Info Sheet on Patrick J."Pat" Bilyk
Deceased 4 August 2020
Joe Bilyk (Bilyk's Nephew): Patrick passed away from heart and service related issues. He was a good god father and uncle. We are working to get him into Arlington.
Pat Eastes: Pat Bilyk and I were in the same flight class; WORWAC 67-11. I remember some fun weekends in Panama City with him when we were at Rucker. Pat was a funny guy, and was always someone who could keep you laughing. He was a fearless scout pilot, and no doubt he struck fear into our enemies.
Bruce Powell: Pat was a good friend and a great pilot.
Joe Bilyk: My uncle Pat's hometown was Ambridge PA. He and my father came out to California together. My dad was still in the service when he met my mother in Laguna beach. Pat was flying helicopters out of Fighter Town USA ( San Diego, CA). He lived and had a house in La Mesa, CA after the Army.
My dad and mom were married when Pat was overseas. I wore the flight jacket he had given me, almost every day until he came home. I have flight boots and flight suits that he had given me thru the years; ones with his old rank and new and the last division he was in.
Patrick had a lot of pilot friends in San Diego and at the airport. He was flying fixed wing spotters for bait fishermen. He said they didn't pay those guys much money, particularly considering their heavy maintenance and fuel costs. He was one of the first pilots to get a percentage of a catch from the ship. He was out sea a lot, going to Hawaii and Somalia, red sea fishing.
After a few years he had to go back to trade school in Wyoming to become a certified aircraft mechanic, because the jobs were getting harder to get.
So Pat became a navigator pilot and mechanic on the ship and was paid for three job titles.
He was stationed out Portugal his last years of working; then moved back East to retire before his social security was coming in. I think he was 48 after my Dad had passed.
Pat was always on an adventure. He died in a small amish town outside of Lake Erie, PA on the Ohio border. He had a few retired vets on his road that I had met. I also had three different horse and buggies stop by with Amish neighbors that gave their condolences to me, my wife and little sister, and told me Pat was good friends with their cousin next door. They said they would do anything for him if he needed help.