Ira Hale, 96, retired Chief Master Sergeant, US Air Force, of East Ridge Street in Harpers Ferry, passed away peacefully on September 17, 2025, at the Veteran's Administration hospice in Martinsburg.

He and his wife, of 74 years, Jean, moved to Harpers Ferry from Chester, Virginia, in 1994 to be near their children. Before Chester, they lived in several locations around London and Suffolk, England, in various towns and cities in West Germany, near Paris in the 1950's, and in Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and New Jersey. Lin also served in Korat, Thailand, during the Viet Nam years.

Besides his wife, he is survived by three children, Annette Hale and spouse Michael Buscher, Phillip Hale and spouse Deborah, and Lawrence Hale, all of Harpers Ferry, and four grandchildren, Geoffrey Hale (wife Courtney Daly) of Arlington, Virginia, Meredith Hale, of Asheville, North Carolina, Elizabeth Buscher, of Greensboro, North Carolina, and John Hale, of Harpers Ferry,

two great granddaughters, Genevieve and Bronwen Hale, of Arlington, Virginia,

one sister, Mary Carolyn Hill of Haletown, Arkansas, and dozens of nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, Roy E. and Verla V. (Wade) Hale of Haletown, Arkansas, and two more sisters and three brothers, all of whom he missed very much.

Lin was born in Dutch Creek, Arkansas, a rural valley, near Waldron and Oklahoma, where he grew up on a farm in the 1930's,

plowing and hauling logs with horses, and missing school for itinerant work harvesting fruit, cotton, and wheat.

He loved cars, both driving and fixing them.

After high school, he worked throughout the Southwest, before joining the Air Force and being sent to England, where he met and married Jean Ann Clark, a native of London. He spent his Air Force career in defense logistics and supply, and after retirement, worked for the US Army for 18 years and for the Dept. Of Defense Dependents Schools (US) in England. He and Jean had a B&B in Harpers Ferry for ten years, Briscoe House.

He was upright, reliable, honest, kind, and dutiful and spent his life in service to God, family, country, and NATO.

Services will be held on October 4, 2025, at 11:00 A.M., at Zion Episcopal Church, 301 East Congress Street, Charles Town, WV 25414, with Reverend Johanna Marcure officiating.