Phillip Gene Noble, 91, of Rapid City, SD, died, Friday, December 18, 2020 at in home at The Village at Skyline Pines in Rapid City.
Funeral service will be 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at Kirk Funeral Home in Rapid City.
Visitation will be for one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Burial will be in Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis, SD.
Phillip Gene Noble was born to Dave and Olga Noble on the family farm near Northome, Minnesota on May 11, 1929. Phil, along with his older sister Mina J. Noble (Tepley), was raised on the farm until 1941. With the stresses of an impending war and a failing farm, Dave and Olga split ways and Phil moved with his mother and sister to Madison Wisconsin, where he attended high school. In 1946, Phil joined the United States Army Air Force, with the permission of his mother as he was only 17 years old at the time. After attending basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB), Texas, Phil was trained as a carpenter and soon was on a troop ship to Japan to serve in the post-World War II occupation of that country. Upon return to the States, he was retrained as a Radio Mechanic and then sent to Ellington AFB, Texas. While working the flight line at Ellington, he emerged one day from the belly hatch of a TB-25 navigation trainer aircraft cursing and hollering over some frustration he was having with repairing the airplane's radios. Phil was somewhat taken aback to find an attractive young WAF by the name of Airman Beatrice Lowman standing outside his plane! As time went on, Phil and Bea were assigned to the same maintenance crew. Both were soon promoted to "Buck" Sergeant and became the Crew Chief and Assistant Crew Chief, respectively. Despite their somewhat rocky "introduction", a romance gradually sparked between the two crew leaders and they were married on June 24, 1951. Later that year, Phil was sent to the war zone in Korea and Bea elected to leave the Air Force at that time. Upon Phil's return from Korea, Bea and Phil started building their family. Their 1st son was born in 1953, Their 2nd son was born in 1954, Their 1st daughter was born in1957 and their 2nd daughter was born in 1958. During this time, Phil also left the Air Force and the family lived on the Lowman family farm in Indiana, while Phil tried his hand at radio repair at the Delco Plant in Kokomo, Indiana. Phil's civilian career was short-lived however, and he reentered the Air Force Reserve at Atterbury AFB, Indiana. Phil, Bea and the family made several moves during this time including to Chanute AFB, Illinois when Phil was called to active duty, and back to Bea's family farm as Phil was assigned overseas to Saudi Arabia to train Saudi mechanics in maintaining new aircraft provided to that country by the United States. In 1958, Phil and Bea moved to Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, and during Phil's assignment there, he was selected to attend an advanced radio repair course at Keesler AFB, so Phil, Bea and family spent a winter at Gulfport, Mississippi. Later his career field changed from Radio Mechanic to Missile Maintenance Technician. Phil and family remained at Lincoln AFB where he served as missile crew member for the Atlas missile system until 1965 when the base was nearing closure. The whole family then moved to Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. While Phil and Bea did not know it at the time, the Rapid City area was to become the family home for the rest of their lives. While at Ellsworth Phil worked in the now deactivated 44th Strategic Missile Wing as an Electromechanical Missile Maintenance technician, supervisor and superintendent. Midway through his time at Ellsworth his old Radio Maintenance experience was needed to fill a critical vacancy at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand in support of the Vietnam Conflict. Phil served there from 1971 to 1972. Afterwards, he returned to his former unit and position at Ellsworth AFB until his retirement from the Air Force in 1976. He was then immediately hired as an electronics technician for the Control Data Corporation, building and supervising the building of supercomputer drives and memory units. While the name of the company changed several times, Phil did essentially the same job until his retirement in 1994.Through all his years, Phil was an avid fisherman, hunter and outdoorsman and introduced his wife and children to those same pursuits. He was also an active member in the local Elks Club and TREA chapter for many years.
Survivors include his two sons and their spouses,his two daughters and 1 son-in-law. His children went on to have children of their own and produced 5 grandchildren. Phil also became Great-Grandpa to 6 great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be held at Kirk Funeral Home on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at 10:00 am with visitation from 9:00 to 10:00. Interment with will follow at Black Hills National Cemetery at 12 pm.
Inscription
SMSGT US AIR FORCE
WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM
Family Members
Spouse
SGT Beatrice "Bea" Lowman Noble
1929–2013 (m. 1951)
