Salute!
As with all "anti-total" stories and accounts, discretion and judgement is warranted.
I met Brian back in '77 or '78, and do not have the "class picture" handy to nail down the exact dates.
I was an instructor at USAF Air University and he was a student in my section. We had both been in the 356th TFS, and I left the Beach just before he got there. So he got to fly both the Sluf and the Hawg, as that squad was first to go operational in the Hawg. A good connection, that squad, and I got to see him in action for the next 11 weeks and one time a few years later, before his SR-71 tour. He was the premier example of leadership, guts and motivation for his classmates. I did not deal with him after that, but met him in the early 80's as he toured the F-16 community talking about fire protection and what a pilot could do to minimize injury. At Maxwell, I had seen him virtually naked as a part of our atheletic curriculum and can attest to the severity of his burns and such. A real survivor.
His burn scars and visible damage have been greatly reduced since that time. And his crash, burns and recovery are extraordinary. However, he may have received special treatment after his initial recovery, and I feel it was due. He was a sterling example of coming back from the grave and demonstrating what is possible with grit, determination, high pain tolerance and some natural physical conditioning going into the fray ( was damned near Olympic class athelete and very prominent in USAF racquet ball/tennis events. In fact, he was playing tennis the day he had his crash and was burned. You could see the line where his wool socks covered his calves and other "lines" on thighs, hands and then his face.
Brian has great presentations and has been a motivational speaker for a coupla decades, well worth the price of admission. No doubt he had and has a great ego, and it helped him survive a few dozen operations ( I have his autographed copy "26 Operations"). That being said, I would have a hard time with him using that national treasure to enhance personal gain and would not have a hard time believing there was some personal friction involved somewhere in there.
Gums remembers....
Last edited by gums; 31st Dec 2018 at 20:14.
Reason: added