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PROFILE OF A MUSEUM
VOLUNTEER Rolf “Sandy”
Scovell was born October 25, 1928, in Brussels,
Belgium to an American father and an English mother. He came to the United
States as a child when Hitler began his bombing raids on the United
Kingdom. While attending Western High
School in Washington D.C., Rolf attempted to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air
Force, but was told to come back after he had finished high school! To satisfy
his interest in aviation however, Sandy worked at several private airports
during his high school and college years, and
eventually earned his commercial pilot’s license. By the time WW II ended, he
had joined the Air Force ROTC at the University of Maryland. Graduating as a
Second Lieutenant from the university, pilot training became Rolf’s first
assignment in the Air Force. He earned his wings as a jet fighter pilot just
in time to participate in the Korean War as an F-84 fighter bomber
pilot.
After having
completed 117 combat missions over North Korea, Rolf returned to the states
and was assigned to the Air Defense Command flying F-94C’s, F-102’s, T-33’s,
and F-86L aircraft. He eventually became an instructor and test pilot in each
of these aircraft. On August 17, 1955,
Rolf married his sweetheart, Barbara, in Orlando, Florida. They had two
children, Terrill and Scott and now have 4 grandchildren Chris, Tyler, Nate
and Laelle.
Rolf
volunteered for a Navy exchange tour and spent 18 months with a Navy fighter
squadron (VF-62), eleven months of which was on the U.S. Navy Carrier Essex.
There he amassed 128 carrier landings in North American FJ-3M fighters.
Before completing his tour in the Navy exchange program, Rolf checked out in
the F-8U Crusader fighter. When he
returned to the Air Force Sandy flew the F-106A Delta Dart, in which he flew
over 2,000 hours.
When the
Vietnam War broke out, Rolf volunteered to fly Cessna 01-E Birddog aircraft
that performed unarmed reconnaissance missions. Rolf’s mission was scanning
the countryside looking for infiltrators coming into Vietnam from Laos and
Cambodia. Rolf flew over 600 hours during this tour, including several months
flying over the southern part of North Vietnam, directing artillery fighters
and naval gunfire at targets of opportunity. Upon his return to the United
States, Rolf commanded the flight test detachment at McClellan AFB in
Sacramento, California where the majority of U.S. Air Force fighters were
overhauled or modified. The final four years of Rolf’s military career was spent
overseas in Germany and Spain, where Rolf squeezed in enough time to earn a Masters Degree from the Air Force Institute of
Technology.
During
Rolf’s 30-year Air Force career, he totaled approximately 9,500 flight hours
and rose to the rank of Colonel. Rolf was awarded three Distinguished Flying
Crosses, eighteen Air Medals, the Bronze Star, the Air Force outstanding unit
award, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, the Korean and Vietnam Presidential
Unit citations plus various other awards. Upon his retirement, Rolf’s friend
Frank Cristando, a staff member of the Legion of
Valor Museum invited him to visit, where soon afterwards, Rolf signed up to
volunteer. Today, Rolf “Sandy” Scovell, is in charge of the museums military library that
includes thousands of books and videos. He has categorized each book and
video, labeled them, and entered them into the museum’s computer database.
Rolf has enjoyed performing his duties for the past five years at the Legion
of Valor Museum and looks forward to the years ahead as the museum continues
to grow.
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