Jim Craig
Yearbook Photo
Jim and Julie Today
JIM CRAIG (PIE)
BIO
I have been blessed with 3 sons and a daughter. My daughter now has a daughter which brought a very special granddaughter into the family. I have great kids and love them all. My relationship with each one is special and certainly the relationship with my granddaughter is even better. All 3 of my sons were in the Air National Guard, 3 served in Iraq and 2 of them during the war.
I want to thank everyone involved for getting me through pilot training. I especially thank Don Feld and Guy Sternal who had to suffer with me as their student pilot. I can remember Guy Sternal returning from training sorties with Abbas, one of his other two primary students. Some days he shook so much that he had to chain smoke 3 or 4 cigarettes just to compose himself for an Abbas debriefing. I tried to make his life as easy as possible but I am sure I made him smoke a few also. I want to thank Don Feld for having the foresight to suggest we bailout and avoid what would have been a very hard landing. He used the term bailout several times instead of “eject, eject, eject”, but I was able to discern the essence of the decision that he made. I’ve survived a few hard landings in my day, but I doubt that I would have survived that one. I am glad that I took his suggestion since the landing looked pretty rough and would have shortened an otherwise long flying career. He was a very experienced, cool pilot and that saved our lives on that day.
I also want to give special thanks to Bob Bordwine of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. You may not realize this, but many of the Guard units do not want active duty pilots in their Wings. They want to grow from the enlisted ranks up rather than start a senior Captain in their Wing. I understand and respect this, but Bob Bordwine offered me a flying job with the Guard even when my peers didn’t want him to. I am forever in his debt. I am not sure how things would have turned out for me without the Air National Guard.
Other than my wife and kids, the next thing that meant anything to me personally was flying. There is nothing in life that I have ever done that compared to the thrill of flying. I felt the same exhilaration on my last flight which occurred in July 2005 as I did on my first flight. With the exception of 10 months with the Air Force Audit Agency while awaiting a flying assignment, I managed to hold a primary flying position for each of the 29 years I was either on active duty or in the Air National Guard. Sometimes the travel and TDY took its toll, but I simply loved the thrill of flying in all aspects. I am most proud that I was able to stay in a flying position for my entire career. The camaraderie and crew coordination was great, but flying was my love.
Although I had a tendency to move down in class (i.e. E3A to C130 to Sabreliner (brief upgrade) to Piper Navajo, I enjoyed flying more instead of less with each move down. I enjoyed my single pilot Navajo job even more than the C130 which is difficult since the Herk Air Guard mission was just about as good as it gets. My single pilot corporate job of managing and flying the Navajo was the best flying job that I ever had. It may not have been glamorous or lucrative, but it was an absolute blast. I miss those days very much.
I also practiced as a CPA for 28 years for extra income and to manage a business which was another desire of mine. I sold my practice in 2005 and can’t say that I miss it that much. I was also a corporate Chief Financial Officer on 2 occasions. Although this was a part of my career, flying was always my love. Thanks again for everyone that made it possible for me to fly. I am sure there are people behind the scenes that I don’t even realize that made my flying career possible. I want to thank them too.
BIO
I have been blessed with 3 sons and a daughter. My daughter now has a daughter which brought a very special granddaughter into the family. I have great kids and love them all. My relationship with each one is special and certainly the relationship with my granddaughter is even better. All 3 of my sons were in the Air National Guard, 3 served in Iraq and 2 of them during the war.
I want to thank everyone involved for getting me through pilot training. I especially thank Don Feld and Guy Sternal who had to suffer with me as their student pilot. I can remember Guy Sternal returning from training sorties with Abbas, one of his other two primary students. Some days he shook so much that he had to chain smoke 3 or 4 cigarettes just to compose himself for an Abbas debriefing. I tried to make his life as easy as possible but I am sure I made him smoke a few also. I want to thank Don Feld for having the foresight to suggest we bailout and avoid what would have been a very hard landing. He used the term bailout several times instead of “eject, eject, eject”, but I was able to discern the essence of the decision that he made. I’ve survived a few hard landings in my day, but I doubt that I would have survived that one. I am glad that I took his suggestion since the landing looked pretty rough and would have shortened an otherwise long flying career. He was a very experienced, cool pilot and that saved our lives on that day.
I also want to give special thanks to Bob Bordwine of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. You may not realize this, but many of the Guard units do not want active duty pilots in their Wings. They want to grow from the enlisted ranks up rather than start a senior Captain in their Wing. I understand and respect this, but Bob Bordwine offered me a flying job with the Guard even when my peers didn’t want him to. I am forever in his debt. I am not sure how things would have turned out for me without the Air National Guard.
Other than my wife and kids, the next thing that meant anything to me personally was flying. There is nothing in life that I have ever done that compared to the thrill of flying. I felt the same exhilaration on my last flight which occurred in July 2005 as I did on my first flight. With the exception of 10 months with the Air Force Audit Agency while awaiting a flying assignment, I managed to hold a primary flying position for each of the 29 years I was either on active duty or in the Air National Guard. Sometimes the travel and TDY took its toll, but I simply loved the thrill of flying in all aspects. I am most proud that I was able to stay in a flying position for my entire career. The camaraderie and crew coordination was great, but flying was my love.
Although I had a tendency to move down in class (i.e. E3A to C130 to Sabreliner (brief upgrade) to Piper Navajo, I enjoyed flying more instead of less with each move down. I enjoyed my single pilot Navajo job even more than the C130 which is difficult since the Herk Air Guard mission was just about as good as it gets. My single pilot corporate job of managing and flying the Navajo was the best flying job that I ever had. It may not have been glamorous or lucrative, but it was an absolute blast. I miss those days very much.
I also practiced as a CPA for 28 years for extra income and to manage a business which was another desire of mine. I sold my practice in 2005 and can’t say that I miss it that much. I was also a corporate Chief Financial Officer on 2 occasions. Although this was a part of my career, flying was always my love. Thanks again for everyone that made it possible for me to fly. I am sure there are people behind the scenes that I don’t even realize that made my flying career possible. I want to thank them too.