The Gift

From my earliest memory, I have been fascinated with airplanes. I don't know where this fascination came from, but it was always there.

When I was eight or nine years old, I started building model airplanes. I began with the balsa wood and paper models that were powered by rubber bands. I soon graduated to the control line models that were powered by small gasoline engines. I spent hundreds of hours flying those things 'round and 'round.

I was born during WWII, so a vast number of movies about air combat were there to watch while I was growing up. I probably saw every airplane movie ever made. One movie, Aviation Cadets, was about some men who went through Air Force pilot training.

I had always wanted to go flying, to see what it was like up there, and I finally had the opportunity, one summer day in 1957. That one flight convinced me that being a pilot was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and it led to a very enjoyable and exciting 45-year career in aviation.

I invite you to come along with me, and share my experiences as I learned to fly, built my flying time, and achieved more advanced pilot credentials, through high school and college. I was determined to get into the US Air Force undergraduate pilot training. This is the story of how I got there.