Correspondent photo / Melissa Channell
Mark LeCappelain of Newton Falls served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era.

LeCappelain graduated from Shaker Heights High School and immediately signed up for the Air Force.

“When I graduated from high school, they wanted me to go to Kent State for four years and come out and be a fighter jockey, but I said, ‘no, it was too close after Vietnam, I’ll enlist.’ I wanted to fly, but I didn’t want to fly fighter jets that close to Vietnam because you never knew what was going to happen,” LeCappelain said.

The first stop on his military journey was boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

“From there, I went to Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. Then my first base was Lucas Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona working on F4C’s. That was the fighter jet of the time,” LeCappelain said.

After Lucas, LeCappelain went to Hahn Air Force Base in Germany, where he worked on F4E’s. This was a time of high tension.

“I was seven minutes flying time from Russia, and it was during the Cold War. We were loaded with nuclear weapons all the time. If there was an alarm and anything happened, we were ready to go,” he said.

Many people at the time lived with a fear of impending nuclear war.

“On the weekends, we’d get to go away. I loved Switzerland. I skied the Zugspitze, which is the highest mountain in Germany,” LeCappelain said.

He said the people in Germany were awesome.

“I’ve never met a finer bunch of people, I really haven’t. They’d make you feel like you were part of the family. And the food, you don’t go away from there hungry. It’s a different atmosphere, and it’s a different food, the schnitzel, the metwurst, the curry metwurst, bratwurst, and pie. I should have come back from there like 300 pounds, but I didn’t,” LeCappelain said.

He seemed destined for travel.

‘And I went on temporary duty to a bunch of different places. They’d send us down to different bases, like Spain, Turkey, England, for doing different training missions over there,” he said.

LeCappelain found himself back in Colorado at Lowry Air Force Base, where he met his wife.

“I was an instructor for weapons release, that was my MOS. I was a weapons mechanic, loaded bombs, missiles and nukes on fighter jets. I took care of the guns out on the flight, but I had a secondary aircraft crew chief,” he said.

LeCappelain served for five-and-a-half years and then became a crew chief for Trans Airlines until they went out of business.

LeCappelain met his wife in 1981 and they had two children, Joshua and Lacey. They spent time between Ohio and Florida, with the children being mostly raised in Ashtabula. He worked for 20 years for the Cleveland Electrical Illuminating Co., where his father-in-law was president of the union.

LeCappelain worked at a number of other places as well, including LTV Steel and Business Aircraft Corporation, where he worked on police and medical helicopters.

“Going into the military taught me a bunch of respect, manners and courtesy. I mean, I grew up with religious parents, so I already knew that, but it taught me how to be a man, how to be honest, you know. I suggest to anybody to go spend a couple of years in the military. You’ll grow up quick. You do, and that’s what I did,” LeCappelain said.

Mark Richard LeCappelain

AGE: 68

RESIDENCE: Newton Falls

SERVICE BRANCH: Air Force

MILITARY HONORS: Good Conduct Medal

OCCUPATION: Retired after 20 years at Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company

FAMILY: Two children and three grandchildren