When the Korean War was heating up, Robert Kaus of Cumming, Ga., intended to get his degree and then enter military service upon graduation. He earned a three-year mechanical design degree and then entered an 18-month naval flight training program in Pensacola, Fla., where he received his wings and an officer's commission as a Navy ensign for fixed wing, multi-engine and helicopter qualifications.
He began his active-duty tour at 23 in June 1955. By then, however, the Korean War had ended. His active-duty time included helicopter landings on everything from tankers to supercarriers. When asked the single greatest thing he learned from his active-duty experience, he said that a person is capable of doing much more than he thinks he can. He quoted Mark Twain in that respect: "Courage is the resistance to fear, the mastery of fear - not the absence of fear."
He shares two interesting events in particular from his service time. The first was flying then-celebrated Hollywood pin-up Jayne Mansfield from a Rotterdam, Holland, airport to a helicopter landing on the aircraft carrier USS Tarawa. In that process, he happened to have his presence recorded in a well-publicized 1957 photo with Mansfield.
The other event to which Bob alludes was a bit more dramatic. Without any radio communications, directions for landing on a Navy refueling ship were only with hand signals. Deteriorating weather conditions required landing on the narrowest width of an already-small landing pad. The helicopter's tail wheel became trapped in a wire guard surrounding the landing pad. While adding power to break loose, the helicopter rolled over the side of the ship and fell 50 feet into the water.
As the helicopter sank below the surface, Bob did not realize that he was upside down, but he managed to force his way out a window and back to the surface. The helicopter remains at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. American Legion Post 307 in Cumming thanks him for his service and blesses him as he moves forward following the recent loss of Roberta, his beloved wife of 66 years.