James “Jimmy” David Truitt, Jr. (WO4) died in the early morning hours of
Thanksgiving Day 2021.
Memorial Service: 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 15, 2021, Biggers Funeral Home
Graveside Service: 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 15, 2021, at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery
Memorials: The family kindly request in lieu of flowers, please make a donation to your favorite charity in honor of James David Truitt.
Jimmy’s footprint on this earth is far reaching. Friends and co-workers cover the globe from England, France, Australia and Germany. And from sea to shining sea in America: Tennessee, North Carolina, Idaho, Hawaii, Colorado, Florida, Alaska, Georgia and Texas. He was a man constantly searching for the next adventure, the next “job” where he could make an impact on the safety of aviation.
He graduated from L.D. Bell high school. He went on to receive his BS in Wildlife Science from Texas A&M. He was an Army trained helicopter pilot and served in Vietnam, Desert Storm and Desert Spring. He served 20 years, retiring through Army Reserves.
Working as a civilian, he flew for the Florida Game and Fish Commission, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s department. Jimmy was part of the first helicopter crew to fly Trauma Hawk for the Palm Beach County Health District. He flew fire suppression for the Department of Natural Resources in Montana and worked for USDA in Colorado as aviation safety officer for APHIS. He was head of Aviation for the state of Alaska tieh the Bureau of Land Management and then onto Georgia as Aviation Safety officer with the US Forest Service. He worked for Flight Safety in West Palm Beach and in Farnborough, England. Most recently he was adjunct faculty at Tarrant County College in their aviation program. He was a lifetime wealth of knowledge on aviation and all things.
He was an everyday man of many facets
He was a hunter and fisherman
He was a writer and a poet
He was a lover of music and art
He was a lover of books and movies
He was an aviator
He was good and true
He was our guiding light
He will be forever missed
Jimmy was preceded in death by his parents, J. D. and Sue Truitt and his sister, Judy Dulkowski.
In the wake of his passing, he leaves a devasted and mighty sorrowful wife of 53 years, Linda Lee; two daughters Leila Raye and Jacqueline Sue and her husband, Sam Goldring; his new little angel and granddaughter, Denver Rose; sisters, Janet Truitt Rodden and her husband, Darrin Rodden, Jenny Truitt and her husband, Robert Umbaugh, as well as many other family members and lifelong friends.