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:
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“In the true mythology, Love is an immortal child, and Beauty leads him as a guide: nor can we express a deeper sense than when we say, Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)