Tales of battles in the air

BARBARA DIAMOND

Fighter pilots are different, according to two of them, both of whom

are veterans of the Vietnam War and live in Laguna Beach.

“A fighter pilot is capable of making life or death decisions

under the challenge of fear and uncertainty,” retired U.S. Air Corps

Col. Don Henry said.

“In the throes of battle, a fighter pilot seems not to like

outsiders very much and is not easy company. One often has no idea

what he is thinking and not the slightest notion of what his inner

life might be. He appears uncomplicated, unreadable, punctilious,

always in control, knowing his own mind and usually adept at solving

any problem at hand.

“Then having succeed in his task, he smiles that smile, that

cavalier, vainglorious, horse’s-ass smile, which seems the worst part

about him ... as if his vocation were some sort of inviolate

priesthood ... as if only he knew the right mantra, the right face to

show the enemy ... as if only he could come to terms with the passion

of the moment, the wisdom of the longer view and the truth that we

are more humanly connected with bizarre behavior than we realize.”

Henry has been there, done that -- and wrote about it.

His novel, “Thunderchief,” is based on his experiences as a

fighter pilot in Vietnam, a veteran of 129 combat missions in F-105s,

high performance tactical jets, known as the “Thud” or the

Thunderchief,” that gave the book its title.

“Rather than a book about combat flying, I wanted to give families

and an idea of how peer pressure and fear change people -- why they

come back different,” Henry said.

His novel of a fighter pilot’s “rite of passage,” recounts

24-year-old Ashe Wilcox’s struggles to gain respect as combat pilot.

He is mentored by an experienced fighter pilot, who insists that he

be called Hunter -- no rank permitted.

Hunter is a survivor of torture in a POW camp during the Korean

War and a survivor of a brutal childhood. Both have left him with

emotional scars that he carries with him into combat, but he’s

happiest when he takes to the skies, seeking the enemy.

His young admirer must deal with the flaws in his hero before he

too can soar. Along the way, he must deal with a survival rate that

fell below a pilot death for every 88 missions -- making a tour of

100 counted missions a real challenge.

Henry said when things get tough he keeps his perspective by

remembering that he once had a job where people shot real bullets at

him.

“Don Henry is a world-class fighter pilot who gets to the bottom

of what makes aerial tigers tick,” writes Gen. Charles A. Horner,

co-author with Tom Clancy of “Every Man a Tiger.” “He captures the

excitement of getting shot at that haunts their self-proclaimed

supreme confidence. Don Henry’s ‘Thunderchief’ is equal on modern

warfare to Stephen Crane’s ‘Red Badge of Courage.’”

Henry received his wings at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and

reported for duty with the 67th Tactical Fighter Squadron in Okinawa.

During the height of the Vietnam “conflict,” Henry flew combat

missions into Laos and North Vietnam.

Between tours in the Thud, he served as an operational test pilot

in the F-111 aircraft at Nellis. He earned a Silver Star and three

Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Henry probably has more in common with retired U.S. Marine Corps

Col. Charles Quilter than he does with Air Corps pilots who did not

fly single-seat, fighter planes in combat.

Quilter flew 252 diverse missions in the marines’ Phantom F-4

during a 13-month tour from 1967 to 1968 in Vietnam.

“There are 100,000 pilots in the United States,” Quilter said.

“Only a handful of them have flown high performance tactical jets and

the group that flew in combat is even smaller. I flew in some of the

same places as the F-105s. Those guys were in the thick of it.

“Fighter pilots are different from the others. They have to

believe in themselves. They are the only ones in the cockpit. They

have been described as arrogant. I prefer strongly self-confident.”

But, Quilter admits, young fighter pilots think they are bullet

proof, what he later heard called the NAFOD syndrome -- No Apparent

Fear of Death.

Quilter, who served as Marine air historian in Dessert Storm and

Iraq, said flying is difficult to explain -- not to mention combat

pilots.

“Fighter pilots are warriors -- it’s not popular to say that, but

it’s what they are,” said Quilter.

They must learn to deal with the fact that they have taken a human

life.

Don Henry’s young fictional pilot exults when he “kills” a MiG,

the Russian-built fighter plane, then takes an emotional nose dive

when he realizes he also killed the pilot.

“Every one in the pointy end of combat has to deal with the fact

that they took a life,” said Quilter. “I try not to think about it --

it makes you crazy.”

The qualities that make fighter pilots are born in them. If

they’re lucky, they get an opportunity to learn the flying skills for

which those qualities are ideally suited.

“The first time I sat in a high performance tactical plane, I

said, ‘You were meant to do this,’” Quilter said.

The hard part comes when the shooting is over.

Henry quoted “Zorba the Greek.”

“Dying isn’t hard. Living is hard.”

Quilter said, “I can’t begin to tell you how hard it is for

someone who has lived on the edge, relying on personal skills -- to

fly a desk. Some fighter pilots fear they will loose their souls.”

He made the transition to airline pilot -- but twice hopped back

into the combat zone as a historian, once after he retired. He also

flies a small plane for fun. Quilter, raised in Laguna Beach, lives

with his wife Ann, an Air Force brat, in a Laguna Canyon home,

rebuilt after the original was destroyed by a mudslide. The Quilters

have two children.

After combat duty, Henry trained at the Air Force War College and

earned a master’s degree in psychology at Troy State University. He

worked in several Pentagon departments as a

fighter-aircraft-requirements officer and later commanded the 55th

Tactical Fighter Squadron, a nuclear F-111 operational unit,

completing his active service with the rank of colonel.

Henry has lived in Laguna Beach for 10 years.

“I was in the Air Force for 27 years and worked a lot in research

and development in Los Angeles and San Diego,” said Henry. “I drove

back and forth through Laguna and decided that was where I wanted to

live.”

Two years ago, he married and moved with his wife, Dixie, to a

home in Mystic Hills.

The Pelican Publishing Co. hardcover edition of “Thunderchief” is

296 pages and is available at Latitude 33, Borders, dot coms

including Amazon, and by toll-free phone orders to 1-800-843-1724 or

1-888-5-Pelican. Cover price is $22.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.