In Memoriam
Major Aaron Cooper "C-Dot" George
Fighter Pilot, Warrior, Husband and Father
July 17, 2001, 416th Flight Test Squadron, Edwards AFB, CA
This site is dedicated as a memorial for the late Major Aaron "C-Dot" George who was tragically killed in a F-16 crash near Edwards AFB July 17th, 2001.
Along with him passed away Mr. Judson Brohmer, a contractor for Lockheed Martin who was taking pictures that day.
Both were great men, and fulfilled their job with great passion and utmost professionality. George and Brohmer will be sadly missed in the Viper community.
Please contribute to the idea below of creating a MEMORY SCRAPBOOK of "C-Dot" for his family. It should help keeping "C-Dot" in our minds and - if possible - ease the pain of his beloved ones.
"C-Dot" loved what he did - that was flying fighters - and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. He was truly a great warrior and served his country superbly.
C-dot Memories Captured
This letter is for anyone who knew Maj Aaron George (or “C-dot” as most of us knew him).
So many of us have wonderful memories of C-dot. Over these past weeks, we’ve all shared these memories with each other and we want to capture as much of this as possible to share with C-dot’s family. So, we are putting together a “Scrapbook of C-dot Stories” to give to Cheryl and the children. (Maj Ron Buckley and I discussed the idea and he asked me to lead this effort.) Hopefully, this will be a treasure for many years to come for the family. We want to pull together some of your favorite moments with C-dot so that as his children grow up, they will know a bit more of who their father was during the time that he worked with the people at Edwards AFB as well as during the rest of his Air Force career. This book will be assembled from everyone’s input and can include stories, special moments, practical jokes he played on us, etc, etc, etc - essentially, it’s any moment in time you had with C-dot that tells his family a little more of who he was.
If you would like to contribute to this Scrapbook of C-dot Stories, please capture your story and give it to me. There are a variety of formats you can choose for this:
- You can simply e-mail me the verbiage that I will then print out. (What most are doing.)
- You can write what you want in Word or PowerPoint format if you want to use certain fonts, colors, pictures, etc in your document.
- You can give me things that C-dot gave you (ie, if he wrote you a sticky-note that you still have that you would be willing to give up or if you there are some funny C-dot comments on a document that a team was working on together - like editing a test plan or report.) Just make sure that you explain what it is exactly.
The bottom line is to make sure it can fit into a standard 81/2 x 11’’ binder. Documents that you e-mail me will be bound into the book.
If you are going to capture a memory, the verbiage can be any length you want - - if you want to write down multiple stories, that’s fine. If you don’t have any particular story to share but you liked how C-dot always smiled in the hallways, at the ops desk or getting into the jet, then fell free to simply write down “I always liked how C-dot grinned when he pre-flighted my jet.”
Whatever you submit to me, would you please include your name and who you are (how you knew C-dot) as the family might not know you personally. It is important to expand on your relationship with Maj George so that his family will know who you are exactly and how you knew C-dot. Again, you can e-mail me your input or if you have other memorabilia that can’t be e-mailed, you can drop it by my office or mail it to me. If you drop it by my office, I’d prefer that I receive it personally as opposed to just leaving it on my desk. If you want to mail it to me (for folks that are out of town), I would prefer that you send it to my home address (listed below).
I began by sending this letter out to the entire 416th squadron. However, I’m asking everyone to share this letter with others who worked closely with C-dot and might want to include a memory in this scrapbook. Just forward this letter to those who you think would want to contribute and they can refer any questions to me. Also, if you know anybody who worked with C-dot throughout his Air Force career from prior assignments, please let me know that person’s name so that I can contact them. (This is particularly applicable for the other military officers.) The reason is because the end goal is to assemble this Scrapbook of C-dot Stories from every assignment he’s had in the Air Force. I will assemble the book in chronological order.
We would like to present this to Cheryl and the family soon. So, I’m asking that everyone give me their input by Monday, 20 Aug. If I receive stuff after the book has been given to the George family, I will obviously forward it to them but it would be nice to have the completed “Scrapbook of C-dot Stories” when they receive it. The book is going to be professionally assembled so it will be difficult to add to it after it is put together.
Please let me if you have any questions or comments. My phone number is in my signature block below. My home address is below for those of you that need to mail something to me. I look forward to your response. Cristy Stagg
Home Address: (Preferred)
Capt Cristy R. Stagg
6750 Chamberlin Ave.
Edwards, CA 93523
Phone: 661-258-0576
e-mail: cfstagg@ptw.com
Capt Cristy R. Stagg
Chief, SPO Test Management Division
Ph: 661-277-0766 (DSN 527-0766)
Fax: 661-277-2228 (DSN 527-2228)
e-mail: cristy.stagg@edwards.af.mil
Address: 416 FLTS
118 N. Wolfe Ave.
Edwards AFB, CA 93524
C-Dot's squadron
C-Dot getting ready for a T-38 Test Flight
Carolina Morning News Article on Aaron George - Click HERE!