David Rule’s trip of a lifetime never topped 50 mph. RULE’S TRIP took him first to Owasso, Okla., where he joined a caravan of Patriot Guard riders and other authentic military equipment, such as World War II-era Jeeps, on a trip to a local museum. Next, he stopped by a group of old family friends in Bartlesville, Okla. SUNDAY’S DRIVE was the most poignant of all. RULE COMES from a long line of military service.
“I’d go 40 if nobody was behind me,” he said.
Rule, 67, comes from a family steeped in military tradition, and fully aware of the sacrifice and commitment required to defend the country.
Starting Friday, Rule, a Vietnam War vet and 1964 Chanute High School graduate, trekked from his home in Tulsa to southeast Kansas, where he made several stops along the way to honor veterans of all sorts, but especially his family.
He did so in his 1937 Chevy, which is how Rule found himself sitting in a vacant parking lot in downtown Iola.
The Chevy came from the old Bud White Motors car lot, at the intersection of West and Chestnut streets and was purchased by Rule’s late uncle, World War I vet and Humboldt native Charles T. Pribbernow in May 1937.
Rule still has the original sales slip from the purchase, as well as other documentation, including a diary kept by his aunt, Lorena Pribbernow, documenting every time the couple purchased gasoline.
Much of the car’s original mechanics remain. Rule recently had to pull the radiator to install a new core, “and the tires have been replaced, but the wheels are still the original,” he said.
“I finally had to do some painting, where it had begun to rust,” he said, pointing to the fenders and other low-lying areas.
But the old Chevy’s 216 cubic-inch, straight/inline 6-cylinder engine remains in peak condition.
“She runs like a top,” Rule said. “I haven’t had any troubles.”
By Friday afternoon, Rule had made it to his great-grandfather’s gravesite at High Prairie Cemetery in Altoona. There, Rule delivered a granite plaque in honor of James L. Riley, who served with the 72nd Indiana Infantry in the Civil War and survived nine major battles. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here,” Rule observed.
Rule stayed overnight Friday in Chanute with his mother, Jean, 90, before driving his Chevy in Saturday’s Artist Alley Parade, both as a salute to the military and as part of Chanute High’s Class of 1964’s 50-year reunion.
Then came the trip to Iola.
“I’m sure my aunt and uncle drove to Iola occasionally back in the day, but this has been the first time in a while this car’s been here,” Rule told a visitor at the old Bud White site, now a parking lot used by Fellowship Regional Church and Community Living Opportunities.
Rule took a granite marker, with the insignia of his uncle’s unit and a purple heart award painted on the side.
Charles Pribbernow served in the Army in World War I, where he had apparently been exposed to mustard gas. Pribbernow was with the 36th Infantry during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the final series of Allied attacks against the Germans that helped bring about the war’s end.
Pribbernow wasn’t diagnosed until years afterward.
“He even went blind for a while,” Rule said. That’s when the doctors finally diagnosed what the problem was — exposure to a poisonous gas.
Despite the injuries, Pribbernow never received a Purple Heart. “Heck, he never applied,” Rule said.
Rule’s recent attempts to see his uncle honored posthumously went for naught.
“It’s rather difficult to get military records from 1932 in Muskogee, Okla.,” he said.
That led to Rule’s granite plaque, which was placed Sunday at Pribbernow’s gravesite at Mount Hope Cemetery north of Humboldt.
His father, Lt. j.g. Arthur Rule, served as a Naval Air Force flight instructor during World War II. After the war, he became a reservist with the Navy and was a flight instructor with Anderson Air Activities during the Korean War.
A routine training mission ended his life. On Feb. 15, 1953 the senior Rule was en route to Lambert Airport in St. Louis and was 40 minutes east of Pittsburg, when Rule and two other Navy flyers radioed they were returning to Pittsburg to refuel. They crashed five minutes later into a mountainside. There were no survivors.
Rule’s older brother, Tim, survived a brush with death while serving in southeast Asia. His aircraft was shot down over South Vietnam, although he was able to save his aircraft and a fellow passenger. For his exploits, Tim Rule received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
David Rule also served briefly in Vietnam.
“You essentially had two choices when I got out of high school — get good grades, or get drafted,” Rule said. “I got an F in economics.”
Rule enlisted in the Air Force, where he worked for a year and a half in Okinawa before volunteering to serve in Vietnam.
Rule then was stationed at Beale Air Force Base in California, where he was assigned to help with the famed SR-71 Blackbird, the highly classified spy plane developed by Lockheed Martin. Capable of speeds of up to three times the speed of sound, the SR-71 “could essentially outrun a the bullet from a 30.06,” Rule noted.
Rule’s slender build, at 6’1, 135 pounds, gave him a unique assignment with the top-secret aircraft.
Rule was the only one on staff who could climb into a narrow opening on the jet for internal inspections, he noted.
When his obligation to the military ended, Rule was asked — “rather demandingly” — to re-enlist.
He declined, opting instead to earn his pilot’s license and become a corporate pilot for Citgo. He flew for the oil company for 20 years before retiring.
Trek to Iola brings Oklahoman full circle
