school year and the summer period he gets to share with them. He has been �adopted� by a wonderful family and a generous community. He will continue to do what he can, for as long as he is able. He is immensely grateful for everyone who has stepped forward to help him and for the friends and new family that has formed around him.

Extended Version:

We�re happy you would like to know more about Don, his family, and their life together. We�ll do the best we can to compress 47 years into a compact package.

Don was welcomed into the world at Gritman Memorial Hospital in Moscow, Idaho on February 11, 1958. He joined Karl, sister Kit, and Bill in the Craine family lineup, a position he still occupies today. He was blessed with great parents, capable and generous siblings, and a wonderful life. He is still blessed with all those things today.

Don was a normal kid and did what normal kids do. Fortunately, nothing resulted in long-term injury to anyone or a permanent arrest history. He liked to ski, swim, and cruise around outdoors. He worked his way through cub and boy scouts. He and brother Bill were awarded their Eagle rank on the same day. Don was 13 and had experience with most of the positions in his troop, so he branched out into scout�s Order of the Arrow (OA) honorary service organization.

He was tapped for Vigil at age16, served as his council�s lodge chief, and then chief of his region, which included parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. He liked the program�s connection with Native American culture and participated in events with local tribes. In addition to the usual scout activities during the year, he enjoyed long treks in wilderness areas during the summers. These trips sometimes lasted several weeks, during which he was lost only a portion of the time.

He also worked on camp staffs during the summer and went to Leadership training at Philmont. He worked on the staff at the 1973 National Scout Jamboree and went to the National Order of the Arrow National Conference that year. He worked on the committee that organized and hosted OA�s next national conference. He served on several national scout and Order of the Arrow committees, in most cases being the first youth to do so. He also was very active in DeMolay during high school and held most of the offices in the Moscow chapter.

Don graduated from Moscow High School in 1976, where his peers recognized him as their outstanding male graduate. He wandered off to Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. His mom and brother Karl were graduates of Willamette, and his brother Bill was attending. The Kappa Sigma fraternity offered Don a membership. Both Don�s brothers were members. Don accepted and held many of the chapter�s offices and was their delegate to the national convention in 1979.

Don lost faith in where his degree in Biology would take him, and started Air Force ROTC after his junior year. His brother Bill had worked hard to get Willamette to agree to allow students to participate in the program hosted by the University of Portland and was headed off to become a pilot in the Air Force. Don thought he should follow along to make sure all his brother�s hard work was not wasted. It seems a pattern has emerged here.

Most people were skeptical, because Don did not appear to be the military type. He showed up late to the summer training program because he got stuck in Hawaii. He had long hair, which the Air Force corrected with amazing efficiency. He didn�t have the right equipment, so they took him to the BX to buy it. After nicknaming him �Baby Jesus�, they adjusted to his poor start and he finished the six-week program in the top five of his class. Don finished at Willamette in 1980. His ROTC detachment tried unsuccessfully to get the Air Force to waive his second year of ROTC. We suspect they had had just about enough of Don. Although he could have taken a year of basket-weaving while he completed ROTC, his mom convinced him to be productive and complete a Master�s degree before going off to fly. As the Chinese proverb says: �Mother with high level of wisdom means more work and less fun for children.�

Don went back to the University of Idaho and finished a Master�s of Public Administration while also working for the Moscow Police as a dispatcher. He was a pretty busy boy, but was able to work through the degree requirements before leaving for pilot training in Del Rio, Texas in September 1981. He even finished with a 4.0 G.P.A.

Don learned that it is not good to show up for Air Force pilot training with a Harley, but he managed to survive the high washout rate and earn his pilot wings a year later. He got his first choice of assignments, and headed off to fly C-141�s at Norton Air Force base in southern California. Don got to fly all over the world and contribute to many news worthy events. He was fast-tracked through flying and administrative upgrades. He became an Aircraft Commander as a 1st Lt and was sent to Squadron Officer School shortly after. He graduated 2nd in a class of 798. He eventually became a flight examiner in Airland, Airdrop, Air-Refueling, and Special Operations. He was also an instructor in the simulator and a maintenance test flight pilot.

He worked in a variety of staff positions including Executive Officer for the Wing Commander at Norton. He was a Presidential Liaison Officer, in charge of all requirements when the President traveled to southern California. Although his friends� parents lost sleep thinking about it, the Air Force seemed to like him. He was selected from a pool of top enlisted personnel and officers through the rank of Lt Col for the General Lew Allen Trophy in 1986. He was one of 35 Captains Air Force-wide to be selected for a follow-on assignment to the Pentagon for Air Staff training (ASTRA) in 1987. He met Nancy shortly after that announcement, and decided to trade his military career to provide more stability for their marriage. In spite of his decision to leave active duty, the Air Force nominated him for the U.S. Jaycees Ten Outstanding Americans Award for 1988.

Don and Nancy were married in February 1988 and he went to work for USAir in August. He started as a First Officer on the MD-80 in Pittsburgh. Don was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis in the spring of 1989 during his probationary year. Life became focused on balancing the dreams and aspirations of a young family with the difficulties associated with employment with an unstable airline in an uncertain industry and the need to backup that employment with a military reserve obligation tied to events in an unpredictable world. At the same time, Don was trying to understand and manage the impact of a diagnosed but unknown illness that could manifest itself in a seemingly endless number of ways.

Don needed to fly in the Air Force Reserve while also flying for US Air. He commuted to Andrews A.F.B. in Washington, D.C. where he was an Instructor Pilot in C-141�s. He flew over Christmas during the initial days of the invasion of Panama in 1989 and was activated for a year flying during Desert Shield/Storm in 1990. Nancy was pregnant during the war, and Wilson joined the family in May 1991 while Don was home on leave.

Don began suffering a wide variety of illnesses that escaped diagnosis during and after the war. He went through the VA and was placed on the Gulf War registry. US Air became Ill during the war as well, and announced their first pilot furloughs. Don kept his job, but became one of the most junior pilots at the airline. He was displaced to the Fokker 28 in Charlotte, and for the first time faced commuting to work.

He switched to flying C-130�s in Youngstown, Ohio to eliminate one commute and spend more time at home with Nancy and Wil. He was able to get a series of waivers to avoid going to a three-month flight school in Little Rock, Arkansas. He trained on the F-28 in Tampa during the week, and on the C-130 at the same facility on the weekends. Training on two airplanes at the same time was tough, but it allowed Don to spend the most time with Wil and Nancy.

Evan arrived in January 1993 and shortly after the family moved to their country house near the airport. This reduced the commute to the Reserves, but in spite of this, Don was not able to maintain the pace. He stopped flying for the reserves to preserve his home life and try to maintain his health. Don switched to work as an Air Force Academy Liaison Officer (ALO) to try to preserve his military retirement. He was able to get back to flying the Fokker 100 for US Air in Pittsburgh and later switched to the B-737-200.

Don also performed staff duties at the airline. He was one of a few First Officers to do a research project co-sponsored by the airline, NASA, and the University of Texas. Nate came along in August 1996 and Don was chosen to represent both management and the Airline Pilots Association on a task force designed to improve employee relations. The job lasted a year and a half, and was the first time the family could enjoy a regular 9 to 5 job with stability and weekends off.

Don and Nancy were always heavily involved in the boys� activities, so the time at home was a special blessing. They worked with others to start a soccer league in their township and eventually their school district. They always coached the boys� teams together, sometimes coaching three teams at one time. Wil and Evan played baseball along with spring soccer, and Don helped coach those teams. Nancy and Don started Cub Scout groups for both boys, and those activities melded in with the athletics. They did this while also renovating and doubling the size of their home and making other improvements to their property.

As USAir morphed into US Airways, Don enjoyed new opportunities. He was selected to be a Simulator Instructor on the B-737-200, shortly after that program became available to First Officers. It was a great job with an even better group of people, and for the first time Don enjoyed contributing in the same way he did on active duty in the Air Force. When the opportunity to upgrade to Captain became available, he took it, hoping to return to the B-737-200 as a check airman. But as quickly as the opportunities came, they went away. Committed to upgrade, Don switched to the F-100. He flew as Captain for only a short period before the airline began to unravel again.

On the final downswing, he flew as First Officer on the B-757/767 and the Airbus. Don�s health continued to deteriorate during this time and he went on disability with the airline in January 2002. During his airline career, he flew the DC-9, MD-80, F-28, and was type rated on the F-100, B-737, B-757/767, and Airbus. Don�s health forced retirement from the Air Force Reserves in the spring of 2002, with the rank of Lt Col.

Don and Nancy separated in June 2001. The house and property was sold in July 2002. Nancy bought another house in the area, and Don was able to rent a house near the school. Dwayne and Carol Adams took great care of Don and worked hard to manage all the maintenance and upkeep on the house, since Don was not able to. They helped provide a great home for the boys when they came for visits.

Don was in the last group of pilots furloughed at the airline in June 2003. As a result, he lost his disability income from US Airways. Health insurance was also lost, although the pilots� union picked up the cost of his COBRA payments, so that coverage was maintained. Fortunately, Don�s application for full disability from Social Security was approved on the first round. Don and the boys receive social security income, and he is now on Medicare. The insurance coverage provided by the pilot�s union will end soon.

Don has applied for full disability through the VA, and it is clear it should be granted. The delay associated with this process has bee truly disappointing. For a long period, it appeared they had lost his claim, and Don had to ask Senator Rick Santorum to intervene and find the records. They were eventually located at a VA regional office in Maine. Don is still waiting for a final determination of his claim. Health care through the VA would help Don greatly.

Don has now been �adopted� by Roy and Rae Kramer and lives in a wonderful trailer on their property. They keep close track of him and help whenever needed. His acceptance into their family has been a tremendous gift and blessing. There is no better place for him as he faces the challenges his future presents. He has also been fortunate to have a solid group of friends step forward to support and care for him, as well as members of his church. They join his natural family and ensure that Don will have the emotional backing for his very difficult journey.

Nancy moved the boys to be with her family in Madison, Wisconsin in October 2004. She and Don were divorced in September 2005. Don shares vacation time with the boys during the school year, and they have been able to travel together to Idaho during summer vacation. Don�s life is completely focused on Wil, Evan, and Nate when they are together. When they are not, he keeps busy as an Elder at Hanover Presbyterian Church and by helping as a soccer coach. He has a consistent schedule with his Doctors and works hard with daily exercise therapy to try to slow the rate of physical decay. He has a full and happy life and is grateful for every day. He understands that our definitions of ourselves all change overtime, and that there are really no disabilities�just shifts in ability. He still looks forward to contributing to the lives of his boys, and to the lives of others around him.

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