Foil: 14 Panel: Retired United Pilots Association Column: 4 Line: 1

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

Capt. Terence R. Davies was sent to America, aged three and a half, by his parents in November of 1940 to escape the expected German invasion of England. This was over a year before the entry of the United States into WWII. His father died during the course of the war and his mother emigrated to America in 1946. Capt. Davies became a naturalized citizen of the United States at age eighteen, the minimum age for an individual to do so independently. He joined the USAF in 1958 and graduated from the Aviation Cadet program as a second lieutenant and pilot in September of 1959. He spent the next seven years in the Strategic Air Command as a copilot on B-47's and B-52's. He was deployed on active alert to Detroit, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio, civilian airports in nuclear armed aircraft during the Cuban crisis as part of the nationwide dispersal of the bomber fleet. In August of 1966 Capt. Davies transferred to inactive reserve status in the Air Force in order to join United Airlines where he flew for the next thirty years. He started as a flight engineer on propeller-driven Douglas DC-6's and progressed through the copilot position eventually reaching the captain's seat in 1987. In addition to the DC-6 he flew the DC-8 and Boeing 727 as flight engineer, the Boeing 727, 737, 757 and 767 as copilot and flew captain on the Boeing 727, which he felt to be his favorite of all the Boeings, the 757, and 767 and retired from the 747-200 in March of 1997. He considers himself an American who happened to have been born in England and he feels among the most blessed of men in his children, his career and his country.