- Date Of Death: January 2, 2017
- State: New Mexico
Bobbie Lincoln Nobles born 13 September 1932 in Bernalillo, NM
Parents: Garrett Lawrence Nobles, father
Cordilia Altha Leeper (Nobles), mother
14 siblings
Family left New Mexico in 1941 and travelled for few years as migrant farm workers before settling in permanent home in California.
Graduated from Freemont HS in Sunnyvale, CA in 1950.
Volunteered for the USAF in 1951 and after basic training became a private.
Completed Technical school and became clerk typist eventually became a buck sergeant after only 9 months.
In 1953 he applied for flying school and attended Aviation Cadet classes to become a pilot and became a 2nd Lt in the USAF.
Bobbie and Claudia Boone were married in 1957. Claudia passed away in 2010 after 52 years of their marriage.
His career included being a fighter pilot and was assigned to the European theater (England and Germany). He returned stateside in 1963 to Oxnard AFB, CA through 1968 where he flew the F-101. His first combat tour was to Thailand and Vietnam in 1969 then after a brief assignment to Keesler AFB, MI, he did a second combat tour in Vietnam in 1972 where served as adviser to the Vietnamese Air Force in the Delta, IV Corps.
During this assignment Bobbie made lifelong friends with his Vietnamese counterparts.
Once more he returned to the states to Hamilton AFB, CA then retiring to Albuquerque to attend UNM and obtain a degree in History.
Concerned about the situation and his Vietnamese friends in 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists, Bobbie began working in the Refugee Resettlement program from 1975-1978.
He worked tirelessly to locate his former Vietnamese counterparts, and was hired as the Deputy Director of the NM Indo-China Refugee Resettlement Program (NMIRRP). Over 18 months, 1500 Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian refugees were settled in NM. The program had its ups and downs.
From 1978-1989 Bobbie began playing soccer with his son’s soccer team. He continued to play soccer until age 69. He tried his hand at selling insurance for about 3 years but was not for him.
In 1975 he worked helping retirees prepare their taxes as a volunteer. By 1985 Bobbie took over a tax preparation business from a friend and established his own business, Nobles Tax Service. His wife Claudia was his able assistant in this business.
But finally in 1989 after continuing volunteer work with refugees, he was asked to run the non-profit resettlement program, New Mexico Mutual Assistance Association.
Saturday, January 14th, 2017, 4:00pm – 8:00pm, FRENCH – University
Sunday, January 15th, 2017, 1:00pm, FRENCH – University
