Brian Shul - From Butterflies to Blackbirds

I don't want you to confuse me with anyone that's famous or important a good landing is when you can walk away from a really great landing is when you can use the airplane again I did not do either of those things crashing an airplane into the jungle one day Who I am is the luckiest speaker you will ever see at a podium anywhere you go and I think after the presentation you will agree with that I didn't feel very lucky one day my aircraft was hit going down I couldn't get out it was too low and in moments I knew I was going to die it was a very sobering feeling to know that you're about to die and hit the jungle and it's going to be over and I thought well I've done everything I could do and a little calm came over you at the last minute and I thought they loved the over and a heartbeat would be an explosion instantaneous painlessly I'll wake up in heaven and the next thing I remember was a great deal of fire and smoke and heat in flames and I I thought maybe I didn't go the way I thought I was gonna go recognizing I was still alive I got myself out of the plane and if you want heroes in my story you're going to have to wait till the movie comes out this Special Forces guys have found me got me out of there that that those were the real heroes and they I remember just one moment of that I'll tell you they couldn't get a helicopter come in there it was like too far we're out of gas you're too close to Cambodia it's not our sector and I thought this is not the movies I watched as a kid the hero is down we need to rescue I finally got an army chopper on frequency and uh you know you can talk army people and do just about anything if you try and sure enough we got him down there he said I can't I can't put it down there's not enough clearance the rotor I'll lose my crew is this too dangerous there and these guys were so dedicating getting that pilot out of the jungle that day the guy hovering over me pointed his m16 at the chopper very clearly on the radio said you either put it down and we'll shoot it down and I thought at that moment I am on the right team of players the next thing I heard was I think we can put it down never landed the helicopter orbited just a few feet over the hovered a few feet over the ground and they stuffed me in like a sack of potatoes and pulled me back and they said he's going to die before he get him across the Pacific so sent him to Oakland I let him die there will she have a moment a box and that was that was my my fate that day next thing you know I'm in Okinawa for two months I would like to tell you I was in intensive care for two months I would like to tell you that I was very brave and heroic and courageously fought the pain and be a big fat lie I was a big baby Oscarsson my attendants every day crying and screaming and praying to God every night please you have the wrong guy I can't do this my body went from 180 pounds of raw steel as you see today - 119 pounds of blood in Gus they said if you lose another quarter of a pound we cannot save you we can't put IVs in your arms you're too badly damaged too injured and I got to a point where I didn't even want to live now this is a horrible admission from a guy who goes all over the world as an inspirational speaker but I'd be lying if I said it was any other way and I I just kind of was giving up and there has to be a turning point to every story of course and mine was kind of a silly thing but but yet an impactful thing in the way I was thinking I was laying there one day looking out the third-floor window in Okinawa and I could see the end of the runway at Kadena I could see the soccer field where the kids were playing every afternoon he was April and I could hear them out there kicking the ball playing and I saw the beach and the and I thought well how was those kids once I'd love to be back out there and have a life and I just said such a young age I'm my life's pretty much over and at that moment of meowt despair judy garland came on the radio singing somewhere over the rainbow how many of you know the words to that song anyway no you don't put your hands down you thought you did just like I did it's from The Wizard of Oz it's a great song that no no no that is not a kids song that is not a silly movie song that is a philosophically adult concept song about daring to dream about dreams coming true that song is so deep when you actually listen to the words for the first time the words penetrated my brain that day sharper than any scalpel the surgeons were using and I thought it isn't about that pot of gold I could look out the window and see the other side of the rainbow and those kids kicking a soccer ball and I thought I'm changing my attitude tomorrow I'm going to try to eat the food the thing was I'd you my body was rejecting food I am going to try tomorrow I have a new attitude I've turned my whole God it's okay forget all that stuff I said for 30 days I'm I'm going to do it tomorrow and the next day that came in with the food and you know isn't it amazing they could see it in my face in my eyes in it amazing how a change of attitude in the slightest way in your life can affect the whole rest of your life attitudes everything education being brilliant the material things all that's great skills great knowledge is great but you got to put him in the right direction and I had the attitude then and they came in and I couldn't eat the food I wouldn't go down they were beside themselves because they say he's really trying now we want to save this guy he's in looks like hell but he's he's got that look on his face now like he has not given up and it couldn't the food wouldn't go down I said you can die finally an army corpsman had a sack lunch his wife packed he said maybe maybe there's something to hear anything they were desperate and there was there was nothing except a small plastic container of cherry kool-aid and the cherry kool-aid went down real good and they ran to the commissary and they got every pack of cherry kool-aid they could find and I drank three point two gallons of cherry kool-aid the first day I lived on four to five gallons of kool-aid a day for five days and got some lot peed real good okay and they said that's even a better sign your body's functioning and it's internally working it just needs nourishment then crackers then bread next thing you know is eating next thing you know it's medevac back home and I'm not not here today because of cherry kool-aid I'm here today because I changed my attitude and I changed my direction of thinking and that's that's so important in life when ice to teach about young fighter pilots the attitudes everything I'll teach you the stick and rudder but if you don't have the right attitude Rina kill yourself anyway got back to States spent a year in the hospital not going to bore you with all that tonight we have more fun things to talk about popped out of the hospital one day much to the shock of the US Air Force it said I'm sure he's never coming back and never going to fly and they said home we got guess we got to take him back he passed the physical which was a miracle in itself if you don't think I am already the luckiest person in the world at this point in the story you're not listening and a little blue car pulled up to the hospital and I got to go back to the Air Force and be a pilot him but what I took back with me out of that experience was it was like I was starting life over is like I was reborn so I was like a two-year-old now going back I'm 2 years old now having a two-year-old the squadron makes kernels very nervous makes other people very excited because we're enthused will try anything we're fearless when I got out of my hospital experience I learned a lot but the basic things I'll share with you tonight one was live fearless Lee what are we waiting for we're not guaranteed tomorrow - life is short and it's uncertain and because it's both how can you miss the opportunity of each day and thirdly fearlessly pursue your passion in life don't wait put it off they do it now don't care what everyone else says don't carefully laugh at you don't have that fear well I'm not very good I don't do that very well I don't have enough money on forget all that the day I could not be laying in a burn ward any more I'm going to run like a locomotive if I fall down fine at least I'm still moving so I had this new attitude when back in the Air Force flew jets I was big story in the Air Force which I did not want to be it's very embarrassing to flash your big fat scar to face lacrosse airman magazine and oh this is great the guy came back fine it made me very uncomfortable I wasn't ready to be a rock star over leaving your jet in the jungle I what was your big accomplishment nothing you survived deep down inside I knew that I'd learned great great lesson so how's a man carrying a camera around all the time because camera photography was my passion and who knew what it would lead to point to any successful person today in any job do you think and you'll find someone who has a love and a passion for what they do they just let you know Bill Gates he's an idiot to want to sit with and have coffee with you wouldn't want our day so boring but the guy is a love and a passion for what he doesn't know guess what he's just slightly successful I had a love and a passion for flying and just doing and being in viens alive so I was like a two-year-old and squatter fast forward one day I said well I'd like to fly the world's fastest jet and I said well you were lucky enough to get back back into flying but we don't think that you're you're ready for that because you got to breathe 100% oxygen in a spacesuit while you're flying or world's fastest jet and we just we just don't know about all the scar tissue thing because you're like the first guy that came and I looked at him I said again they're terrified because they're adults I was a 12 year old when I got to this plane I was 12 and I'm looking at saying okay attention I went into surgery 15 times then oh they were giving me a hundred percent oxygen every time so I don't think it's going to be a problem I scored the sixth highest score they ever had on the astronaut physical at Travis Air Force Base because I was motivated they put me on that treadmill like this and I was running time my heart would being the guy said damn nobody's gotten to that level while he says I'm just playing with you now he says I just he always want to see you drop dead here and he said you know what's funny says you had no internal injuries your your internal structure was so strong that went through that it's almost like it was like it had a workout or something and it's so strong now that yeah you're externally you look like you're weak or better things but internally said geez so next thing you know I get to fly the world's fastest jet now that that up to that point story that'll make a great movie someday I'm sure I'm sure you know Tom Cruise is gearing up for that role or something what's so funny those of you that are unfamiliar with the world's fastest yet and this audience probably there's not too many but fastest aircraft ever built this was your guardian of freedom for 25 years built back in the early 60s Gary Powers was shot down 1960 in the u2 President Eisenhower went to Lockheed said build me an airplane they can't shoot down 18 months later they roll out an sr-71 at what in 18 years f-35 people that was 18 months this uh anyway back then you could do things like that not only was it the world's fastest highest flying aircraft ever built it was built out of titanium you can't Forge titanium they had to hand build each one but they wanted an airplane that that could spy on the other side with impunity and not be shot down we cruised around at 2,000 knots if you fired a high-powered hunting rifle the bullet exits the muzzle 30 100 feet per second this aircraft would cruise with ease in a climb at 3200 feet per second the aircraft cake had a crew of two pilot and a navigator as a pilot I got to ride in the front seat which I thought was a very good place to put me the jet was way ahead of its time only they only built about 35 of the strategic reconnaissance versions that were just four cameras no weapons at all only 93 men in history got to fly this airplane I always felt like I appreciated it more than the other 92 and only one guy in history was carrying a camera around least photographed jet in history not allowed to take pictures top secret all the stuff in and it was but if you around the airplane long enough you could get permission get approval get the signature and do it because it was a passion I didn't know it's going to be a guest speaker write books or do any of this stuff I just knew I'm you're the most elegant aircraft ever built Ivan haven't doing this how can you miss the opportunity if you're into your photography and I didn't have any idea what I would do with those Kodachrome slides this is back in manual camera manual everything 35 year old thirty-six to a role this was the jet that gave way to no other airplane when it taxi down this jet served six different presidents did more to help win the Cold War than you will ever know this airplane I was crewed with Walter Watson as we already introduced his brother-in-law here today Walter's the one on the left hey Walter has the distinction of being the only black officer in Air Force history to be a part of this program and he wears that title proudly speaks at many events around on his own sometimes we do shows together we do a two-hour thing called spy pilot Chronicles kind of fun Walter was a brilliant engineer we're best friends to this day we just talked to him yesterday that man was brilliant in the back seat and you needed somebody in that back seat to be brilliant we wore the same kind of spacesuits like the shuttle astronauts did they in fact used our suits for the first shuttle mission back in 1980 so we had you're flying above ninety thousand feet you're flying at about eighty five thousand feet at 2,000 knots this is what my cockpit looked like your basic 57 Chevy there's nothing cosmic about this first time I got in the plane I said oh my god I feel a little naked no guns no bombs no rockets uh well at least I can flip the camera switch on and feel like I'm doing my part no no nothing in the front seat Walter had all the cameras all the sensors all the comm jamming and all my job was to keep the pointy end forward and that was a full-time job in this airplane I told Walt hey if we're ever shot down you're the spy I'm just the driver again used to the space helmet did take a little a little getting used to yeah that was kind of different as a fighter pilot you can take your moxa j'en mask off and flight scratch your face wipe sweat out of your eye or if you're Navy pilot pick your nose or whatever it is uh whatever it is they do Pensacola I loved it but now you were entombed all the time for the next five six hours you're breathing 100% oxygen and you just hear yourself breathing so now the helmet was a little different and they told you watch out what you eat before you go because as you know as you go higher in elevation the evolved gases in your stomach expands so if you eat a real gas email or something you know if you've been hiking in the mountains behind the guy that ate the plate of beans you know what happens is you get high so I I was a new guy one day they're kind of playing with me and they say hey Brian have the ham and cheese omelet in the flight kitchens friggin fact have extra cheese because the protein will be really good free for that long mission I go huh that sounds good protein cheese okay pile it on passing 50 2,000 feet in the climb that day I thought I was going to give live birth to in the cockpit and waltz guy are you okay what's wrong and I'm making noises and finally at 71 thousand feet in the climb I very cheerfully realized just how self-contained that entire suit is as relief came so you had to be very careful about what you ate you had a little heating and cooling knob here for hot and cold you where you were always too hot or too cold there was never any comfortable but you'd sit in that seat anywhere from three to six hours on an average mission here we are getting ready to fly much more fun in the front seat got a view got a window Wolters back there work in the navigation system work in the that all the cameras and sensors and it's a really full time and it was just a brilliant guy had the best back cedar in the squadron but if you look closely at our flight suits here before we fly it mine kind of has a happy face on it well Walter not so much now we only had 15 pilots in the squadron at any one time I was out of the country six months out of the year we had three locations that flew spy missions to cover the entire world geopolitically Okinawa two Jets England two Jets Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento California the 1213 jets out that was our main base so we'd rotate for six seven weeks at a time you could just read the paper and see what was going on and know where they are was flying Oh Honduras now is having procure just got MiG's so East Germany's moving missiles and you didn't it was any secret and you're not hiding a 900 degree fahrenheit heat source from anyone they knew you were there they knew you were coming they tracked you all the time they just got tired of taking shots at you not hitting you and they got embarrassed the Soviets finally finally kind of quit over 4,000 missiles were fired at this plane in 25 years not one not one piece of one was ever hit this is kadena air base in Okinawa one day Ronald Reagan was our commander chief who knew how to use this airplane effectively we always thought knew that the Communists were having a big conference up in North Korea and they invited all the bad guys there the Chinese of Soviets the Vietnamese the Koreans are all that they didn't invite us Ronald Reagan had Walter and I take off at a Kadena go up to Korea and we're flying figure-eight butterfly patterns over the conference and we're going what are we doing we have photographed the entire country in the first four minutes but we'd go back out over the Sea of Japan come back down and in it was Ronald Reagan's way of sonic boom and their coffee cup off the desk their conference every four minutes just to let them know we know you're there and now you know we're here and you can't do a thing about it the jet carried a double sonic boom went off the nose and went off the spikes the inlets and if you ever heard heard one it was a baboom it was pretty impressive a little footnote to history you may not be aware of behind the jet here is the Kadena marina where the Navy has a little officer's club and people are surfing and wind sail when surfing and sailing learning how to sail and learning how to windsurf and rumor has it not I don't know true this is but that some sr-71 pilots on takeoff would suck the wheels up ten feet off the deck and full burner go ripping across submarine and knocking windsurfers overnight I think that's just a rumor personally this is one of my favorite all-time pictures very difficult to get the jet all completely in the picture it said that moody England countryside is out dark a cold winter day and you can see the smoke of the Jets you can only run up one engine at a time if so powerful they it within about 30 seconds this guy's gonna be taking off on a real mission you always had a mobile car with a couple people in a run down the runway make sure there's no debris so my passion was the photography in every chance I could get I wanted to get pictured for the reasons I didn't even know except I knew I wanted to do it and as a 12 year old died you know would push the limits and this even all the photographs that you're seeing today represent the world's rarest collection of black bird photography anywhere they're all my own images and I wasn't a great photographer I didn't know what the word aperture meant on my camera but I'm sitting in the mobile car this day with the colonel not Walter the colonel and we're watching this incredible scene of a running up and the whole earth too shaken and there's just the Jets just leaning over and then they run the other one it's like a tiger on a leash it's some magnificent scene you just can't take your eyes off it and he looks over he said what's that camera doing on the seat and of course as a 12 reco huh what me you're talking to me uh D camera uh yeah I didn't poop I don't know how that got there and then you look back at the jet and he's like kind of set and yeah you know you're not supposed to have the camera out here and I go oh well yeah of course we're now it's too late we're here in there you know I don't think it caused the world the situation here and without even taking his eyes off the plane you know we're just air I said you know sir that would be an incredible picture in your office now every guy that ever flew the plane never had great pictures enough because you just yet that same old Lockheed picture the Lockheed photos and he never even looked at me he just said you got ten seconds I got out on the runway putting yeah and I tell the story because I really didn't know what I was doing photographically I was just passionate about the the scene and the my little Nikon f3 and the that stupid aperture thing whatever it was and I had this zoom lens and it allowed me to get the whole plane you just it's just so hard it's an angular plane I got down on the runway at ten seconds and I didn't even know if I really focused it or not people loved this picture we made a big one at home my gallery they go wow that's real photography there go if you only knew how was taken and it's a great example of my entire theory about eleven what you do if you never heard one take off your life's incomplete I'm sorry this was the sound that penetrated your skeletal frame and just went right through your body the best I can relate it to is the funny cars that a drag race when you get up too close to them and you feel it pound in you I loved it I loved the sound of it every day we called it the sled the Blackbird the Habu for the black snake in Okinawa I don't want to make any sesame drivers feel bad here tonight but from brake release to 26,000 feet leveling subsonic at 453 minutes 51 seconds I think that's about three days in a Cessna I'm not sure he gets better hell and got the Navy got the Cessnas okay we're going if you're going to go that fast you're going to help you burn a lot of gas and you're going to have to refuel two to five times in any given mission you got to come down you got it at 290 we fall out of the sky you're taking on sixty five thousand pounds of fuel changing your gross weight by sixty five thousand pounds you're going to slide off the boom you're going to light one burner to stay on you're going to fly sideways all that every time those guys can barely give you three in or knots if they gave you 305 you were in heaven you were so happy you try this at night in a turn in turbulence in a storm you just it's an insanity it's like landing on carriers at night and the Navy I respect those guys so much for doing that because this this was like kind of our crucible now you may say to yourself hey wait a minute in that illegal to do acrobatics in a refuelling area how'd you get that picture moving on all right we're going back that is such an incredible shot you really you you will never see that picture I was with the Air Force photographer one day they needed someone to fly the airforce photography he said you guys have been photographed once in 25 years we're going to do an airman magazine thing so who would who would like to fly the Air Force farewell I ran over three guys and I said and and then we got airborne they say Sarge I got my camera day when you want to take the stick and a little bit heroin he goes well you let me fly out he was so excited so so we did do it we did do a little a little extra there but it gives you an idea the size of the airplane it's a big airplane carried 80,000 pounds of gas and you are basically a flying fuel tank and you're going to burn through that gas at those speeds now my days off I'd go up with the tanker guys just to see it and get a picture I don't ask me why and people would tell me what a pain in the butt that is you got to get approval you got to get signed off you have to go up four hours earlier orbit out there on that barf bucket then you got it back there with the with the boomer and you got lean over try to get a picture it's so much it's just a big pain and I'd look at them say pain pain is laying in a burn ward where they're ripping skin off one part of your body to sew it on another part now you had a new wound on your button you're sitting under a heat lamp in the middle of day trying to heal the wound you didn't even have and you're so you're like a thirty pounds and you're so miserable you want to throw up but you can't I said this is living how could you miss it now I didn't say that I just looked at them like God it they're such adults they don't get it how could they miss it coming off the tanker one of this another ones Rembrandt lighting people go wow this guy knew what he was doing photo it must be National Geographic no that's be shul what the hell does a fad remain on my camera I still don't know got back there the Boomer one day says I'm gonna get let you get you got 10 seconds another one these you got five seconds here none I'm zooming they Bank 12 degrees early morning Sun over the South China Sea you get to see the fuel sloshing out across the wing the jet was built to leak subsonically rare you won't see pictures like this too often that's the fuel seeping out of the expansion joints when we heat it up to 900 degrees the jet sealed like Tupperware you didn't lose a drop but subsonic the jet was always dripping and oozing fuel it was like it was alive as just oozing and that's that's people say wow that's Rembrandt look at that's that's Justin credible must be time life meal photographer guy and again we didn't know for three weeks what you got you know photograph one of my favorite favorite pictures leaving the tanker you're passing 50,000 feet the sky Kurt turns a very deep dark blue and you're above all that whether you feared when you flew mortal planes all those years leveling at eighty four thousand feet you look out and you say exactly what you just said and as the 12 year old I said I got to get a picture of this and so I I went back in the books and the rags I says there anything illegal about candy camera in the cockpit and you're not going to believe this but the entire book of the bee notebook you know there'll be no this that never once addressed while flying the world's most sophisticated spy plane a probably good idea not to have a camera on your hand taking a picture wider and I took that to mean well of course it'd be ok otherwise they would have written it in there I'm AI got myself a small Instamatic putting it on a lanyard in my space suit pocket very difficult to I'd sit in the hangar you're going to get a kick out of this I don't know any other guys that flew this jet and I mean I was in love with doing it I I think you know I had a passion for it I'd sit in the head in the hangar on a Saturday when we're in Kadena and then the crew chiefs who go yeah we're working on stuff yet sitting and I'd practice the camera thing because when you're in that spacesuit everything is much harder to do we can't focus has to be Auto everything I got maybe six pictures like this in seven years so not an easy not unreal missions these are all training missions trust me when you're flying real mission there was no no photography gonna but to this date now I have those six pictures and I'm glad I can share with the world what that was like and it was a beautiful thing it took your breath away when you looked out this is what the Arctic Circle looks like and you might think well who was fine up there polar bears and no the Soviets put some new missiles up there one day and we went to go tested see see what they could do they send us up there like we're kind of guinea pigs like you know they might shoot one at you so now we'll know what they do I saw two sunrises and two sunsets on that particular mission this is wintertime I already admitted to you as a big baby in the hospital I admit I'll admit something else too I I used to look in the mirror some days I put the green visor up just to see that I was really doing this I checked the scarred face and I'd go you are not dreaming this because in the hospital they gave me some drugs sometimes for pain you'd have dreams like you're flying or something you'd wake up and go now I was just a dream I actually had to see myself every I thought you are just 12 years ago you weren't there you are now doing this and it was a kind of a childish well thing a 12 year old would do but I really had to had to think and stop in my life and say wow you you are sitting on the the tip tip of the sword put the camera up there on auto time or did this just incredibly lucky rare shot the glare of the Sun is just very uncooperative for photography in the cockpit people always ask me what were your favorite missions and all this was one of I have several the coast of Vietnam we got to go back over the very spot where I was shot down of 12 years earlier in Vault and I laid down some sonic boom that day I can tell you that and it was pretty darn cool you know to come into the officer's club on a Friday afternoon with your m3 Plus patch on stand up to the bar and all the guys with the toy the toy jets you know the ff15 f-16 there I'll talk in you know and my instructor one day comes in and where they're standing he on seeing all these getting their eyeball on our patch you know and they know what to say he goes he stops the whole conversation with this remark is yeah I did Nebraska an eight and a half minutes today and I just want to tell you that's the best way to do Nebraska by the way you haven't driven through there sometimes we'd say little prayer to him who holds all of us in his hands and I always thought prayers got to heaven little faster from ninety thousand feet which was a very good thing because there were no minor emergencies when anything happened this airplane this is sunrise over Iceland we took a jet from Sacramento to London one day which was a three and a half hour flight zipped across the Arctic Circle got over to Iceland to hit the tanker and the Sun was right in your eyes the whole time but I was lucky enough to have my little camera in my pocket coming back over Mount lassen just south of Shasta the t-38 chase aircraft where I had a lot I was an instructor so I got a lot of opportunity there with another pilot in the plane to do these kind of pictures and again you just had moments to do it you never had enough time to do them sometimes the last ten minutes of flight was the absolute worst you were up there for five hours in clear blue innovate you come back the weather's changed all of a sudden you took off on a sunny day and it's socked in now and you have fuel for one approach they planned your missions your job is to make guess you're coming across the fence at 185 you're not landing real slow you get don't mess it up so sometimes those last few minutes you you got really good now if you want more than your 15 minutes of fame in life you be an sr-71 pilot take your jet to a major airshow where there's a hundred thousand people fly your jet over that shall light the burners in their face land your jet at their show stand in front of the jet at the show you are a sky god I had the wonderful privilege of representing the United States Air Force and the sr-71 at the Dayton airfare the Paris Air Show I did the opening arena when you I think we pretty much won our Heat this is a England where they used to get hundreds of thousands at an airshow and if your jets there there everyone's coming to see it it's the one airplane that was like like the meeting the Pope it was like they'd stand it on they'd look at it afraid to speak then they'd look at you and they couldn't speak then they'd look at the jet finally we go hey we're just Air Force pilots we're not we're not special astronauts or CIA guy we're just Air Force regular guys doing doing a really neat thing finally when they you'd hear the same questions over they work on outrageous like when you go into orbit do you shut the engines down we do we don't go into orbit the magnificence of this airplane is that it's not a rocket it's an air-breathing jet and for it to be able to do what it did and I recommend you read the skunkworks and the Kelly Johnson story was it phenomenal achievement to build this at all well it's in everything jet but you know after you heard that question a number of times you had to play with them a little bit and I'd one day I I got those all hot and tired and sunburned out there I said the guy said oh well you go into orbit nice to dock come here I'm going to tell you something but you can promise it's so classified you can't tell anybody any good no no I won't tell anyone at all they're just so they're so excited to be a part of the mission I said went around the back side of the Moon we shut one engine down and we use the moon's gravity to swing us back Ted and he's just his eyes are this big I said but you can't tell that's very high-level you don't even ran back to his family and told them everything so it was kind of fun if you were a Blackbird pilot you also got to fly baby jet the t-38 here over Lake Tahoe as a little companion trainer to stay current formation instrument night flying but it was more fun now Walter and I could go out together for crew coordination hey it was just here's the sports car go out for an hour fly around and Walter Walter was and I was teaching him how to fly how to stick now and a real view hears while demonstrating straight level flight we had the most beautiful flying area from Mount Shasta teos emiti is a piece of geography if you you flatlander folks in Florida aren't aware of it isn't magnificent Lake Tahoe's in the middle of that and we would fly around so of course camera boy could not resist and people always gave me such heat like well you got the camera again these are the same people that today have called me tonight can I get a print for my home I'm really proud that I did that one day and now I have no pictures of it and of course I'm happy to send them one but we we really enjoyed the little sports car and Walt and I had a lot of fun well what we really used it for was a safety chase here the sr-71 has an emergency right after takeoff it's dumping fuel to lightness gross weight so he can land immediately the two 38s can offer a safety assistant chase we just happen to be everyone that day and someone just happened to be have a camera and that's a rare shot of the two of them together you rarely see we don't like to dump fuel that low the rice crop in California did taste a little different that year oh there's only one picture and tonight's show completely that I will say that isn't actually I knew what it's doing is good photo that is a tremendous photo because somebody figured out what the word aperture meant this is in year 20 I'm getting ready to retire one of my last few flights in the t-38 we're over Mammoth Lakes and I said all right guys I got this figured out I got a cable release I can put my arm down I can snap the picture I can see you in my little and Nikon lens I took my gloves off stuff here just a real setup and I'm in focus the Jetson focus the mountains or that is a dang good picture it was such a good picture that some company in New York City picked it up made a puzzle laughs they wanted a poster and they said you have any other photos of any other other jets there and all of a sudden when I was getting out of the airforce doors start opening and precisely the right time precisely the right way that that I could never imagine only only wish for as my mom always said she sent me this sign says a lot we don't believe in miracles we just count on him and and that's kind of how I felt that same year in 1990 that I got out of the Air Force the world's greatest jet was being retired 1990 the most remarkable aircraft of the 20th century the way it was built what it did and what it did for this nation it was it was undefeated it was the jet that did the mission it was intended to better than anything else 1962 the first models were built 64 the first this one was built you're sitting here today in 2015 it still holds every speed and altitude record that is an amazing fact well that was a very sad day they started flying jets off the base one by one they're in 30 museums today and one at a time jets you started started leaving Vail and it was really sad there came a really sad day when the last jet departed and it was the end of an era I would have taken more pictures that David tears welled up in your eyes as you realized you were saying goodbye to a legend you would never see the likes of again every MIG fighter pilot knew this silhouette wanted to be first to shoot one down when Viktor Belenko defected he said we could not understand how your decadent Mickey Mouse capitalist society could build an airplane in the 60s that we couldn't shoot down in the 90s and the general got right in his face like a baseball umpire and he said that's what you can do in a country where men are free I was just great yeah I was a great moment of American history there and that he became an American citizen Victor Blanco gave us the mig-25 said we built the mig-25 for one purpose shoot that damn airplane down and he gave us mine he said so he became an American citizen they said what would you like to see he said only two things Disneyland and an sr-71 up close we said yeah pal that's a closest you ever got to one leave an Air Force history passing through the gates of legend if you have not seen one in a museum there's 30 museums around the country you got one in Mobile Alabama is pretty close you do see one well go to date and go to the Air Force Museum is really cool go there they are just a remarkable airplane to see I got out of the Air Force and I had all these pictures didn't know what to do them and now I'm still living that attitude I'm still living that live the dream pursue your passion fearlessly don't don't worry but everyone says go fly for the airlines I didn't want to fly for the airlines I wanted to write and hike and do nature stuff well I had all these photographs and I wanted to do book the guy you don't know how to write a book what do you what do you know in two years later me and a couple guys got together and we took a hundred thousand dollar loan out of a bank and luckily the guy believed in us and we did what is now the single most popular book in the world on the jet 48 countries very proud to say we did it I'm the publisher now because the publisher wouldn't do it the way we wanted it done the original book it was just a really poopy so we wanted horizontal so you could don't have to chop the pictures up we wanted a beautiful addition these are the cost of some fortune to print these we print a limited number each year it is now the one book that you is the rarest collection of photographs to the jet this year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first flight so we came out with a very limited number of gold editions this year I brought a dozen or so tonight for those of you that several of you have already purchased one tonight thank you we support the Wounded Warrior Program so your money's going to a good cause we also minted a coin to commemorate the 50th anniversary we're the only Lockheed didn't do it the Association that were the only ones that did what me and my three buddies that work at Gallery one very proud of that and at the end tonight if you come over the table be happy to give you a price half of what you see on the internet they on the internet tonight go down type in slide driver you'll see four hundred five hundred dollar people sell in their book and are trying to sell you book or so it will sound for two hundred tonight just in my five thousand dollar signatures free I will warn you for those few of you that purchase book tonight there are still some photographs that are highly classified that you will not see in the book I'd appreciate if you did not take any of this classified information out of this room I will always be the sled driver guy because of the Internet in that book no matter what else I do in life I could run for Congress on one matter I'll be the sled driver a guy and I'm proud I'm proud of it that's okay I went out and I flew with the Thunderbirds I did a whole book on winter training for the Thunderbirds and no one's ever done that before again living fearlessly I called the mom said yeah I want to fly with you during winter training they go Brian you know better now we don't do that but I just kept bugging him and finally I saw the leader of the team at an airshow one day and he said hey my daughter bought me your sled driver book and I love it can you do something like that for us and I said sir I've been calling you guys for two years so I went out and here's a little tip if you fly with the Thunderbirds don't do it during winter training season they're not real good yet and it was very scary which led to my infamous year with the Blue Angels no one in history is flown with the team as a civilian an entire year in fact you didn't even hear that just pretend when you leave here tonight you didn't hear that I spent a year with the team a guy called him 427 times I said no no no no no finally showed up in person at El Centro where they do their winter training and the guy said Wow I respect that you showed up what what is it you want to do I said well I just want to fly with the team for an entire airshow season that's all and I want you to fly me to and from the shows with the the c-130 they're shot 80 thousand slides at summer there's three picture three jets in that picture how often you think those three jets are lined up that well how often you think we're lined up with those three pretty much never they called me airforce boy for the first six months but uh it was a it was the the photo shoot of a lifetime and it did it happen because I was the best photojournalist in America know was I the best photographer aviation no not even close was I even remotely known as any no but I was the guy who kept asking the question who showed up and fearlessly you could I don't care if you say no then I'll just keep trying and I did the one book now I wish I could show that to you it's out of print it's it's sold so well for their 50th anniversary back in 96 we're going to reprint it next year we're hoping to have have the book out again you may say we look a little close here you'd be right that is not a wide-angle lens that is a 55 millimeter normal lens we're count rivets my pilot my pilot DJ he used to tell me Sid air force boy your seats four inches higher than mine so I'll know when you start crying and squealing like a little girl I'm too close I said well gee thanks Dino I makes me feel much better but this day he said well partner don't put that in the book we almost hit number two moved out to family moved up to him we just we came within inches and I mean I'm like wow your heart stopped we taxied in that day I said hey Dino I used to teach his stuff for living and I was really good but she scared me bad twice today he goes that's okay partner scared myself three times I will tell you when you see the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds anywhere ever those guys earn your plus they are not out partying they are not out they go into bed at nine o'clock and 8 a.m. there in the weight room that is the hardest thing to do is bet harder than NASCAR racing the bull fighting you name it I've been there and I will tell you that hurts your body and is the most excruciatingly dangerous and difficult thing at at four feet three feet apart at 500 knots there's nothing the same about that everyday turbulence and little Sun and your eye and sweat now it's too bad they've earned your applause and shake their hand if you get a chance did my last flying as a did a calendar project for the Portland errand a tional guard over Mount Hood we call this Eagles in the hood and I hung up my Spurs I quit flying I said well if I can't I can't do the kind of flying I want to do and do it regularly then I just don't want to do it anymore I wanted to be a nature photographer and concentrate on that and I went out outdoors and I started walking across the land that I had flown over at breakneck speed where once I was doing a mile every two seconds now we were just walking across the land and I found as a pilot I took a real affinity to the birds nature's fliers and a simple seagull that we don't pay attention to when you actually get to observe it you realize that the perfection of that elliptical wing in nature and that the countenance of an e bald eagle is so magnificent and fierce it became the symbol for the greatest nation on earth and the tiniest little delicate flier who has a brain the size of a pinhead can navigate from Mexico to Canada every year and has a navigational capability more than anything we've ever developed with all of our technology and I defy any aerodynamic engineer to diagram the dynamic forces going on when an Egret plucks a minnow from that pond and as a pilot I have watched these birds for hours and I go I now understand the real reason man wanted to fly in the first place and it centers me it gives my life another chapter of peace and calm after a life of anything but people say well guess it didn't get any better NAT Brian now had to be like the highlight of your life I said well maybe one a my better didn't get any better than that moment in life was the day I walked out of the hospital down those long concrete steps at Fort Sam Houston on my own legs and a blue car was waiting and they opened the door and I had another chance an opportunity to go back to life a million guys didn't come back from that war that 1890 no never had a life they never even got into their 20s they never had anything I'm 42 today in my mind in my brain I've had 42 extra years that I shouldn't have her even had and that was didn't getting better in that moment for me now this was a second maybe it was pretty cool and I will just tell you this before I end tonight I will tell you this little story because it's it's all over the internet people see it they send it to me and they write to me in the comics I are this incredible story about the sr-71 you out of here and I go like hey I wrote that it's in my book I'm the guy and they go no no this is different I heard it and I go okay moron I wrote it I'm the guy so I'm going to tell it to you so you you people are educated you know and then when you hear it you see you'll see it on the internet you'll say no no I he told it to us one day and this was by the way Smithsonian magazine called me this year when they had their 50th anniversary thing about the kid said your story is the single most popular SR story in history it is would you please write down where he was in the mag's I said Wow I believe it because everywhere I go people are saying so I'm going to tell it to you right now and you better listen carefully one day Walter and I are doing a training mission around the United States we take off at a at a Sacramento hit a tanker in Idaho accelerate up to Montana I hit the high Mach over Denver hanger right in Santa Fe out over Los Angeles up to Seattle back into Sacramento two hours 20 minutes and then you do it do it backwards just to get game time and experience just training just a few a couple of refuelings in there we made the turn at Santa Fe and we're over Tucson and I can see downtown LA from Tucson and is a is a beautiful late late in the afternoon six o'clock October fall day the whole western United States is bathed in a warm glow of cysts in October afternoon silence on the rear smooth as glass not a gauge moving in my cockpit we're blowing cactus down 18 miles high and I'm thinking we bad I'm looking in the mirror oh yeah and I feel sorry for Walter he's got to monitor five radios in the back seat so I flipped the switch up just to listen to what he's doing now those of you the fly know that Center controls all the traffic out there albuquerque center of jacksonville center la centered all all around the ad states controls you when you when you fly anywhere we're above controlled airspace so they're not talking to us but they have us on their scope and sure enough everybody in those days or 1gp gps they all wanna know the ground speed there's some cessna guy got to know his ground speed hey la center cessna November alpha tango we got a ground speed readout for us now senator would like to say hey pal who cares get off freak but he's not going to say that now for those of you the fly know this is true Center will talk to you like you are somebody every guide Center sounds like the same guy you could be Joe bag of donuts on your first flight or John Glenn you get the same voice Cessna November alpha tango we show you 90 knots 19 0 knots on the ground and they sing it like that it's it makes you feel good makes you feel good and right after that a twin bonanza came up on freak I guess to show the guy real speed was and la center twin beach I got a ground speed readout force you know centers rolling his eyes like that's Friday afternoon why me God but he is going to talk to him like he's Air Force One yeah twin beach we show you 121 two zero knots on the ground right after that a Navy f-18 had a L'Amour popped up on frequency and you could tell the Navy guy because he talked very cool on the radio Center dusty five two speed check and I'm thinking wait a minute dusty five two has ground speed indicator that million-dollar f-18 cockpit why are we calling Center to broadcast our speed I get it we are just the mean as bad as fast as military jet in the valley today we're taking our little Hornet jet over Mount Whitney and ripping through Death Valley and we want everyone from Fresno to the coast to know what real speed is and you could almost hear a little glee and the controllers voice like we have put it into this kind of an etiquette thing dusty five two we show you 626 2-0 knots on the ground and there was a hush on frequency there was an inner liner from Seattle to San Diego the one to be next on Freaks and a 12 year old was reaching for the mic phone and I said oh no Walters in charge with radios we had all the simulator time I used to fly single-seat now in the family model we have a division of duties I no no but it's the Navy they must died I must die now I said no but if I say anything Walter will be upset I wants to be a good crew in a and at that moment I heard a click of the mic button in the back seat ladies and gentlemen Walter and I became a crew at that moment Walter and his very best innocent voice ciner Aspen 3 0 V got up ground speed readout for us you could almost hear a collective gasp on frequency from everyone else like oh the poor fools there you know it's just an etiquette thing Center had to give you that same voice they couldn't go gee whiz while we Oh whoo yeah no it had to be that same was Aspen 3-0 we show you 1987 knots on the ground and when I knew I was going to like Walter for the next four years when came back sit Center we're showing a little closer to 2000 and I just want you to know we did not hear another transmission all the way to the coast so what a combat hardened commie fighting fighter pilots do when they retire I shoot pansies now I'm very proud of that I am opening a gallery in California of my nature photography and my jet stuff it's an eclectic mess mix our motto is from butterflies to blackbirds so get that it's very cute I will end with this last story I have a little special video to show you it's on takes three minutes I think I did pretty darn good on the time because I was told you will be you know hung by the neck till dead if you go over if a lot of you get what I'm saying tonight and you say yeah Brian we agree with you attitudes everything life in it it obviously affected your life and we understand we get it a lot of you have gone through difficult times much more than I and I would just leave you with this one last thought when you come up another against an obstacle and this this building itself this company what you guys do here there's obstacles and challenges and hurdles to come overcome all the time when you come up against one that you see no way around just remember that one day and sr-71 took the runway Kadena Air Base swung that long black nose out of taxiway alpha roll down around we sat there for 30 seconds waiting for its exact takeoff time and the pilot of the aircraft that day could look out his little window on a one five three degree heading for 3.6 miles could see the roof of the hospital he had laid in 12 years early and on that day legend has it that the sr-71 instead will climbing straight ahead over the South China Sea to hit the tanker made a hard 90 left turn at the end of the runway in full burner 300 feet some say much lower buzzed a certain soccer field sending kids fall into the ground crying and screaming and waving and yelling and run and throw on the ball and rattled every window in a certain hospital without breaking one and as that big black jet made an arc back to course now the entire base was awake it was as almost as if all things had come full circle for that pilot and he could understand for the first time in his life the meaning behind some of the events that had inspired his life that he couldn't possibly understand her I'm just honored and privileged to be a part of this prestigious place where where dreams still still come true thank you very much

Channel: TheIHMC

Views: 706,330

Rating: 4.8841214 out of 5

Keywords: blackbird, sr71, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (Aircraft Model), Brian Shul, photography, inspiration, motivational, air force, cold war, speed, aviation, Plane, Jet, Fly, Airplane, sled driver

Id: 3kIMTJRgyn0

Length: 52min 40sec (3160 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/snapgraff18]

had my whole work gather around and listen to this guy's talk...quite captivating

[u/Bagofsecrets2]

Some guy in Cessna or something asks how fast he is going and tower says like 10, then some dude in F18 or some such asks how fast he is going and tower says like 500 lol so the dudes in SR-71 ask the tower how fast they are going and the tower says oh like a million and the guy says actually a million and one lol. Everyone goes quiet.