I decided I wanted to be a pilot at about 9 years old, but the odds were large that I would not accomplish this goal.
First off I was plagued with motion sickness in my first rides in small airplanes to such a degree I think this would have turned off many people.
Secondly when I was in college on a USAF scholarship (1971-75), at US Air Force summer camp, I went on a required
T-37 ride, got sick, threw up and was sick for the rest of the day. Yet, I still wanted to be a pilot.
Thirdly, I was lined up for the top spot in my ROTC unit, yet I declined that because of the time commitment, due to a change in major, which resulted in me having 40 hrs of class room time per week. This decision affected my position on the list to go on active duty. The USAF was winding down from the Vietnam War and instead of going directly into active duty, I was sent home for a year. Then I got a letter saying sorry, it would be another year. At the time, the airlines only hired pilots who were at most 30 years old so I saw my goal passing me by, to get trained and gather enough experience in time. The second letter also said if I could find another branch of the military, they would release me from my 4 year obligation.
So I ran down to the US Navy recruiting office, yet they had no pilot spots just RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) spots a back seat, non pilot crew position. Inexplicably, I took this job, even though the USAF had no officer transfer program, and I had to pass a 16 week AOC (Aviation Officer Candidate) program. Think of the movie
Officer and a Gentleman.
Fourthly, fate seemed to be on my side, as while I was in the AOC program, We were advised that the US Navy was short of pilots and they needed volunteers. I was back in a pilot slot! Looking for orders to flight training, one of the options was Texas. I asked my friends from Texas, if Corpus Christi had trees, they assured me it did. Yet I remember driving from Northeast Texas in a southern direction and watching the real trees slowly go away to be replaced by scrubby bushes that some people called trees.
NAS Chorpus Christi struck me as going to the moon, the landscape felt barren.
My first flight at Corpus Christi NAS was in a
T-28, under the hood flying instruments in the back seat of an un-air conditioned WWII-1950s era trainer in 90 degree weather. The Navy statistically knew candidates had the most problems with this stage of learning to fly so threw it at you first to get rid of the weak ones. Base on susceptibility to air sickness, it took a force of will on my part to get through this. In the process my air sickness receded.
During the T-28 program, I was drafted into jets, although if I had a choice, I would have picked turbo props because as a rule they get many more hours of flight time, important for post military pilot hiring jobs. I trained in
T-2s and
TA-4s at NAS Kingsville where I met my future wife. I qualified for carrier landings in the Gulf of Mexico twice on these aircraft.
Then I was drafted as a
Surgrad, supposedly the best students picked to be turned into instructors to teach the next wave of students, but it could screw up your career, because teaching slots were not as valuable, fitness report wise as was functioning out on the line in the real Navy.
Coming out of that, I got orders for
F-14s (think
Top Gun), the most beautiful fighter aircraft ever designed... needs of the Navy.
Fifthly, I went through the entire program (West Coast, San Diego) no problem until I got to carrier quals. I did not pass. I have no idea exactly what the problem was, except this airplane challenged me more than the other two I had carrier qualified in. I was devastated, but hoped the Navy in it’s wisdom would allow me to transfer back into the turbo prop program I originally had planned on.
They could have said no, and my pilot/airlines plans would have been severely challenged but traveling to a board hearing at the Pentagon, I made my best case, they said
sure, why not?!
I went back to the Turbo Prop program at NAS Corpus Chusti, then got orders to Guam to fly spy planes (
EP-3s) in the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Sea of O, and NW Pacific. That was a lot of fun, although not fun was being separated from my wife and young child 85% of the time for 3 years. In the Navy when doing a sea tour, that was the norm if not worse than when based on a Carrier task force, training, workups, and then deployments. That sucked, but the flying was great, no not as good as an F-14, but still.
Due to career turbulence, landing in a new community that was territorial as most work related groups can be, and what I attribute to
not being as socialable enough as I needed to be with my superior officers, I failed to be promoted to Lt.Commander.
Part of it has to due with limited slots and too many people, but it’s important to acknowledge my short comings. Fortunately this did not hinder my ability to pass two days of psychological testing and make a favorable impression on Northwest Airlines hiring personnel. The airline job was perfect, a seniority list, a small crew, work stays at work, and no office or career politics. Thirty years in the airline, a bankruptcy, a merger, and now retired, and kind of bored.
