Gallagher: Highlighting East Texas veterans in aviation

Published 5:20 am Friday, June 9, 2023

‘They’ say early settlers tamed the wild, wild west, but little is said about the early aviators who tamed the East Texas skies, a region built on a long history of aviation ‘firsts’ followed by generations of aviators, notably the military/veteran pilots and crews who transitioned from military to civilian aviation, finding their home in East Texas.

For the veterans in aviation today, whose spirit of aviation birthed wings to fly, to fuel engines, to fight for all Americans, and who traveled through the military-to-civilian transition taking flight in ETX, here are their stories.

Aviation’s ‘Alphabet Soup’: From the USAF, CIA to Tyler’s HAMM

U.S. Air Force Lou Thomas, 2C airman and radar technician,1956-1960, tested the early programs of jet drones in the Arizona desert, and in 1962, served on a team launching the Skybolt Missile Program from a B52 aircraft.

“It was a 100% successful launch,” said Lou. “But the headlines the very next day read, ‘Kennedy Cancels Skybolt Missile Program’.”

Once retired, Lou served multiple assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, 1968-1988, navigating the globe from Iran, Leningrad USSR to Moscow. After his CIA retirement, Lou worked for an electromagnetic systems laboratory in Washington DC, and later for Raytheon, and finally, Lou and his family in their destination flight in 2000 to Tyler, their home.

Eleven years ago, Lou joined the board of the Historic Aviation Military Museum (HAMM), five years as president, proudly recruiting future ETX aviators with the annual Youth Aviation Camp as the young graduates earn their ‘wings’ with a ‘Young Eagle’ certificate. For more information about the June 20-24 camp, call 903-526-1945.

10,000 Flight Hours and Multiple Aircraft Ratings

Commissioned as a 2Lt in 1962, USAF Maj. Joe Wiser retired at 73 with a whopping 10,000 flight hours through 36 countries, after piloting multiple aircraft types from Cessna 182, Lear 60, Hawker 800XP, C130A, Global Express BBD-70 to the Beech 350, T-38, T-33, F-104 and Boeing 737.

Ultimately choosing a C-130A assignment to Naha AB, Okinawa in 1963, Joe became proficient in tactical operations, flying to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, and ultimately, transferred to Korat AB Thailand, to attack enemy trucking along the road network in Laos. out of Naha, in 1967.

“My tour fell during the cease-fire of 1973-1974, so no combat missions were flown, but we continued our training to maintain proficiency,” he said.

Later flying two rotations to Europe and some Central America ops, but ‘I no longer fly due to some medical issues,’ said Joe. As they say, ‘once an aviator, always an aviator.’

Higher Education in Aviation Maintenance

In 2021, Ret. U.S. Marine Nick Pool’s civilian career with LeTourneau University School of Aviation and Aeronautical Science as an instructor of aircraft maintenance, teaching applied aviation science, Longview, Nick has seen ‘student enrollment in aviation courses consistently increase each year.’

Nick earned an airframe and powerplant certification aviation maintenance verification, a private pilot’s license in 2011, and graduated with an aircraft systems degree in 2012, all from LeTourneau. Enlisting in 2001 as a maintenance crew chief, CH-46, he was trained as an A&P maintenance mechanic, test flight maintenance mechanic and combat rated crew chief operations. In January 2004, Nick’s squadron deployed to Iraq in a dual Marine-Army invasion operation, establishing bases in Al Asad, traveling by amphibian assault ship taking 24 days.

Today, Nick said he feels blessed to share his military stories with his students.

“It’s a whole different world,” he said.

In the world of combat, Nick served in a Marine medium lift helicopter squadron that deployed as a dual-Marines Army battalions in Iraq twice, a ‘rat’s nests’ of insurgents, and later in ports of the Mediterranean Sea when his unit was deployed back to Iraq to provide assault support, and in 2006, he retired.

When advising students about their future, Nick asks what drives them while walking according to the scriptures within the Christian university.

“Watching the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly close to my house in San Diego growing up, I knew then that I wanted to be an aviator,” said Nick.

“Once you’ve experienced your first flight, it’s always in you,” said Nick, who shared a quote he included on one of his research papers from Leonardo da Vinci: “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

A Successful USAF Military-to-Civilian Transition

As a USAF Academy graduate, 28 years of active duty and reserve, Lt. Col. Steve Thompson’s active duty as an aircraft commander and instructor pilot, C-130 Hercules, led to leadership positions ‘built on a foundation of teamwork and respect and service before self,’ he said.

“The C-130 was incredibly versatile, enabling me to perform diverse missions including airlift/airdrop missions and aerial refueling,” Steve explained.

Transitioning from active duty while serving in the Air Force Reserve developing a civilian career through a gradual process, critical to the success of every M2C transition. Today, Steve is the director of the Tyler Pounds Regional Airport where the ETX skies are flying with opportunities.

“I am very excited about the future may have for ETX aviation,” he said. “We are surrounded by unencumbered airspace, with a variety of nice airports and communities that welcome travelers and embrace local aircraft owners.”

With HAMM located next to the airport, Steve highlighted the “ample flight training opportunities and reliable commercial air service making this area a center for aviation excellence which will continue to foster growth for the future.”

An ETX Purple Heart Award Recipient

With 19.5 years of dedicated military service, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Rogers, flight medic, Black Hawk UH-60 and member of the ‘DUSTOFF’ organization — ‘Dedicated Unhesitating Service to Our Fighting Forces,’ knew he was flying with the best of the best.

On June 1, 2012, the worst attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, Forward Operating Base Salerno, Taliban members wearing suicide vests, attacked the base in a coordinated assault breaching the U.S. facility perimeter. A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives through the compound’s fence while attackers on foot entered through gaps along the fence.

Highly fortified with extensive surveillance assets and a U.S. rotary wing task force, during 2002–2013 ‘Operation Enduring Freedom.’

When his ‘training just kicked in,’ Patrick’s countless rescues during enemy fire while lifting the wounded into a truck, all without the gear required in flight, without his helicopter crew who were in other areas of the base, and without their fully loaded UH-60. Ultimately succumbing to his own injuries, Patrick flown to a military hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan.

On Nov. 1, 2012, Patrick was awarded the honorable ‘Purple Heart’ Medal.

“There were so many acts of bravery that day,” he said. “In combat, you get to see everything work most of the time while making a difference in your life by making a difference for the better in someone else’s life.”

Envisioning growth in the ETX aviation industry while building on the aviation assets already here, Patrick highlighted the region’s ‘retired flight medics with 20 years in combat and specialized training, crews with night vision goggle qualifications who have flown in diverse and adverse conditions and environments, and crew chiefs with a strong knowledge of rotor- and fixed-wing maintenance on any aircraft.

“With the new medical school, and ETX region becoming a large medical center, possibly a Level 1 trauma or heart center, I see more fixed- and rotor-wing air assets by pilots from SW Arkansas and SE Oklahoma flying into the region to access the new medical center[s],” he said.

The spirit of aviation in ETX began with the spirit to dream followed by the courage to actualize those dreams into reality knowing this is how the ‘big, get bigger’ — building on its rich aviation history by those who tamed the skies, allowing us to envision the future of aviation in the ETX sky which bears no limits.

Until next time, veterans and their families, friends, co-workers, let me hear from you at etxveterans@gmail.com.