Sandy Sansing was born a native in Bay City, Texas on 7 December 1921 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. He completed aircraft mechanic school at Keesler Field, Mississippi and started working on P-40s belonging to the 79th Fighter Group in South Carolina and Massachusetts. When World War II broke out, he took a physical and written starting him on the path to successfully completing pilot training in July of 1943. He went to war as a member of the 369th Fighter Squadron in East Wreatham, England flying P-47s and P-51s.

Sandy’s most memorable experience was in a P-51 on a last minute mission on June 20th 1944 to strafe German troop trains converging on Chateau Thierry, France where his aircraft was disabled by ground fire. He bailed out and was taken in by the French underground and hidden from the Germans for many weeks. Sandy helped the French underground harass the Germans while moving around to avoid capture. One of his most unusual experiences while posing as a Frenchman was waiting to get a haircut in the local barbershop while a German soldier was in the barber’s chair getting "the works." He was repatriated when U.S. tanks roared into the village where the French base camp was located. Sandy later contacted the people who helped him escape and they continue to correspond to this day.

Sandy returned to the States and, after the war, continued to fly fighters in various organizations. These included P-47s, F-80s, F-86s (in Korea), A-26s, F-84s and F-104s in the German training program at Luke AFB, AZ. When it came time to go to Vietnam, Sandy was offered a staff job in Saigon (since there were no F-104s in Vietnam) or the chance to volunteer as a Forward Air Controller in 0-1s and 0-2s. You know what he took. So for Sandy, it was the experience of three wars while flying many aircraft most of his career. When asked what his favorite aircraft was, he says the F-104. He also explains why the F-104 got a bad reputation in Germany because of many crashes that occurred there with pilots that were trained in the U.S. Originally, the aircraft were maintained by German conscriptees in the military and these maintenance people were in great demand in industry. There was no continuity of expertise and the aircraft were badly maintained. Since so few were operational, pilots got less than 3 hours per month in this high performance aircraft. After there were numerous fatal crashes, the Germans contracted with Lockheed for maintenance and the trend was reversed by a stable maintenance force. Who says fighter pilots control everything?

Sandy is good example of CENTEX members who still love to fly. He flies the Tora Kate for the Wing bringing home the history and lessons of World War II to hundreds of airshow attendees each year. Sandy was honored at the Gathering of Memories Airshow in San Marcos, TX on September 25 & 26, 1999.