One of the men I flew with in the early 1980s, Dave Baker, died last Thursday. We called him Bull; I blogged about him a few months ago. Bull had been a prisoner of war; captured and held after being shot down in Cambodia near the end of the war in Vietnam. They teach you that the best time to escape is during the initial stages of captivity; as Bull was being moved by truck shortly after being shot down he saw his chance and ran, but a Cambodian soldier shot him in the leg with an AK-47. He was a POW for eight months and was the only American airman to come out of Cambodia at the end of the war. His wound was a serious one, and even though he recovered, returned to flying duty, and had a successful career, recurring infections would dog him through the rest of his life and finally claim him.
I sent news of Bull’s illness and subsequent death to a friend and squadron mate from those days, and we’ve been discussing the extraordinary men and leaders we were blessed to serve with. The USAF has plenty of leaders, to be sure, but generally they’re leaders by definition, competent though they may be; it’s a matter of rank and position. Few are natural leaders, and many USAF officers serve out their entire careers without knowing a single one. During a two-year stretch at the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron in The Netherlands, my friend and I worked and flew with three natural leaders, and Bull was one. He was still a young field-grader when we knew him, a mere major, but we would have followed him into any sort of engagement, outnumbered, outgunned, whatever. He inspired that kind of confidence, and we were better aviators for having flown with him.
Bull went on to achieve the rank of brigadier general, and led a wing of Saudi Arabia-based F-15Es in Desert Storm. The second leader we flew with went on to three-star rank and was director of operations for United States Air Forces Europe. The third leader went all the way to four stars and became chief of staff of the USAF. I had a long career ahead of me: flying for a fighter wing in Alaska, working as a joint staff officer for two unified commands, flying for a large F-15 wing in Japan, serving as chief of flight safety for Pacific Air Forces, and managing ranges at Nellis AFB in Nevada, but I never again encountered leaders like the three I flew with at the 32nd TFS.
Here’s to you, Bull!