Colonel William S. Clarke is a veteran jet fighter pilot with 3,970 hours, primarily in F-86 Sabrejets, F-102 Delta Daggers, and RF4-C Phantom II’s.

He graduated from Wake Forest University in 1949 and from pilot training in 1953.

After Sabrejet training at Nellis, he was assigned to the 56th Fighter Squadron -- later the 94th “Hat in the Ring” Fighter-Interceptor Squadron -- at Selfridge AFB, Michigan.

Here, as a lieutenant, he was a member of the six-pilot team that won the World-Wide Aerial Rocketry Competition at Yuma in 1956, in competition with eight other championship teams representing 82 fighter-interceptor squadrons from the USA, Europe, and Pacific.

He subsequently flew 514th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Sabrejets at RAF Manston, England and Ramstein, Germany, with extensive temporary duty in Libya, Denmark, and Italy.

As a captain, he flew F-102 Delta Daggers in the 482nd at Seymour-Johnson, NC, and NAS Key West, and in the 59th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Goose Bay, Labrador.

As a major in 1967, with tanker support he led a flight of six Phantoms of the 14th Tactical Reconnaissance Fighter Squadron from Bergstrom AFB, TX, to Udorn, Thailand. From Udorn Major Clarke flew 100 combat missions over North Vietnam and 10 combat missions over Laos.

After his combat tour, he was assigned to Headquarters USAF in the Pentagon, where he served four years in operations analysis before transitioning to the public affairs career field.

As a lieutenant colonel at Systems Command, he became a primary public spokesman for Air Force R&D.

Within three years he was named as a colonel to be Chief of Plans and Programs for the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Public Affairs, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Colonel Clarke’s final assignment was to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force as the USAF Assistant Director of Public Affairs before retiring in May, 1980. During his 30-year Air Force career, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross three times and the Legion of Merit twice.

After retirement to Raleigh, NC, he indulged in such diversions as glider flying at Aspen, hot air ballooning at Durango, trekking, adventure travel, and white water rafting 10 rivers ranging from the Firth north of the Arctic Circle to the Beaufort Sea, to the Zambezi south of the equator in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Colonel Clarke also authored a book, In Search of Daedalus, Recollections of a Fighter Pilot (available online), detailing his aerial adventures.