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PAGE 2A
W ho’s in and who’s
Monroe Countians will find out
next week who's running and
who's not in a busy election year.
Qualifying opens Monday, April
28 for 12 elected Monroe County
positions up for grabs this year.
Qualifying remains open until
noon on Friday, May 2.
Candidates must qualify in the
office of Election Superintendent
Karen Pitman.
The party primaries are set for
July 15 and general election is
Nov. 4.
Here are the positions, the qual
ifying fees and the incumbent (in
parenthesis) for each partisan
office:
• Sheriff - $1,779 (John Cary
Bittick);
• County commission chairman
- $234 (Harold Carlisle);
• County commission District 1
- $216 (Larry Evans);
• County commission District 2
- $216 (Mike Bilderback);
—^Reporter April 23, 2008
out? Qualifying opens Monday
• Coroner - $108 (Joey Proctor);
• Clerk of Superior Court -
$1,491 (Lynn Ham);
• Probate Judge - $1,491 (Karen
Pitman);
• Tax Commissioner - $1,491
(Patsy Miller);
• Magistrate Judge - $1,491
(Jeff Davis).
The non-partisan offices are for
the school board and include:
• Board of Education District 2 -
$27 (Dr. J. Ray Grant);
• Board of Education District 4 -
$27 (Ricky Niblett);
• Board of Education District 6 -
$27 (Tammy Fletcher).
Of the incumbents, only tax
commissioner Patsy Miller has
announced she's not seeking re-
election. Two candidates,
Republican Barbara Baswell and
Democrat Lori Andrews, have
announced they're running for tax
commissioner.
John Waldrop has announced
he's challenging Sheriff John
Cary Bittick as a Democrat.
George Hartwig of Bolingbroke
has announced he'll challenge
District Attorney Richard Milam
as a Republican. Milam also
announced he'll run as a
Republican this year. Karen
Martin of Barnesville has
announced she'll challenge Milam
as a Democrat.
Antonio
continued from page 1A
Reporter’s request to catch
up on his incredibly pro
ductive career as a prodi
gee of one of Forsyth’s
best-known families.
The Antonio family
arrived in Forsyth early in
the last century via
Athens. No, not Bulldog
town. Athens, Greece.
Chuck’s grandfather,
Charlie Antonio, was from
Greece. His wife, Jeanne,
was from France. But they
wound up in Forsyth oper
ating what Harold
Clarke’s “Remembering
Forward” calls the only
restaurant in town in the
1930s and 40s: the Royal
Palm Cafe.
When Charlie and
Jeanne both died in 1956,
Chuck’s dad, Monk
Antonio, had to take over.
And that meant Chuck,
then 11, was about to go
to work.
Chuck recalls his dad
waking him up at 3 a.m.
at their 106 S. Lee Street
home, a former Primitive
Baptist church, to deliver
the Telegraph. Then they’d
head to the Royal Palm to
get coffee ready for the
breakfast crowd, which
arrived around 5 a.m. (it
was usually big, given the
restaurant’s prime loca
tion on U.S. 41, the 1-95 of
its day.) Then he’d head
home for a short nap
before going to school.
“Since the fifth grade, I
have always worked,” says
Antonio.
Growing up in Forsyth
taught Antonio how to
labor, but it also taught
him how to play. He
recalls joining buddies
Mike Bloom and Charlie
Ray Flynt for bike rides
down to Stuart’s Mill,
where the boys would rel
ish adventurous overnight
camping trips. There they
could hear the distant
whistle of the Nancy
Hanks train. Other memo
ries of Forsyth include
May Day at Tift College
and catching movies at
the Rose Theater, where
his mom sold tickets.
And the Boy Scouts also
had a big influence on
Cards of
Thanks
With great
appreciation
We are grateful to each
individual for the kindness
and sympathy shown dur
ing the time of bereave
ment of our loved one. May
God continue blessing each
of you.
Thanks for everything.
Thanks to Ms. Mae
Mitchell for whom I could
not find your address to
send you a thank you card.
Call Nell at 994-5212.
The families of the late
Ms. Viola Shannon Banks
Stafford
Sincere thanks
for everything
The family of Angeline A
Roquemore would like to
express thanks and grati
tude for all the cards, flow
ers, food, phone calls and
sympathy expressed in our
loss of Angeline.
Thomas Lucian
Roquemore, Melha
DeLeGal-Joswiak, Herbert
DeLeGal and family
young Chuck. With
Forsythians like Tommy
Hardin and Johnny
Hardin, Antonio said
scouting under leader
Dick Davis had as much
influence on him as any
thing. They took exciting
trips to faraway places
like Canada and Colorado,
and Antonio ended up as
an eagle scout.
"Looking back it really
helped," said Antonio.
But the idyllic boyhood
in Forsyth gave way to the
demands of real life.
Chuck’s dad sold the
restaurant in the early
1960s. Meanwhile, Chuck
and his sister Pat had
enrolled at Gordon High
School in Barnesville, a
brush with military life
that has kept him in close
to the armed forces to this
day. He enjoyed school and
was valedictorian at
Gordon, going on to
Georgia Tech. But what he
really wanted was to fly,
and he couldn’t wait. He
left Tech after two years
and joined the Naval
Aviator Cadet (NAVCAD)
Program, which would
allow him to earn his
wings and commission in
18 months. He achieved
that distinction in
December 1967, and in
February 1969 was sent to
Vietnam, where he flew
100 combat missions in
the single seat A-7 Corsair
II from aboard the aircraft
carrier Ticonderoga in a 7-
month tour of duty.
Next, Antonio spent two
years as a Navy flight
instructor in Meridian,
Miss. Once his commit
ment was done, Antonio
was able to complete his
degree at Tech. After grad
uation in 1972, he piloted
corporate jets for Sea
Pines Company at Hilton
Head Island, S.C. for two
years before deciding to go
to medical school.
So he earned a second
undergraduate degree,
this one in chemistry at
Armstrong State in
Savannah, allowing him to
enter medical school on an
Armed Forces Health
Scholarship. That
required this veteran pilot
from the Vietnam War,
who now held two college
degrees, to resign his com
mission as a Lieutenant
Commander in the Navy
Reserve and start all over
as an ensign. But he fin
ished in four years and
after interning in
Pensacola, Fla. became a
flight surgeon attached to
the F-14s Tomcat training
squadron at Oceana, Va.
He made his first F-14
night carrier landing in
1985, 16 years after he
had completed his first
night carrier landing in
the Vietnam era A-7. That
led Antonio into double
duty, teaching pilots the
F-14 at night and practic
ing medicine during the
day.
Next, Antonio was trans
ferred to VX-5 at China
Lake, Calif., the Navy’s
air-to-ground operational
test squadron, where he
transitioned to the F/A-18
Hornet. At VX-5 he was
the squadron flight sur
geon and also an F/A-18
Operational Test Director.
Later he was asked to be
the Chief Operational Test
Director {COTD} and
therefore responsible for
managing all of the Navy’s
air-to-ground operational
test programs. That work
led Antonio to become one
of the first pilots to test
night vision goggles while
piloting the FA-18 in the
late 1980s. His reputation
was strong enough by
then that he was one of
only 100 Americans
named as finalists by
NASA for entry into the
Space Shuttle program.
He wasn’t one of the final
24 to make the cut, but a
good friend who did, Navy
Capt. David Brown, died
on the Columbia shuttle
flight in 2003.
For his part, Antonio has
spent most of the past 25
years helping the military
improve better night
vision capabilities. He has
developed night vision
device training and test
ing courses, supported
testing of aircraft systems,
assisted with mishap
investigations, provided
briefings for many govern
ment and civilian organi
zations and has been
working to use rapidly
developing technology to
make U.S. air defense
even more effective.
He left active duty in
1991 but continues to
work with the Navy as a
civil servant. His back
ground makes it an ideal
fit for him.
“I’m trying to connect
the dots between medicine
and flying,” said Antonio.
Currently he is working
on several Helmet
Mounted Display (HMD)
programs. HMDs are
flight helmets in which
night vision imagery and
symbology information is
projected onto the visor, so
the pilot can see outside
and monitor flight infor
mation without having to
look inside the cockpit.)
Just one such device costs
$250,000, said Antonio.
Life seems good for
Antonio. He and his wife
Julie live in Gold Canyon,
Ariz., east of Phoenix, and
they have a grown son in
Phoenix and a daughter in
Maryland. He’s as fit a 63
year old as you’ll find, still
able to trail 44 miles in
the Grand Canyon.
So what advice does he
have for other Forsyth
natives like him who
dream of big things?
“Don’t limit your options
too soon,” said Antonio,
who went back to medical
school at age 33. “Don’t
buy into this, ‘you’re too
old’.”
Antonio said his parents
were a big inspiration for
his success. He said his
dad was always challeng
ing him, and encouraging
him, making him believe
he could do more. And
when he’d ask his mom a
question, she’d challenge
him to find the answer
himself, which helped him
develop intellectually.
It also seems to help to
remember fondly the town
from which you came.
YOU
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994-2358
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Deadline May 16
Salute the Graduates in our Wednesday Edition
May 28 The Week Of Graduation
Includes Last Will & Testament
Antonio has lived in lots of
places: Saudi Arabia,
Maryland, Arizona,
Miami, California and an
aircraft carrier off the
coast of Vietnam, to name
a few. But wherever he’s
been, Forsyth has retained
a special place in his
heart.
“This was always home,”
said Antonio. To contact
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