The White Falcon - 31.12.1971, Blaðsíða 3

Staff Sergeant Tom Natoli has four children, each with a serious
heart defect. He adopted all of them.
"We've only adopted kids with serious medical problems - the ones
other people didn't want," he explains.
An eleven year Air Force vet- ---------—---------------------------

eran and former Marine, he is in
charge Of the Pneudraulics Shop
in the 57th FIS.
His wife Sylvia and children
e waiting for him to return to
s North Carolina home in April.
Tina, 7, the oldest girl, is
recovering from recent surgery
to repair a heart valve defective
since birth. Edward, 5, has a
similar problem and requires much
specialized care. The newest ad-
ditions to the family are seven
month old twins, both born with
heart defects. One little boy
died shortly after adoption by
the Natolis.
It all started at George Air
Force Base in California in 1966.
They had tried to adopt children
through local agencies for sever-
al years. But each time things
looked promising, the sergeant
and his wife were transferred to
another duty station.
When they were assigned to
California, another couple en-
couraged them to try to adopt a
child in view of the state's rel-
atively liberal adoption rules.
SSgt. Natoli spotted a picture
of a little girl named Tina and a
story from the adoption agency in
the local paper. "I showed the
story to my wife and the next day
were sitting in the office
lling out the paperwork," he
kid.
The Natolis learned that the
child was "hard to place" because
of her heart problem. But this
only made the sergeant and his
wife more determined to make the
child their own.
Weeks of investigations and
discussions with agency officials
followed, but eventually Tina was
theirs.
"And it was just the begin-
ning," the sergeant said. “We
just live for our children now.
They are our whole world."
Airmen receive
test scores
Airmen completing their pro-
motion tests now receive the per-
cent of questions answered cor-
rectly in their test score not-
ices. The change was effective
with the Dec. 1 promotions.
Previously, test scores re-
ceived by the majority of Airmen
were expressed as percential val-
ues .
An Airman who does not pass
the test will know how many
points he is short of the number
required to be promoted. With the
knowledge of how many correct an-
swers he had, the Airman has a
better understanding of his ac-
tual test performance.
Evacuation is first
Jolly Green Giant
mercy mission
The recently-arrived Air Force
Jolly Green Giant helicopters
flew their first operational mis-
sion last Sunday, evacuating a
seriously ill Icelandic boy to a
Reykjavik hospital.
A call was received by the Ice-
land Defense Force Sunday, Dec.
26, from the Icelandic Life Sav-
ing Association. A nine-year-old
boy suffering from epileptic sei-
zures needed to be transported
from Sandur, on Snaefellsnes, to
hospitalization in Reykjavik.
Icelandic aircraft were unable
to land at Sandur because of the
accumulation of snow on the run-
way there.
Lt. Col. John J. Devlin, Jr.,
piloted the Jolly Green Giant as
it departed shortly after noon on
the mercy mission. Maj.- William
R. Haskett was co-pilot and SSgt.
Carl Warmack was flight engineer.
SSgt. Jeffery Martin completed
the crew in his para-rescue role.
Navy Doctor Robert Anderson
was aboard, along with oxygen
equipment, for emergency treat-
ment if necessary during the
flight.
Lt. Col. Devlin was forced to
bring the helo down without the
normal hovering because of the
blowing snow caused by the rotors
and landed on the edge of the
runway. The child, under seda-
tion, was transferred from a po-
lice car to the helicopter, and
the race to Reykjavik was begun.
After a forty-minute flight,
the boy was placed in an ambu-
lance, and the Jolly Green Giant
and its crew had brought its ini-
tial mission to a successful
Conclusion.
Annual Prayer Breakfast
to be held February 1
The Annual National Prayer
Breakfast will be held on Feb. 1
at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
The breakfast is sponsored by the
Senate and House Prayer Groups.
For the past several years, Air
Force Bases have held similar ob-
servances .
SSgt.’s children have heart defects
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