Kansan who served as Marine brigadier general remembered as a gentle giant

William Arthur “Art” Bloomer, a retired Marine general who spent the past 21 years living in Wichita, flew hundreds of combat missions and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism.

To his family, however, Bloomer, who died Tuesday at 93, wasn’t the typical military man when off duty.

He was “a very gentle man — we use the word ‘gentle giant,’” his son, Jeff Bloomer, said.

Bloomer was born on Jan. 23, 1933, in Lebanon, Kansas, and graduated from Emporia State University (then Kansas State Teachers College) in 1955 before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

After completing naval flight training three years later, he flew more than 50 different aircraft as a flight instructor.

Bloomer served over 30 years of active duty as a Marine aviator, including two tours in Vietnam where he flew 330 combat missions. He also flew reconnaissance missions, where his “gun is a camera,” Jeff Bloomer said.

Bloomer was part of Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon during the Vietnam War, as commanding officer of Marine Composite Reconnaissance Squadron-1 aboard the USS Midway.

In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, his awards included the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V,” Republic of China Kuang Hua Medal, two Legion of Merit awards and 17 Air Medals.

Despite his achievements in the military, Bloomer tried hard to keep his work and home lives separate.

“Family was number one to him,” Jeff Bloomer said, “so we didn’t feel like — maybe a few times — but most of the time it didn’t feel like we were in the military household with a successful Marine that might be super disciplined and hard-nosed.”

Jeff used to prank his friends from college when they visited his home. They would be “scared to death” to meet a high-ranking officer, Bloomer said, and he would play into it.

“So I said, ‘Okay, when you get in the house, make sure you salute, only talk if you’re spoken to first,’ and all this — they’re buying it — and then they come in, and you got this real easy-going guy,” he said.

Vacations in the Bloomer household weren’t trips to relaxing beaches or towering mountains, but a return to the fields of Kansas to see family.

“(Mom and Dad) taught us how important it was to have relationships with relatives,” his daughter Brenda Harget said. “I heard over the years, people move from one coast to the next, and they go to the Grand Canyon, or they do this, or they do that. We were just driving straight to Kansas.”

While Bloomer didn’t frequently speak directly to his children about his time on duty, some of his friends would give hints.

“I remember, in later years, being at a party, and I remember having a couple of his friends that were … higher ranking officers,” his daughter Leigh Anne Baysinger said. “And I remember them coming up to me and saying, ‘Your dad is different.’”

Because Bloomer wouldn’t brag about himself, those friends explained how special it was that a Marine from the Naval Academy would receive the rank of brigadier general. According to Cornell Law School, there are only 64 total Marine generals at a time.

Following his retirement from the Marine Corps, Bloomer served as executive vice president of American Protective Services; as a City Council member in Irvine, California; and as executive director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority. He also wrote a memoir, titled “The Iron Workers: On Leadership, Legacy and a View from the Clouds.”

Bloomer is survived by his wife of 72 years, Sue (Vernon) Bloomer; and three children: Jeff Bloomer, Leigh Anne Baysinger and Brenda Hargett.

He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors at a future date.