My First Instructor Pilot

I was a 4-Year AFROTC Pilot Scholarship guy. The fall of my senior year, I had to go down to the local FBO to get my 35 hours of "bug smasher" time, before I showed up at pilot training.

My instructor introduced himself with, "Bob, 15,000 flying hours, and my greatest claim to fame is I have two Jap kills during WWII." I said, "Hi, I'm Carl, my mother is Japanese." Bob back peddles severely but I catch him with, "It's OK, the war has been over for a long time now."

Later in the program, I am getting my last few solo rides into the syllabus. I come into the FBO, and there on the chalkboard, at the sign-in desk, is a note that says, "Under no circumstances are you to rent Carl a plane today." I inquire as to the prohibition, and the desk clerk decides to call Bob on Unicom, as he is in the pattern. She inquires with Bob about what the deal is, and he says, "Look at the Calendar, what day is it? It's December 7th, and I don't want him flying around in one of our airplanes, yelling "BONZAI!" over the radio."

Needless to say, my first years as a pilot in the Air Force, I took pictures with this helmet visor cover and sent them to Bob at Christmas. He lived till 103 and was a great friend and mentor. He was my first instructor pilot. The first of many great instructor pilots to teach me.

I won the Flight Trophy my senior year, as the best flight scholarship candidate to go to pilot training. The Air Force Adjutant General presented the award to me in May 1978. After commissioning, I went to Columbus AFB to start pilot training in class 80-02.