I  was born in Los Angeles and attended UCLA 1951-55 and was commissioned as at 2/Lt from AFROTC. I went to pilot training in 1956 and spend 30 years on active duty retiring as a colonel. My service tours after pilot training included: Korea, Virginia (5 tours, two pentagon, one Ft Lee, Bedford AFS and Ft McNair), Stewart AFB, Hawaii, Okinawa, Philippines, Viet Nam ( 2 tours, one B-57 and one F-4E), Ft Leavenworth,KS,  Maxwell AFB,AL, and Paris, France-US Embassy.

My assignment preparation, which led me to the 13th, started in early 1964 when I was trying to get back into a flying squadron from a dull wing staff job at Naha AB, Okinawa. A personnel requirement came in which called for an aide at PACAF Headquarters. I figured that if I could get the job, I then would have a good chance of getting back into a squadron on my next assignment. I was selected and just about that time the B-57s transferred from Japan to the Philippines. That transfer was interesting to me because I had flown the Air Defense model B-57 which was used for electronic training against interceptors such as the F-101, 102 and 106 all over the U.S. and Canada. After I had completed pilot training and gunnery training in the F-86, I flew a tour in South Korea as an adviser to an F-86F Republic of Korea Air Force squadron at Suwon AB and liked the air to ground mission. When my boss at Hickam was transferred in 1965 I asked for and received an assignment to the 13th Bomb Squadron at Clark. Since I had now been in the theater for two years, I qualified for base housing and was able to take my wife and three children with me.

During my B-57 tour in the 13th, I flew 95 missions on two and one-half rotations to Danang during the one year I was at Clark AB. Most crew members had two years at Clark, which allowed them to spend a total of one year in Vietnam. But since I had been in the theater two years already, I was given another assignment and had to leave after a total of three years in the Pacific. However, six years later, I was able to return to Danang in an F-4 squadron and complete my one year. During this second tour, I sometimes rolled in on the same targets that I had hit in the B-57 six years before!