ALVIN HOWARD REBSAMEN
passed away quietly late evening on Monday October 29, 2021.
He fought to the last, but I am not surprised.
My father led an extraordinarily full life defined by a remarkable intellect, framed by a resolute sense of duty.
He was born March 24, 1924, one of three brothers born to orphaned children of immigrants.
While neither parent received a formal education, his Midwestern German father, Louis, became a successful electrician and Irish mother, Lillian, a published poet. His childhood in Queens, N.Y., was laced with stories of World Fairs and milk delivery trucks pulled by horses.
At 17 years old, he was lured to a distant World War II, joining the armed services, called to duty in 1943. As a B24 bomber pilot, he flew 32 missions which included daytime bombing over Germany, sheer terror as wingman to the fated flight of Leon Vance, and memories of viewing the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, unable to appreciate the carnage below. My father returned to the States at 19 years of age, unable to drive a car because he was too young for a driver’s license!
My father continued his military career in the Air Force Reserves, flying in the Strategic Air Command in the Cold War where his target was the Kremlin. My earliest memories were of nightly air sirens, my father disappearing for days, to return as I hugged my flight suited father on the tarmac, seemingly indestructible. He went on to serve in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, ultimately winning 15 medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. My father was honored along with other heroic pilots from multiple nations at the Gathering of Eagles Ceremony. Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands was a guest of honor; my father had secreted the prince onto his plane in the middle of the night for a bombing run over Germany, fulfilling a young man’s royal wish.
My father quietly viewed his service “in four wars” as every American’s duty, yet proudly as his greatest achievement.
His post military life was forged by his quest for knowledge. He obtained a real estate license, obtained his brokerage license to manage stocks and bonds, and used the G.I. Bill to obtain a Bachelors of Arts in Business, a Master of Science, culminating in a Juris Doctor of Law.
But my father’s ultimate allegiance was to his family. To his eldest daughter, Carole, he gifted a keen curiosity, and to his son, Richard, he imbued an unwavering code of Honor, “When you become a man, in business as in life, right is right and wrong is wrong, there is no grey.” To both, he left a sense of duty to a larger good, each choosing a career in education. For myself, Susan, I humbly admit to an insatiable love of travel, a sense of wonder perhaps sparked as a child as I imagined where his plane would next land.
The navigation of our family now rests on the capable shoulders of my mother, Patricia Fortson Rebsamen, with her steadfast positive attitude towards life, “Happiness is a choice.”
And so, as I listen to the last strains of “Taps,” I still hear the jets overhead and anticipate the sonic boom. I offer a final salute, and a thank you for the legacy of a WWII veteran and the love of a father.
Alvin is preceded in death by his two brothers, Raymond and John Rebsamen. He is survived by his grandchildren, Dalton Rebsamen, Ava Schiebler, Adam Schiebler, Brianne Schiebler (great-grandchildren, Desmond and Josephine Claude), Lirra Schiebler Hill (great-grandchildren Enzo and Leo Hill), Luke Neville, Lily Neville, Abby Herzog, Emily Herzog, and Olivia Herzog.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Children’s Homes Inc. in Paragould, Ark. Online guestbook www.SmithFamilyCares.com