John J. Schulz is a retired news executive and former Voice of America foreign correspondent who also has been an Oxford scholar, National War College student (1985-86), editor of Arms Control Today magazine and Associate Director, The Arms Control Association (1992-95) and, in college, a prize-winning poet and varsity quarterback. Two of his five passing records lasted 27 years.
In 1967-8 he flew 275 missions as an F-100 fighter pilot in Vietnam. His 22 combat decorations included the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses and several single-mission Air Medals.
His M-Phil (1979) and D-Phil. (1981) degrees in international relations are from Oxford University in England. From 1989-91, he was a Professor of National Security Studies at the National War College in Washington. In 1995, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Montana.
In his 13 years at Boston University (1995-2009), he was a department chair for three years and later, Dean of the College of Communication for three more. In 2001 he was the first recipient of the “Professor of the Year” award from the fraternities and sororities at Boston University.
In 2014 he wrote and published Songs From A Distant Cockpit, which is a combination of narrative history blended with poetry that tells the story of all F-100 pilots, the lives they led, and the challenges they faced flying "The Widowmaker" in war and peacetime. Songs has gotten rave reviews from aviators and civilian readers alike and is available in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum bookstore and at Udvar Hazy bookstore as well.