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Vince Neil in ONA scheduling
with Richard Toyoda and John Pardales

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Electra L-188C N182H

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DC-7B N953P Oakland AP 1967

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DC-8 Zurich Switzerland July 1975

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VINCENT D NEIL

I'm very sorry to report that my former boss 
at ONA and long-time very good friend, 
Vince Neil, passed away peacefully in his 
sleep on January 19, 2013, after a long 
struggle with cancer.  He would have been 
77 on February 1st.  For the last fourteen 
years, Vince was retired and lived in 
Melbourne, Florida.  He is survived by 
three sons, a daughter, many grandchildren, 
and his last love, Christiane, also of 
Melbourne and Switzerland.  At his request, 
there will be no funeral.  Any and all further 
arrangements will be private.

I knew Vince well since about 1974 in Long Beach, 
New York, when he was a vice president with ONA 
at JFK.  A mutual friend introduced us at a 
restaurant.  After a short chat, he hired me on 
the spot to work in his office--Aircraft 
Scheduling.  Vince was born in Cape Breton, 
Nova Scotia, and grew up there and later near 
Montreal.  As a teenager, his first job was as 
an aircraft parts tracker for the Royal Canadian 
Air Force near Montreal.  After high school, he 
moved to Illinois and promptly joined the U.S. Air 
Force with duty at McChord AFB near Tacoma, 
Washington--and later on Guam, as an air-crewman 
on B-50's (a later version of the B-29).  While 
still in the USAF, he was sworn in as a U.S. 
Citizen in Washington, D.C.  

After discharge, Vince became a ferry pilot of 
new Cessna's for a short time.  Soon, he ended 
up in Washington D.C. where he quickly became 
the principal liaison to the government of 
all the U.S. charter airlines at the time, 
including ONA.  He also had considerable 
advisory and practical input in the flight 
scheduling of all those aircraft, during which 
he developed the unique "Flow Sheet" later used 
at ONA by all departments.  Vince knew 
everybody in the business, including Bill Bailey, 
who had become president of ONA.  I'm pretty sure 
it was Bailey who, recognizing young talent, 
took Vince on as a V.P. at ONA. 
 
Sometime early on, Vince became a world-class 
aircraft modeler, both static and RC 
(remote controlled).  Throughout his life, 
Vince was considered by many to be an expert 
in WWII--especially military air operations.  
He had a finely detailed knowledge of the strategy 
and tactics of every air battle in every theater 
of operations.  Vince knew everything worth 
knowing about every type aircraft involved and 
ALL notable pilots, both Allied and Axis.  
He was one of the most brilliant men I've ever 
known--though he could be a bit cantankerous 
from time to time.  That was a trait not 
altogether lost on his co-workers, but of which 
he seemed wryly proud at the time--though much 
later--in his golden years, he would ruefully 
admit it.  

Just before deregulation--which soon proved to 
be doom for the charter airlines--Vince resigned 
from ONA and formed his own airline consultancy 
out in the sticks of Missouri.  While I was 
still with ONA, I once flew (free, of course) 
out there to see him.  We took a canoe trip 
down a swift-running river which turned out to 
be hilarious...details shall remain withheld.  
But the chaos of de-reg soon made his consulting 
effort impractical and he returned to Long Beach, 
New York where we became neighbors again--and 
he became a model.  Vince had some success at 
modeling--most notably as the man in the Grecian 
Formula print and TV ads.  He also appeared in 
an off-broadway play, The Caine Mutiny, as the 
captain of the court martial of the scurrilous 
Captain Queeg. He also appeared as an extra in 
a Woody Allen movie. 

Then Vince and another model formed a limousine 
service in New York City which was highly 
successful--especially when they sold the 
business.  At that point, Vince semi-retired 
and moved out to Tucson, Arizona near his 
oldest son, who is head of the Arizona State 
Police Academy.  Mostly out of curiosity, 
Vince successfully completed the entire 
physically rigorous academy course, and took a 
job in law enforcement as a deputy.  He worked 
mostly in the office directing the admittance 
and discharge of prisoners.  Vince had a lot 
of fun with that because he got to play with a 
lot of different weapons and some rather 
diabolical restraining devices.  Right up his 
alley!  Finally, in 1999, he fully retired and 
bought a new home in Melbourne, Florida where 
he met the ever delightful Christiane, a 
Swiss national, an excellent watercolor artist, 
and an experienced world-traveler.  She still 
had (and has) her place in Switzerland, and 
they became snow-birds between Melbourne and 
Switzerland.  

After I had retired to south Florida, I accepted 
an always open invitation to visit them in 
Switzerland.  I spent almost four weeks over 
there; traveling with them all over Switzerland 
and the Alps.  We went by train sometimes, 
but most frequently in Christiane's car. 
That was an adventure in itself, as Christiane 
drives those narrow, curvy, Swiss roads like 
she's in a NASCAR race.  Vince and I missed 
a lot of "vistas" (Christiane's favorite word) 
as we were constantly diving for the floorboards 
in terror.  I never knew a Peugeot could go 
that fast...or handle that well. 
 
Since about 1985, Vince and I were good 
motorcycle ridin' buddies...back in New York and 
more recently in Florida. Our longest ride 
together was from Florida to Cape Breton.  It was
 probably the first time he'd been back there 
since childhood.  It turned out that only one 
cousin was still living there.  But the ride 
back--through northern Maine, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Lake Ticonderoga, Binghamton, NY, 
Harrisburg, PA, and the Skyline Drive in 
Virginia--was spectacular.  

I'm gonna miss my friend.

DC-8-55 Travis AFB, CA 1969

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ONA CREW EXTEND HEARTFELT
CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY

Christiane and Vince

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Vince and Bill at Kitty Hawk NC 1986

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Arriving in Long Beach from NC 1986

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