Six past AFRC commanders join Stenner for memorial service at March Published Nov. 8, 2011 By Master Sgt. Linda Welz 452 AMW Public Affairs MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif -- A memorial service was held in the Cultural Resource Center here yesterday for retired Maj. Gen. Sloan R. Gill, former chief of the Air Force Reserve and former commander of the Air Force Reserve Command, who retired from those positions in December 1989 and passed away Aug. 22, 2011, at the age of 81. The normally sunny Southern California skies and warm weather gave way to showers and frigid temperatures as family and guests gathered to remember and honor their loved one, friend and comrade. Lt. Gen. Charles E. Stenner Jr., AFR chief and AFRC commander, gave the eulogy at the memorial. Joining him for the service were retired major generals Homer I. Lewis, William Lyon, Roger Scheer and Robert McIntosh, as well as retired Lt. Gen. James Sherrard and John Bradley, all former AFR chiefs and former AFRC commanders. This was the largest gathering of present and former AFRC commanders in history. The base theatre was filled to capacity, with standing room only, for the hour-long tribute, which began with presentation of the colors, by March's Blue Eagles Total Force Honor Guard, the playing of the National Anthem and an invocation from 452nd Air Mobility Wing Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Richard R. Givens II. After Stenner's remarks, honor guard members performed the flag-folding ceremony and presented it to Stenner, who presented it to Gill's grieving daughter, Roxann. Emotions were more visible as shots rang through the air from the honor guard's firing party, which was followed by a solo bugler playing a muffled Ruffles and Taps. Attendees sat in silence as honor guard members furled and encased Gill's personal colors for a final time. Gill, a native of Georgia, was a graduate of Staunton Military Academy and The Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a command pilot who flew the B-25 Mitchell Bomber, C-123 Provider, C-124 Globemaster II, C-7A Caribou and the C-118 Liftmaster, which in 1955 was the plane he flew to establish a world record for propeller-driven transports from McGuire Air Force Base to Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, in 10 hours, 22 minutes. He had more than 10,000 hours of military flying time with more than 4,000 civilian hours. The general participated in Operation Wounded Warrior, the air evacuation of French Foreign Legion troops from North Vietnam, to French bases in North Africa. He was called to active duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Pueblo Crisis. His military duty took him to assignments at Maxwell AFB, Ala., O'Hare International Airport, Ill., Selfridge AFB, Mich., Robins AFB, Ga., Dobbins ARB, Ga., Kelly AFB, Texas, McClellan AFB, Calif., and Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon. Gill's biography for the memorial service read, "He was truly an exceptional man who flew his Cessna 172 and shot a round of 84 on the golf course four weeks before his death. He loved his family, loved his friends, and loved his country. He will be sorely missed by everyone who had the pleasure to know him." He is survived by three children, six grandchildren, one great-grandchild, an older sister and many nieces and nephews.