Brian Shul and Rich Graham famously do not get along decades later. Graham tells of an incident where Shul was less than candid about his whereabouts when reports came in of an SR doing a unauthorized buzz job in burner for a photo shoot. Months later Shul supposedly was in a deployment bar bragging about how he got away with one and word got back to Colonel Graham. Mission voice recorder tapes from the archive were pulled and Shul and backseater Walter Watson kept their wings but never flew the SR again.
A former colleague who flew the SR-71 claims that Shul is persona non grata among the Blackbird alumni after someone told the Air Force Office of Special Investigations about security risks due to illicit affairs between crewmembers and locals in Mildenhall and Kadena. With the TS/SCI clearance significant contact with foreign nationals is a mandatory report. My former colleague feels that Shul was the source of the tip that initiated the OSI investigation.
Whatever the case, Brian Shul has kissed the Blarney Stone and is a terrific speaker.
Years ago I somewhat accidentally bluffed my way into the X-plane hangar at the USAF Museum unaccompanied in between organized tour groups. A nice docent came up to chat while I was admiring the YF-12A. If I understood him correctly, he said that he had flown the A-12, YF-12A and the SR-71. His name was something like Meacham or Mecam. I haven't found a similar name on the Blackbird crew lists online or in the books I have, anybody have a lead on this? I tried sending a note to the Roadrunners Internationale web master but got no reply.
Last edited by Airbubba; 31st Dec 2018 at 17:19.