Local boys make good
courtesy photo
Lieutenant Commander Douglas D. Wyman, right, receives congratulations at his retirment ceremony at the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, Washington.
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POLSON — Doug and Bill Wyman, Jr., were high school age when their mother Tanya was killed in a car wreck. Their father, Bill Wyman, Sr., was a pilot for Montana Power and couldn’t be home all the time so he asked his neighbors, Joyce and Marvin Carlyle, to be surrogate parents to his two young sons.
While it isn’t just any neighbor who would welcome a couple of high school kids into their home and lives, the Carlyles took on the job.
“I’d known them since Doug was one,” Marvin said.
Marvin was a truck driver and frequently was on the road, so Joyce looked after the boys when he was gone.
When the Wyman boys graduated from high school they both joined the United States Navy.
Around that time their father the pilot was diagnosed with and died of brain cancer. Flying must have been in the Wyman blood because both boys became pilots too.
Bill went to flight school in Oklahoma and later married another flight instructor. He currently flies for Washington Corporation and lives near Polson with his wife Jennifer and sons Trae, George and Max.
Doug recently retired from the Navy. Marvin (Joyce passed away this past January) proudly attended Lieutenant Commander Douglas D. Wyman’s retirement ceremony on Aug. 28. The ceremony was held at the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island in Washington.
During his career he worked as an instructor at the Naval Air Station in Mississippi and was
deployed three times including during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
According to the Navy’s information, Doug amassed more than 3200 flight hours and had 527 arrested landings including 254 under cover of darkness. His awards include: three strike flight air medals, four Navy commendation medals, two Naval achievement medals, an Afghan campaign medal and five sea service ribbons.
Doug, his wife Heidi and their three children Mia, Marcus and Michael live in Oak Harbor, Washington. Doug will be flying for Delta Airlines in December and the family hopes to move to Montana.
