Colonel phil handley biography of william blake

Born on 9 April , in Wellington, Texas, he dreamed of becoming an Army Air Corp fighter pilot from the first moment he saw pictures of the great piston driven fighters of World War II. During a pre-induction flight physical he was told that his eyesight was marginal and that by the end of his final semester it was doubtful that he would qualify for pilot training.

He then made a fateful decision which he has never regretted. Proceeding directly to an Air Force Recruiting Office, he joined the Aviation Cadet Program, thus forfeiting his degree and commission which were only months away. After graduating at the top of his pilot training class in , and F upgrade training in , he was stunned to learn that his only assignment options were Strategic Air Command Bs or Cs.

His ensuing demonstration consisted of rotation to a vertical climb from takeoff and terminated with a landing roll of feet directly in front of the reviewing stands. On 2 June , while leading a 4-ship of F-4Es in a combat air patrol northeast of Hanoi, his element was attacked by two MiGs. With his wingman critically low on fuel and unable to engage, he fought the MiGs in a dogfight ranging in altitude from 15, feet to feet above the ground.

U.s. navy retired list

During the engagement, he expended all four of his air-to-air missiles, however, none of them guided. With only 20mm cannon ordnance remaining, he closed at a rate of almost four and one-half football fields per second for a high deflection shot high angle guns snap on the trailing MiG. Seconds later, while feet above the ground, at a heading-crossing angle of 90 degrees, and a speed of 1.

At the time of the kill, his aircraft was traveling at mach 1.