Air Force Service
Gustafson initially joined the Air Force in 1950 and after completing basic training in Texas was trained in the use of bombardier equipment on the B-26. After completing his training and missing service in the Korean War, he was approved for a new pilot program and trained in Piper Cubs and T-6 Texans. He received advanced fighter training in the P-80 Shooting Star.
After his officer and flight training, Gustafson was stationed in Wisconsin; Thule, Greenland; Texas; and California. During this time he flew F-86D Sabres, F-102s, and F-106 Delta Darts.
Immediately before his Vietnam service, he was cross trained in the F-105 Thunderchief out of Nellis AFB. After his service in Vietnam, he flew F-105s out of Okinowa.
Read more about this topic: Gerald Gustafson
Famous quotes containing the words air, force and/or service:
“They may bring their fattest cattle and richest fruits to the fair, but they are all eclipsed by the show of men. These are stirring autumn days, when men sweep by in crowds, amid the rustle of leaves like migrating finches; this is the true harvest of the year, when the air is but the breath of men, and the rustling of leaves is as the trampling of the crowd.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Rhyme and meter force gaps in meaning so the muse can enter.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The service a man renders his friend is trivial and selfish, compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)