Biography Of Colonel Theodore H. Runyon
By Coronado Scribe, Thomas Leary
Throughout his life, Theodore H. (“Ted”) Runyon lived by the values which shape our heroes: love of country, pride in her service, and a zest for adventure. He inherited them from his father, Theodore W. Runyon, who had enlisted in the Navy as a young man, earned a commission from the ranks, sailed around the world with the “White Fleet” in 1907-1909, and served in WWII before he retired as a Lieutenant Commander. The elder Runyon and his wife Martha, like most Navy couples, raised their five children in many cities around the U.S. and abroad.
The younger Ted Runyon, whom we now honor, was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1919. He chose to follow in his father’s footsteps, and enlisted in the Navy promptly after his 1939 graduation from the Brown (now “Army Navy”) Academy in Carlsbad. He wanted to fly, and took advantage of an opportunity to train as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. By 1941, he was a commissioned officer and qualified to fly what were then called “pursuit” aircraft – the equivalent of a “fighter pilot” today.
The U.S. went to war with Germany, Italy and Japan in December, 1941. In July, 1942, Ted was an Air Corps Captain, in charge of a P-38 unit that operated from various bases in Libya. The P-38 was the famous Lockheed “Lightning” with unique twin fuselages and engines. It was called “The Forked Tail Devil” by the German enemy.
By mid-January of 1943, Ted had flown over 50 missions from a base in Tripoli, with three credited victories in combat with pilots of German Messerschmitts. (Two other victories that he reported had not been witnessed by another pilot, so he was not officially credited with the five needed for recognition as an Air Force “Ace.”)
On January 14, 1943, Ted Runyon was shot down by German ground fire while on a low level strafing mission. He bailed out from an altitude of 700-800 feet, and landed with serious fractures and open shrapnel wounds in one leg. He was first confined in an Italian Field Hospital, and later moved several times to various camps in North Africa and Italy, as the Allied forces swept the enemy from Africa and battled their way North on the Italian mainland. When Italy surrendered in September 1943, Ted became a prisoner of the Germans.
He was a prisoner of war for 26 months and 6 days, in continual pain from his still-damaged leg and shrunken to 130 pounds from a once-sturdy 180. In March of 1945, he was rescued by forces under the command of General Patton. The German guards had all left the camp on the day before, and Ted retained joyful memories of the General’s entry through the high gates of the camp, armed with his ever-present pistols.
When Ted, then a Major, returned to the United States early in 1945. He was sent to San Antonio, Texas, for further medical treatment and the reorientation needed before prisoners of war could return to active duty. It was there that he met Carol Kyle, a First Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. Ted and Carol were married in 1946, and she still lives today in the Coronado house on Glorietta Boulevard that they had built in that year. Ted and Carol raised their four children in the house and in the various bases around the world where Ted was stationed.
The remaining years of Ted’s service were not marked by the same personal drama, conflict and pain, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart, among other campaign decorations. He did not see combat in either the Korean or the Vietnam conflicts. However, in retrospect, his later contributions may have been the most significant, because he was actively engaged in the effort to ensure that the so-called “Cold War’ with the Soviet Union did not explode into a conflict that could kill a substantial portion of the world population overnight.
The nuclear stalemate depended on the presence of what was then known as “mutually assured destruction,” and that balance depended on the development of ever-improved rockets and missiles. Ted’s postwar education had made him an expert in that field. After completion of his rehabilitation in Fort Worth, the Air Force had sent him to college in Berkeley, California, and he graduated in 1949 with a degree in “Aeronautical Engineering.”
The full details of his later assignments are likely to be still classified, but the sequence is suggestive:
— He was involved, as a Lieutenant Colonel, in early missile programs at the Elgin Air Force base in Florida, from 1950 – 53, and at bases in France and Germany from 1953-58
— He served as a full Colonel from 1958-63 in the Pentagon, under the Air Force Chief of Staff. He was present there at the time of the Cuban Missile crisis.
— Perhaps most significant, was his command of a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile squadron at the Davis Monthan base near Tucson, Arizona, from 1963-1966.
After a tour in Europe coordinating the sale of military equipment to allied countries in NATO and command of the Wright Patterson Air Force base in Ohio, Ted retired in 1970. He and his family returned to their home in Coronado.
In retirement, Ted enjoyed a second career as a Real Estate broker for over 30 years, taught at Southwestern Junior College, and was an active member of Coronado’s Men’s Golf Club, Rotary, and Yacht Club. He was particularly proud of the fact that he, an Air Force veteran, was also President of the Retired Office Association in what was considered a Navy town.
Ted, otherwise best known as “The Col.,” died in 2005 at the age of 85. Survivors who still live in Coronado include Carol, his wife for 59 years, their daughter Susan Seaton, and sons Ted II and Dan (with his wife Susie). Another son Bill (with wife Bev) lives in Carlsbad.
*Note, Runyon’s “Avenue of Heroes” Banner is displayed on Third Street and H Avenue, standing watch on approach to Naval Air Station North Island, (NASNI), in Coronado California, May 18, 2015.
Next week’s Avenue of Heroes biography will be Chief Petty Officer Bradley S. Cavner, Navy SEAL, by Toni McGowan, May 2015. (Banner at Third and Palm)
