THE DAILY IBERIAN
JEANERETTE — Ken Squires of Jeanerette was the first pilot in the state to start crop dusting with a helicopter in 1978. In fact, a plaque still hangs on his wall from former Commissioner of Agriculture Bob Odom citing the department’s “recognition of proactive pesticide vision and methods” that Squires claims “turned the tide of pesticide hysteria in Acadiana.”
 Ken Squires, who owns Penn-Tex Helicopters, is at ease in the cockpit of a helicopter. He has been busy improving the Jeanerette airport. -- Holly Leleux-Thubron / The Daily Iberian Advertisement
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“I infiltrated the airline crop duster front lines ... and shouldered the almost overwhelming feeling for a great many years that I had indeed parachuted behind enemy lines,” he said. “They (airplane crop dusters in Iberia Parish) buzzed me in the fields, harassed me, talked trash, spoke untruths, tried to stop me, squash me and end my efforts. But I prevailed.”
Squires said his “more precise and more public friendly helicopter services” caught on, and today he, along with two other helicopter crop dusters, one of which was a student of his, dominate the “aerial crop care market.”
He said sugar cane and helicopters match up like peanut butter and jelly.
The large amount of the crop in the parish coupled with the heavily populated areas here make helicopter crop dusting ideal once the cane reaches heights too tall for the high-boy tractors.
“For the most part, helicopters do not have to fly over people’s houses and can, most of the time, turn around inside the crop field perimeters with lower operating speeds,” he said. “We are more precise at keeping the products we are applying inside the perimeters and not on the neighbors’ flowers and swimming pools and such.”
These days, Squires still can be found crop dusting when the sugar cane becomes “his” as he says. He also is spending any extra time and effort as an aviation advocate in the parish.
Most notably, Squires, working with the Iberia Parish legislative delegation and the staff at Acadiana Regional airport, secured $450,000 for the development of a T-hangar complex at LeMaire Memorial Airport.
He said he started his mission to resuscitate 2R1, the FAA code name for LeMaire, after purchasing the only private hangar located there.
“I was standing over there about a year ago, just me and the killdeers, and I got a good whiff of the deadness out there,” he said. “I looked around and thought to myself, ‘This is crap’.”
He thought for a while, he said, of whom he could inspire to fight for more development at LeMaire.
“I thought who could we get that knows some stuff about aviation and who wasn’t afraid to raise a little hell,” he said.
Squires admits at that time he was missing some small piece of confidence he needed to come forward and lead the fight himself.
Soon after, he joined the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and was nominated by his peers within the organization to serve as the Airport Support Network representative for 2R1.
With the new post came a statistical package prepared by the association regarding small airports.
“I saw this stuff, that 300 dinky airports are closing every year just like the one in Jeanerette,” he said. “It’s hard to fight off these land grabbers and developers coming around and shaking big money.”
At that point, it all came together for him, he said.
Squires wants nothing more than a nice place to fly his airplane, he said, and would love to see some type of “man cave” at LeMaire for aviation enthusiasts in the area.
The tiny airport has a long way to go before it is eligible for federal funding from the Federal Aviation Administration and is completely safe from the “land grabbers” but Squires said he isn’t close to being done fighting.
“Truth is, I love a good fight,” he said. “I was raised on it. I instantly see all the injustices of the world and I see a lot of negligence out there. Everybody that was laughing at me when I started all this, sure isn’t laughing at me anymore. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be able to accomplish, but, there’s worse ways for a guy to spend his time.”
Comments
Eaux MF wrote on Aug 30, 2009 8:20 PM:
I think any new money into one of our local communities is a good thing. Don't stop the fight Ken. No matter where you are from, you have done a good thing, and don't let these local naysayers distract you. "
Debbie Fruge wrote on Aug 29, 2009 7:08 AM:
Marc Lee Winnig wrote on Aug 28, 2009 3:24 PM:
It shows what one person can do, with a lot of hard work and determination.
Now you need to get others to understand the value which an airport has, especially to small, rural communities. I hope your neighbors don't wait until it is gone to realize what they have lost, as so many other communities have.
Once a small airport is gone, it almost never comes back. Haven't really noticed a shortage of half-built largely un-sold subdivisions lately!
Keep up the good work! "
ken squires wrote on Aug 28, 2009 12:39 PM:
I never knew Mr. Ed, he passed before my time. I came to know Wally well, and he and I became good friends about a year before he passed.
Feel free to contact me at airviking109@yahoo.com if you would like to clear any issues you may have with my well intended efforts. "
Katie Jarrett wrote on Aug 28, 2009 7:52 AM:
Debbie Kneidinger Fruge wrote on Aug 28, 2009 5:52 AM:
Linda Street Ely wrote on Aug 27, 2009 9:30 PM:
Ken Squires wrote on Aug 27, 2009 7:31 PM:
I do not pretend to be trying to be popular. I had to step on many toes to stop the indifference and negligence.
I think board pay and council pay should be high enough to attract working class nominees. I was doing good in this new arena and my one staffer quit. I will keep trying nonetheless. "
catchme wrote on Aug 27, 2009 9:58 AM:
Debbie Kneidinger Fruge wrote on Aug 24, 2009 7:35 AM:
Remember those before you at that airport like: Ed and Wally Kneidinger and Vlaiir Alexandroff.
Glad you are fixing up the place. "