I was fortunate enough to join the USAF as an Aviation Cadet in 1959, at 20 to be commissioned 11 months later as a Second Lieutenant Navigator after another year of training as an Electronic Warfare Officer with spot Promotions to First Lt, and Captain after a stint on a Select Crew (S-01) in new B-52H’s (which are likely flying past 2030). During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 my Crew flew near the North Pole armed with 4 Mk-28 1.1 Megaton bombs targeted at the center of Moscow.
Good fortune lead to Pilot Training in 1966 where I was lucky to get the only F-100 in my class of 67F. Next I flew 292 Combat Missions in Vietnam, and was promoted to Major in September 1968. My good fortune continued in the F-100 with an assignment to Madrid Spain, Torrejon AB to once again pull Nuclear Alert.
In 1970 our F-100’s were converted to new F-4E’s and I was again lucky to pick up two new aircraft and fly them to Spain. After that I attended Armed Forces Staff College and was assigned to an A-7D Squadron, the 76TFS, original Flying Tigers in 1973.
I continued to Fly the A-7D as the Senior Advisor to the South Carolina Air National Guard and helped them convert from Air Defense F-102’s to the A-7D Corsair. In 1977 I was assigned as the 169th Tac Air Support Training Squadron Commander and we trained all 200 the USAF Forward Air Controllers in the 0-2A Birddog and OV-10 Bronco. From 1978 to 1980 I served at the Group Commander and was promoted to Colonel.
My last assignments were in Washington DC to The National War College and the USAF Headquarters in the Pentagon as a Division Chief in Operations in the Office of Secretary of Defense for Tac Warfare programs.
I left the USAF at age 46, and worked in Washington DC for LTV Aerospace, Control Data, and Northrop Grumman until 1998. My most recent work was to develop a Political Action Committee to Advocate for Veterans and currently as the CIO for the Super Sabre Society.