If You Fly... Don't Crash!

If You Fly... Don't Crash! is a rollicking "war story" covering 22 years of a heavy jet driver in peacetime and wartime. Along the way, the pilot author handles a variety of aircraft in action around the world. He functions well as an aircraft commander in charge of strong-willed professionals facing emergencies with life and death consequences. He begins his Air Force career as an Officer Training School (OTS) "90-day Wonder," then earns his wings (just barely!) after a year-long tour at Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). His first assignment places him at a northern air force base flying airborne gas stations refueling bombers armed with nuclear weapons destined for the Soviet Union. The author survives a variety of close calls, even as his air-sense matures in short order. His flying puts him over Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and South Vietnam in unarmed tankers during the Vietnam War. As a senior tanker instructor pilot at a west coast air base, his student pilots challenge him with a never-ending variety of "Oh Shit" situations, all of which prepare him for his next assignment as a Follow-on Test & Evaluation (FOT&E) pilot flying new Air Force jumbo jets derived from commercial airliners. His missions ranged from over the Polar Ice Cap to frigid the air over Antarctica and much of the airspace in-between. Along the way our hero meets a slew of famous personalities from the world of military aviation and civilian life.