Born to fly

The Editor Talks With You

Posted 12/23/20

Fighter pilots must be among the most competitive people on earth. 

You may think professional athletes are competitive. They are. But they don’t put their lives on the line every time …

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Born to fly

The Editor Talks With You

Posted

Fighter pilots must be among the most competitive people on earth. 
You may think professional athletes are competitive. They are. But they don’t put their lives on the line every time they show up for work. Fighter pilots do.
I had the good fortune to convince a fighter pilot’s daughter to marry me. 
At first, I did not realize how much God had blessed me because her father set out to humiliate me at everything from golf to fishing, ping pong and gin rummy. 
He was testing to find out what kind of man his daughter had married.
His favorite card game was Spite & Malice. That may give you a hint about him.
He was a military lawyer, too. He loved the verbal combat of the courtroom but loved flying even more. Ordered to choose between flying and court, Preston Hardy’s adventurous spirit kept him aloft.

He grew up in Dillon, a son of the small Pee Dee town doctor. In high school, he persuaded a crop duster to teach him to fly. It began his love affair with aviation.
In his senior year at Wofford University, Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. Like hundreds of thousands of young men, he wanted to join.
He was already in the Army ROTC.  With his experience, he was told, he could qualify for flight school, an officer’s commission and better pay.  
After flight school, he flew combat missions from England over Europe. He was credited with downing 2 Nazi planes and damaging others.  He was first to report the Nazis were flooding the Dutch lowlands to slow the Allied advance.
In 1944, the US persuaded Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to permit heavy allied bombers to fly shuttle missions from Russia to bomb enemy targets in eastern Germany. 
Flying P-51s, he and other fighter pilots flew cover for allied B-17 bombing raids. 
After the war, he became a charter member of the SC Air National Guard and flew P-51 Mustangs while earning a University of South Carolina law school degree. He joined the new US Air Force, served as Judge Advocate in the Azores and taught law at the Air University before training pilots for the  Korean conflict.

In the 1960s, he flew F-100 forward air control missions over North Vietnam and was hit by 37mm anti-aircraft fire. 
He made it to the Gulf of Tonkin before ejecting and was picked up by a Jolly Green helicopter. Had he gone down in the jungle, we may never have seen him again. 
After Vietnam, he retired and came home to compete with his son-in-law. 
Among many pleasant memories was watching the 1984 Gamecocks Black Magic season with him and catching the biggest bass ever taken from his fishing pond.
He never forgave me for that.
I thank him for testing me and making me a stronger competitor.
Next: A father’s story.

Need more inspiration?
Are you dissatisfied with your life and looking for a new opportunity? Do you have a son or daughter facing the same struggle. Get a personally autographed copy of “Your Life's Great Purpose” fot only $20. It can change your life or that of your child by emailing him at JerryBellune@yahoo.com

US Air Force, Preston Hardy, WWII, Korea, vietnam

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