John learned to fly at age 16 at San Francisco International Airport after a childhood of mostly gazing at airplanes and building airplane models. After a brief and forgettable college career, he entered the US Air Force as an Aviation Cadet at age 19, and went through multi-engine pilot training, graduating as a 2nd lieutenant and rated Air Force pilot in 1956. He spent three years as a flight instructor in Texas, then moved on to the Strategic Air Command as a Combat Crewmember in B-52 heavy bombers. He left the Air Force in 1963 to escape the talons of SAC, and with no airline jobs available anywhere, managed to find a corporate job with Aerojet General Corp in Sacramento, CA. In July of the following year he was hired by Pan Am as a flight engineer in Berlin, where he spent eleven very enjoyable years doing the industry’s most satisfying flying and living in the world’s most exciting, exotic, erotic city. He transferred to New York to check out as captain on the B707. He finally checked out in 1978, was made a check pilot the following year and was assigned to White House Press Charters. When the L-1011 came along in 1980, John was assigned as fleet manager for that airplane. He transferred to SFO in 1983 on the B747, and then came the Pacific Route sale to United. The West Coast bases rapidly shrank after that, and he ended up back in New York in 1989. He was based at JFK until the end, and on Dec 3, 1991 flew the last revenue flight to South America, flight 212 to Sao Paulo. The following spring he flew a Hajj out of Jakarta (a whole ‘nother story), and that fall went to work for Korean Airlines as a 747 captain, where he flew until mandatory retirement in 1995. In 1996, he went to work for the FAA in St. Louis, and is still there and still working. He stays current in the Embraer 145 regional jet as part of the job.
