Foil: 11 Panel: 1 Column: 1 Line: 67

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. and Mrs. George C. Toop Jr.

In 1953 Jack Briggs Hilliard entered military flight training. He received his commission as a second lieutenant and his wings at Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, Texas. His first assignment with the U.S. Air Force was to Yokota Air Force Base, Japan. He spent the next four years in the active Air Force flying KB-29s and KB-50s.
Eventually, he became curator of the U.S. Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA. While there, he was active in the Air Force Reserve, flying C-119, C-124, and C-130 aircraft. In 1982 he became curator of the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and in 1993 became senior curator of the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1983 as a lieutenant colonel.
Jack authored Capronis. Farmans, and SIA's: U.S. Army Aviation Training and Combat in Italy with Fiorello LaGuardia 1917-1918, a World War I aviation reference work providing a first-hand record of the experiences of young men who trained as pilots in Italy. It was published in collaboration with the Museo Aeronautico in Trento, Italy.