Military Pilot
At the age of fourteen, Shell had begun flying lessons because a pilot who owed the senior Shell money offered to pay in-kind. He secured his pilot's license at the age of sixteen. When World War II began, Shell had flown some 2,000 hours, was studying law at USC, and was already engaged in the oil business. At the start of the war, he was a civilian instructor for the United States Army Air Corps, the forerunner of the Air Force. When the Air Corps insisted that he remain an instructor, rather than enlist, Shell instead became a United States Navy pilot in 1943. After the war, he was a member of the reserves. He continued to fly after the war a number of planes which he owned: a Grumman Wildcat, a Corsair, a P-51, a Beech Staggerwing, and a Beechcraft Model 18, or "Twin Beech".
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Famous quotes containing the words military and/or pilot:
“In all sincerity, we offer to the loved ones of all innocent victims over the past 25 years, abject and true remorse. No words of ours will compensate for the intolerable suffering they have undergone during the conflict.”
—Combined Loyalist Military Command. New York Times, p. A12 (October 14, l994)
“The river knows the way to the sea;
Without a pilot it runs and falls,
Blessing all lands with its charity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)