Stories of Fred Eckert’s time in the U.S. Navy flowed from his lips as he sat in a blue patio chair outside his house in Coronado, where American flags are carefully placed around an attentively tailored garden.
Eckert, who retired as a lieutenant commander and Navy helicopter pilot, spent more than 20 years in the service. For the majority of that time, he was stationed at Naval Air Station North Island. And, now, he’s still living in town – and was honored on Nov. 1 at the Coronado Historical Association’s Avenue of Heroes.
The military service recognition program for veterans is sponsored by the city and managed by the Coronado Historical Association and Coronado’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2422.
Banners of veterans are displayed along Third and Fourth St. from Orange Avenue to Naval Air Station North Island.
At a Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 1 at the Coronado High School Performing Arts Center, Eckert and 13 other veterans were honored for their service.
Honorees were Stanley Antrim, Thomas Ashworth Jr., Paul B. Austin, Louis E. Burke Jr., Thomas R. Edison, Michael William Emerson, William “Bill” Hiscock, William “Bill” McClure, Paul Anthony Pensabene, Edward S. Pietrzak Jr., Fred E. Rose, Donald F. Steuer and John “Jack” Kendall Winston.
Over a hundred family and friends showed up to the ceremony at the performing arts center to pay tribute to the veterans, some of whom have already passed and are survived by family members.
“We were chased one time by a Russian Hind helicopter, a heavily armed helicopter,” Eckert recollected in his front yard. “We had these stabilized binoculars, and we’re supposed to fly and look at what the Russians were doing in Yemen … Our ship was directing us to stay out of their airspace, but get as close as we could.
“I gotta say, this was pretty tense,” he continued. “(It was a) heavily armed helicopter, and ours wasn’t armed at all.”
The Russian helicopter never shot at Eckert, but it did the job and scared him and the other pilots away from their surveillance mission, he said.
This was only a couple of years after he became an active duty pilot. During his years of flying, Eckert said he received the Navy Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal, among many others.
Eckert, born in New York and raised in New Jersey, enlisted in 1970 while other young men were facing military conscription. If he had been drafted, Eckert said, he wouldn’t have had a say in what he did in the military. But he wanted to be a pilot, so he took control of his career and signed with the Navy.
And when given the option between helicopters or fixed-wing aircrafts, he chose helicopters.
Eckert was assigned to Imperial Beach to fly the H-2 Seasprite, an all-weather helicopter, before moving just a bit north and being stationed at North Island.
Eckert was stationed with three different anti-submarine squadrons, also known as HSL, that have since been deestablished: HSL 35 and 33 and a pilot instructor for HSL 31.
He’s been out of the military for decades now, but the Navy is still a big part of his everyday life.
He said he visits North Island almost five times a week. He plays golf there, goes to movies and even does his grocery shopping on base.
Even though Eckert dedicated over 20 years to the Navy – and accumulated over 3,800 flight hours – he joked that, if he’s being recognized on the Avenue of Heroes, they’ll honor anyone.
It’s a tremendous honor. I don’t say it lightly. There’s probably other people that are more deserving … There’s lots and lots of deserving people, you know. I’m just one of many.
Fred Eckert
“It’s a tremendous honor. I don’t say it lightly. There’s probably other people that are more deserving,” Eckert said humbly. “There’s lots and lots of deserving people, you know. I’m just one of many.”
