more brightest aircraft was shot down there the combo do border unable to eject he was severely burned in the crash and was given little chance for survival he spent one year in the military hospitals and endured 15 reconstructive reconstructive surgeries after countless hours of physical therapy brian surprises doctors and return to flying jet aircraft brian went on to become an airshow demonstration pilot a top gun instructor and and culminated his Air Force career by flying the nation's premier spy plane the sr-71 Brian flew covert missions over for four years under President Reagan and was a pilot in the photograph photograph of the Libyan terrorists camps in 1986 only 93 Air Force pilots ever flew the sr-71 still the fastest plane ever built when Brian retired from the Air Force he pursued his writing and photography interest he is well known today for his aviation books color free colorfully Illustrated and his own photography as well as as highly acclaimed nature photography he was the first man to write a book about the sr-71 entitlements LED driver and is now the single most popular book worldwide on the plane brian is a spirit is a spirit of freedom Award winner and has appeared in hit on the History Channel and was recently inducted into the Air Force legends Hall of Fame he owns gallery one in California where his photography is on display so please welcome Brian Shaw [Applause] thank you [Music] [Music] that's my intention step thank you for all all of you for coming we've done this for years in row and every year the crab is bigger this is every year and I'm just blown away by that and I'm happy to do it it's the last talk I do every year I've done 38 talks this year so my voice sounds a little of course it is but I'm happy to come down here each year and we have such an enthusiastic great crowd there's a little bonus you get we never do this but I'm going to let you ask questions at the end for just a few minutes so many people have really great questions we never think of that that reminds me of other things sometimes so be thinking of your question as I'm talking when we usually it's a tradition every year we let and begin some great ones and we get some pretty bad ones too but we're open this group rises to the occasion now I don't want you to confuse me with anyone that's famous or important what I am is the luckiest guy you will ever see at a podium and when I'm done with my presentation today I think that you're going to agree with me on that now before I start I know a lot of you are thinking also how can a fighter pilot possibly be a keynote speaker they can't put two sentences together coherently we all know that I just want you to know that I've been doing this for over 25 years I've worked extremely hard of my vocabulary and I'll be using some words in today's presentation that are very very big I am the luckiest guy in the world 93 men in history got to fly that jet and I was the least likely of any of them that would ever get to fly that jet and I'd like to share a little bit of my story with you today now I did not feel like the luckiest man in the world today my aircraft was shot down Vietnam and I knew I was about to die never lieutenant mischel's life was going to be over in the next eight seconds as the impact of the jungle couldn't do anything to get out the airplane was my life was gonna be over what a sobering thought i clenched my eyes tightly clenched my fist and i figured i'd wake up in heaven painlessly in a flash it would all be over and the next thing I remember was a great deal of fire smoke and heat and flames I thought well maybe I didn't go the way I thought I was gonna quickly realizing I was still alive I was able to get out of the airplane if you want heroes in my story it's the Special Forces people that came to rescue me and I will tell you they're my heroes got me back on the chopper got me back to Thailand and they said hey he's not gonna make the trip across the Pacific it's gonna die cinamon Okinawa put him at the hospital Kadena let him die there we'll ship his body home in a box and that was the plan for me they shipped a nine man one team out of Fort Sam Houston Texas all the way to Okinawa just for me me and that team got real well acquainted in the next two months mostly I just cursed at them daily I saw my body go from 180 pounds of raw muscle and steel as you see it to 119 pounds 119 they said if you lose another half a pound you can die we can't save you you have to get some food in your body well my body was just failing me I couldn't do it I'm an inspirational speaker today I go all over the world this is the hardest part of my whole talk right here I have to admit to you what a big baby I was and how it gave up and I didn't want to live I wish I could say how brave her courageous and tough I was I've got through it all be a big lie the reality was I quit gave up and I wanted to die sometimes you have to reach rock bottom before you can appreciate the whole journey back and I had no strength I please God just let me die I'd say that every night well had to be a turning point to my story and it was sort of a silly thing but it has to do was one of the three main points that I'd like to get across to you neighbor attitude perspective and choices attitude I had a bad attitude at that moment and I needed to change it and one day is laying there and I was looking out the third-floor window and I could see the kids playing soccer on the field right out there kicking the ball and playing it right at that little of Judy Garland came out the radio singing somewhere over the rainbow what are the odds of that we had one channel one radio how many of you know that words to that song somewhere over the rainbow anybody know you don't put your hands down you think you do I thought I did yellow brick road kids aren't was there but no no and it's a very adult philosophical song about daring to dream about dreams really coming true and the words of that song penetrated my brain sharper than any scalpel the surgeons were using and I could look out the window and see the other side of the rainbow of those kids and I thought well you big baby you're probably going to die anyway that's okay but don't go out quitting and it reminded me of when I was one of those kids and I thought what happened to her but how did you come to this point where you just gave up and I changed my attitude I knew it probably wouldn't wouldn't live or maybe I'd never fly again they were going to cut these two fingers off they told me I knew my life would be hell they didn't matter I changed my attitude and isn't it amazing how the simplest change of attitude can affect the whole rest of your life next day they came in with the food and they could see that I I was ready to go and my body rejected it wouldn't go to nothing I said no God disregard all that never mind what the food go down and it wouldn't one Navy guy had a sack lunch his wife had packed them we thought maybe there's something in here the guy can eat nothing except a small plastic container of cherry kool-aid that cherry kool-aid went down real smooth they ran to the commissary and they got every package cherry Korea dignified I tried three point two gallons of cherry kool-aid the first day I drank four to five gallons of kool-aid for five days I peed real good they said that's even a better sign his body has no internal injuries he had no internal inhalation burns no broken bones nothing he could live he could make it through this little saltine cracker some brand eventually was added next thing you know I'm on a flight home to Fort Sam Houston Texas and San Antonio where the big burn centers spend a year there I'm not going to bore you with all that blood and Gus but I had the attitude now and they said you got to do the therapy now you live but you can't move your arms and you can't move your fingers and so now the real hard part starts you can have to go through more pain to get your motion back and I said bring it on I got the attitude now because I don't want to go through life like this where I can't use my arms and using and they said you know you're never gonna fly and I said I'm not that's fine I'm gonna pretend like I will and they thought I needed a psychiatrist but I said no because you don't get it if you pretend that you will when you were 12 years old your bike listen f9f cougar jets feeding to traffic you wanted a bike when you think that you can do it you can do it and I did my therapy and I did it real good and one day a miracle happened I passed the flight visible they couldn't flunk me they didn't cut those fingers off they built a hinge joint in that one finger was so badly mangled they put a steel pin in there and they couldn't flood man the physical because I could grasp and if you could grasp but I can't flunk you because you can move the throttles and he said I can't flunk you you're fine you just look like hell but you you're strong as an ox well there came a day when I got to the top steps at that hospital and there was a blue staff car waiting take me back to the Air Force and I was being discharged they said they wanted me for five years two years of surgery three years of therapy I was out 352 days and I was terrified I stood there at the top step 150 pounds and hair falling out white as it goes weak but I had the opportunity I was getting a chance to go back have a second shot at life and I knew two things very clearly when I stood on the top step and I'm going to share those two things with you today and I don't want you ever to forget them number one life is short and it's uncertain life is short and it's uncertain and because it's both how can we possibly miss the opportunity of each day number two pursue your passion live your dream do the thing makes your heart beat now don't wait because rule number one armed with this very simple knowledge I went back to the Air Force Air Force that really wasn't ready for me and I felt like I had been reborn I felt like that was starting over I was like a two-year-old a teddy here in the hospital I was starting over makes Colonels very nervous seven two year olds fighter jets of whatever the Air Force used to mean a good way made me Safety Officer briefed everybody on my crash equipment I became really well known as in magazines nobody ever returned with this extent of injury I didn't want to be famous wannabe magazines I didn't really want to be the safety officer but I was so thrilled to be back and I was I was like starting off as like a little kid I was on the first date ten spots on the first date tener demo team I flew a sevens flew F fives teaching the Top Gun in one day because I had this new fearless attitude I said I'd like to fly the world's fastest jet now most of you already know this but there's a lot of know people in the world you know people that I can tell you why you shouldn't do that which really means they're afraid to do it but you need to step over those people shove them to the side and just kind of step on their faces you get by them you shouldn't do that and they said I shouldn't do that because you need to wear an astronaut space suit to fly at ninety thousand feet and you need to take an astronaut physical and if you flunk any part of that physical you will never fly again now it was twelve years old that's 12 in my second life when I came to this moment when you're 12 you go yeah that's true but what if I can pass and do it what if I can do the thing wouldn't I miss that if I was afraid 12 year olds don't have fear you just do it you found out is getting your knee to get up and go again I scored the sixth highest score they ever had on the astronaut physical the guy said god you're just internally so strong I said you look like hell I said yeah I get that so I'd like to share with you today briefly the adventures of a twelve-year-old flying the world's best oh yeah I got the job for those of you that do not know what this airplane is please excuse yourself immediately this is the sr-71 the world's fastest highest-flying aircraft ever built this was your guardian to freedom for 25 years served six different presidents did more to affect and win the Cold War and changed foreign policy this nation than you can possibly imagine this jet would cruise in 2,000 miles an hour at ninety thousand feet I can reach your nametag if you're standing outside no weapons on the plane 107 feet long carried 16,000 gallons of film you'd burn through in about an hour and a half you're doing a mile every two seconds or a mile every second half if you went hunting with your 30 out six rifle the bullet exits the muzzle 30 100 feet per second this jet would cruise in a climb 3,200 feet per second not only the world's fastest highest flying air-breathing jet it was also the most elegant beautiful airplane ever built a crew of two pilot and navigator man in the front at the stick the view he flew the guy in the back had no way to fly the airplane had his head this was the airplane that gave way to no other jet built of titanium to withstand the 950 degree Fahrenheit heat that builds up at three times the speed of sound oh yeah we're cruising at Mach 3 like you're doing 65 miles an hour in air cargo I met Chuck Yeager one day I said check what's the big deal I only did Mach 1 come on he's just he did not laugh dr. Chuck Yeager's is the greatest pilot that ever lived listen and I know that to be true because he told me I know Jeff it's okay this aircraft was so dynamically different than anything else that had ever been built but it it was used strictly as a spy plane just as recon say 20 mil 50 total black Brits only 35 of the reconnaissance model this is the spacesuit January 2 totally different cockpits you had to learn to work in concert with your backseater so they teamed you up with a navigator and the two of you flew every mission together so that you can learn to communicate one year one year of training before they turn you loose and real missions first time I got in the jet I said whoa no guns no bombs no rockets felt kind of naked I thought well at least there must be a camera switch for me to flip on somewhere nope not one can't Walter had all the secret stuff bought the cameras on the comm jamming all the navigation of the vaccine my job was to keep the pointy end forward I was will say that getting used to the space helmet took a little bit and here for the Air Force was so funny they never had anyone come back to fly with so much scar tissue I have a lot of scar tissue well guess what between you and me scar tissue is a good thing when you're pulling G's because the blood pools in the scar tissue giving you a built-in G suit to wear I had a higher G tolerance in the the other guys we didn't know this until you know I started from it but scar tissue looks like you're fragile and you're injured and you're wounded in you probably shouldn't ought to be flying in that so they said well you know they're gonna be a brief 100 percent oxygen all the time now in that space helmet for five six hours and you know you know you got that scar tissue thing going on hey I went into surgery 15 times and they were given me a hundred percent oxygen every times I think it's gonna be okay and it was but the know people are everywhere and is that you good 12 girl you need to leave right over them now I will tell you that it was a little different when you're a fighter pilot you can take your mask off in flight scratch your face wipe sweat out of your eye if your Navy pilot pick your nose or whatever it is but now you're entombed for five or six hours we get sweating your ID too bad and hear it that inches gonna be there and it's it's nerve-racking they also said watch what you eat before you go if you did gassing reckless the higher in elevation go the more the expend gases expand in your bottom so I was a new guy but they're playing with me a little bit I had my first five powerup mission and they said Brian have the ham and cheese omelette before you that good extra cheese on there because the protein will be good for you in that fifth or and I thought well that that makes sense cheese protein what could go past seven 55,000 feet in the climb that day I thought I was going to give live birth in the country at 71 thousand feet when relief came a very cheerfully realized just how self-contained that entire environmental system was here's me and Walter Watson whoa whoa Watson was the only black officer in Air Force history the only African American in Air Force history to be a part of this prestigious program we are best friends to this day he was the most brilliant engineering you could have ever won having that back seat he was the original Dilbert and he needed a guy like that back there and we were a great team and right at that same time to the eighties all those Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover came out people add you guys yeah a little side note this is the first group audience I can announce this - you're getting the first headline report here you heard in my intro that I was very proudly elected into the Air Force legends Hall of Fame about six years ago it was very proud of that I was shocked means your picture hangs in the Walter was just selected this year in May he will be inducted in to the legends Hall of Fame he had quite a career in his own that makes Walter and I the only sr-71 crude history to have both members in the legends Hall of Fame and we're very proud of that we thought now let's just face it it's a lot more fun being in the front seat I see if you hit him a stick hit the view so here we are getting ready to file a long mission and if you look closely at my space suit and has kind of a happy face on it cuz it's good to be in the front seat Walter not so much now we only flew out of three locations around the globe we have two jets in Okinawa - Jetson England and a dozen airplane planes at Beale Air Force Base in Marysville California that's it that's it I was out of the country six months out of the year rotating six weeks at a time teach location this is Okinawa Kadena Air Base we're getting ready to go up to North Korea sonic boom they're little shorts off this airplane carried a double sonic boom so you heard it twice Ronald Reagan loved that one day the commies were having a big conference up in North Korea they fight it off the bad guys the Chinese the Russians Vietnamese the Koreans well they didn't invite us Ronald Reagan said hey Brian Walter take off at of Kadena head on up two Korean little figure eight we go what the heck are we doing we have photographed the entire Peninsula the first four and a half minutes was Ronald Reagan's way of every four and a half minutes sonic boom and their little coffee cup up just to let them know that we know you're there and now you know we're here and you can't do a thing about it over 4500 missiles were fired at this jet 25 years not one not one piece of one was ever hit you got to leave me by 35 months little footnote to history here you may not realize behind the jet here as the Kadena marina where the the name he has a little officer's club but people are when surfing and sailing and learning how to windsurf and rumor has it not I don't know how true this is that some sr-71 pilots on takeoff with sucked the wheels up ten feet off the deck and full burn or go ripping across a marine and not head and surfers over that's just a rumor person okay I love this picture you might say timeline photography look at that you will never ever be on an active runway with that Jed doing an injured Ronda look at that nose strut leaning over running up one engine at a time you're never ever gonna see that again that picture was taken by a 12 year old that didn't have a clue what the word aperture at his camper meant okay let's go back and review life is short life is uncertain number two pursue your passion live your dream now don't wait my passion one of my hobbies was photography I was teaching myself photography back in the 70s and 80s and I was reading books and I had my little Nikon f3 and my roll of 36 chrome and manual lenses and Thomas just in heaven well then they made it me with the most elegant aircraft ever built you think I was gonna want to take a picture no photos allowed no cameras top secret top secret empty that's for the adults the photographs that you seen you today represent the world's rarest collection of SSR say on photographs ed you are in the world's Y my books are so rare you can never get these pictures again these are all my own photographs now it wasn't totally illegal you could get permission the colonel had to sign off the chief of security had to sign off is a big pain you had to go through a lot of paperwork but they would do it and they but then they would say you and he have a picture - you want another one and I've got what you want to eat nice cream once do you want another yeah and I was relentless and as a twelve-year-old that's how you are I and this picture speaks so listen to me about that attitude thing I was talking about now sitting in the mobile car with the colonel we're watching this engine run it's vibrating up to the tires of the vehicle he looks over he's and what's that camera doing on the seat you know you're not supposed to have a camera here and I go huh what camera and I think really fast I said you know colonel if you had a picture of that in your office you'd be the only guy in Air Force and I never saw it slip smooth and I never saw him look at me but I distinctly heard you have ten seconds I can still feel the cold concrete runway to this day on my knees I got down and fumbled with a tamarind zoom lens trying to get the wingtips in a difficult shaped airplane in the picture I took two shots 10 secs bleep back in the car building a jet to go I will never be in that position again the rest of my life came home three weeks later looked at the slides and there was one now that's not to say it could me folks what a great photographer I didn't have a clue what I was doing and the point is I didn't miss the opportunity you don't have to be the best you don't have to know everything if you're there in that moment you aren't getting those moments back you can buy a new camera you can get a new job you can make more money but you will never get that moment back on the runway in in England on a cold November day and get that picture and every time I see it it makes me proud to know that I was a twelve-year-old twice if you never heard one of these Jets take off your life seem complete I'm sorry it was a sound that you didn't hear as much as feel as if vibrated your entire body climbing out over Susan Miller of Mount lassen in the background were in a t-38 chase aircraft here was a beautiful airplane to follow along I don't want to make any assessment of drivers feel bad here today but from brake release to 26,000 feet leveling in for 53 minutes 51 seconds I think it's about three days in the system now if you're going to go this fast you're going to burn a lot of gas and you're going to do this two to five times on a mission now this isn't too bad and a nice sunny day street-level you try this at night in a term in turbulence in a storm with lightning in your face they don't pay you enough that one of the most difficult things ever did my entire force career every fuel at night in this airplane because you're taking on sixty five thousand pounds of gas you're changing your gross weight by sixty five thousand pounds the center of gravity is changing you're slipping up the boat you have to tap one half no murderer just if you stay on the boats you're flying sideways those last 15,000 pounds you try this at night in a turn and the weather in turbulence it is not fun at all on my days off I get permission to go on the tanker they'd say we'd love to have you come on I said I could get some pictures and my buddies would go what is wrong with you it's your day off why would you want to fill out all that paperwork take off for hours orally or been out there for two hours wait for 15 minutes of excitement and then drone all the way back get a little airsick back there with the boom operator looking backwards and and why what a pain in and I look at them and I'd go pain pain to sit in a burn ward on a Saturday they're ripping skin off one party about it is sold out another now you have a whole new wound you didn't even happen you're sitting under a heat lamp to draw the blood while people are out playing baseball meeting hot dogs that's pain this is livin we're the only guys in the world get to be around this jet how could you miss the opportunity now I didn't say any of those works then but I looked at them the wait 12 girls look at you what do you think you know you should do that oh yeah I hear the words excuse me but I have to go do that and I did and now today those same people are calling me saying can I get a photograph of that to show my grandson what I used to do I didn't know it's going to be a speaker I don't know it's going to write books I didn't know my pictures would be so valuable at all I had no concept of it but I didn't miss the moment his life went by here's another photograph that you might say well surely Brian you figured out something here look at that we're in Bram fighting scorches didn't have a clue sitting in the ready room in Okinawa one day commander said branch your day off why don't you call them on the Taylor over the South China Sea it's pretty closely see if you can get a picture too this of course was the same Colonel that now had a beautiful picture he's a simple sort of think a will and I went up and if you've ever been in the back laying down on a cop with the boomer and have to lean over and you can't even put your eye to the viewer at the camera it's all manual focus on those days I didn't even know if us folks I thought what the hell does that aperture thing - all up I'll try smaller numbers this time my trick big numbers last night took two shots - didn't have a clue it's a masterpiece and that showed me the value of not missing the moment see the little fuel seems streaming out here this jet used to grow four inches in flight to the heat so they had to build expansion joints into the jet so it leaked all the time when it was subsonic when you got up to speed supersonic the jet sealed like tough water we didn't lose the drop I love that picture I got two shots I've always only had ten seconds you have ten seconds you get two shots leaving the tanker passing fifty thousand feet the sky turns a very deep dark blue and you're above all that weather that you feared when you flew mortal plants leveling at 85,000 feet you look out the window takes your breath away I had a very small little tiny camera on a lanyard in my space suit pocket people go oh that had to be illegal they had to be illegal Kennedy Cameron gets well I actually looked in the entire Strategic Air Command handbook of all the binos you know there'll be no not once of their did it say anyone running as fast as my sophisticated spy plane probably be a good idea not David Cameron one hand by the other and I took that to mean since I never saw that paragraph yet of course Italy okay they never addressed it at all so I guess if you felt like you wanted to now I don't want to give you the impression that our missions weren't seriously we had a lot of time to take pictures let's put some perspective in there seven years around the jet at 220 pictures I have six in flight on a training mission so we're flying around missions things were pretty serious no don't kid yourself this is what the Arctic Circle looks like for ninety thousand one day Monday we discovered from satellites that the Soviets have put new missiles up by the Arctic Circle new missiles that we didn't know the capability of and so general said let's have an sr-71 mission up there so when I come to this briefings this here's what we're going to do we're going to take an sr-71 appointed at their airspace make them think we're going to penetrate their airspace the missile sites will come up guy in the back seat record all that data at the last minute turn come back home we'll understand the capabilities of those missiles well I looked at each other and said we just have one - what if they don't know we're not gonna penetrate their recipes and they fire one of these we have no idea what they'll do missiles just to show the confidence they have in this kid he actually said well that's even better we'll get launch data and what would I actually did this mission we went up over the polar cap I saw two sunrises the two sunsets and one day he's beautiful saw the moon and stars over the North Pole came back to England Sun came up we did this mission nobody shot at us in six years later every Navy an Air Force fighter pilot was armed with electronic countermeasures to counter those missiles we did a variety of different missions we found a guy at the Pacific Ocean lost he was trying to sail around the world a high gear of Mount McKinley nobody could find we found him we had some pretty serious optics on this ship it was a 57 Chevy as a jet it didn't change much but the sensors did one day I was looking in the rearview mirrors and I saw this incredible reflection in my visor don't ask me why we had rear view mirrors on the world's fastest jet I can assure you no one was gaining on us but you know what I've already admitted to you what a big baby I was in the hospital today I'll admit something else do you I'd be flying along and I put the mirror on me and I pulled my visor up just to see the scar tissue go you are not dreaming this you're doing it because it was a little hard to fathom in the 12 years earlier I was laying in a hospital bed and screaming like a baby and they give me drugs for pain that you until reality from famouse and I thought if I really do witness and I poke in the mirror I didn't tell Walter when I was doing those kind of things he had worried about me and I know none of me will take this outside of this room but it was amazing to me that I was even sitting in that seat but the green visor it's actually looks better than the book 10 second time around in the gym was a jealous kid it never gave you more than 10 seconds before a light would come on or something would happen up there and people always ask me what were your favorite missions and I go kasha I could talk for an hour on that but one was this one here that's the coast to Southeast Asia and but I got to fly over the very spot red been shot down 12 years earlier don't think we didn't lay down some serious sonic boom that day and you know I don't know how I'm gonna even know this bit fighter pilots are just pretty cool people and on Friday nights at the own Club we used to us go in and have beer talk to the other fighter guys you'd look at guys patches on our arms see who does what f15 guys have sixteen eight ten guys and rarely did you ever see em three-plus because nobody could wear mach 3 plus patch except us and one day my instructor took me in I was in training and we went into the officer's club and for standard there's my ex-students people I had Trey if the 810 make it fun would you do today's sure what you did you fly straight and whatever I can cuz I knew we didn't have a gun and I'm gone I guess I didn't know what to say my instructor was very cool he goes we did Nebraska four and a half minutes to do it just kind of shut everybody up and folks that's the best way to do Nebraska by the way we took a jet from Sacramento to London three hours 45 minutes Delta eat your heart out four hours 20 minutes from London to LA saw the Sun come up over us and I saw the Northern Lights it three of the morning flying over candidate unbelievable sights some of which I could never ever get on film to show you I wish I could sometimes we'd issue prayers to him when the bones all of us in his hands we once thought prayers got to heaven a little faster from 19,000 feet it's a very good thing coming back in the land by Matt lassen it's a beautiful jet to flap next to in the t-38 absolutely gorgeous and guys would always say what you want another picture yet I got a lot of heat for carrying the camera now I don't know why I was doing it I was doing it because it was my passion my hobby like I said I didn't imagine for the next 30 years there'd be a speaker go all over the world be an inspirational speaker have have a slideshow it was so rare nobody has his pictures at home I never thought of any Destin but I'm glad didn't miss the moment to get those shots now if you want more than your 15 minutes of fame you'd be an sr-71 pilot you take your jet to a major airshow when there's a hundred thousand people you fly in the show you light your burners in their face you land at the show stand in front of the jet you are a sky god and that's exactly how you felt people would come up and stare at the jet like they're meeting the Pope and they'd stare at you like you couldn't speak to you okay we're just regular Air Force pilot god I've got this folks like people loved undefeated first in class we love that that's what this gym was I got to do a bunch air shows which is really fun I opened up the Reno Air Races one year and I think I pretty much want my heat this jet brings me to point number two perspective sometimes we lose perspective what we're doing in life we forget how good we have and I remember very distinctly teaching at Top Gun and one day Billy Bob brings a newspaper article is a day now you gotta remember we're tired we're up at 4:00 in the morning we're flying twice a day teaching class our students are trying to kill us and you know we'll just get beat today but we're living the dream but we forgot Billy Bob brings in a newspaper article says a trash collector in San Francisco makes more money than a captain fighter pilot Air Force and it was true sanitation depart I made more money than a captain flied a tents in the Air Force and we thought well that is wrong that can't be and we started having an attitude problem and the colonel got really tired of it caught us in Friday said no flying today down day in the briefing room you could hear a pin drop gotten that briefing room and he said okay and he called us a name let's start with a and ended with holes he said I'm only gonna say this once there twenty nine thousand twenty-nine thousand doctors in New York City alone one city $29,000 there are four thousand of you in the entire world anybody wants to be a trash collector you just raise your hand I will make it happen there's a thousand young men at that front door one a danger place we all looked at Billy Bob like how could you be so stupid is the right heart I like that I don't want to be a trash talk we're not here for the money we never were referred to the dream we're doing this because we love it and we've forgotten that and if I can forget that at Tompkins you can forget that in your daily life I was standing on the wing of this jet at that very airshow and who do you think is standing next to me Ben rich the man built airplane the guy who wrote Star Wars the number-two guy but I'm Kelly Johnson of lucky that designed and built that what makes this airplane go so fast the inlet system the giant of the industry is standing next to me in a short sleeve shirt talking like we're best buddies I got my camera in my hand go home it would talk for 30 minutes and when we were done he said something to me I'll never forget he said Brian I really envy you and ago you need me he said you get to sit up there every name he'll with Mach 3 feels like you get don't like those burners sit for those J 85 says you can feel it so I've note the airplane never got to fly it in and out of sick the day of suppose do you think I would fling that yet again with the same perspective I think it's soup that man up put him in the jet tomorrow sometimes we forget sometimes we forget it we're not laying in a burn Ward right now sometimes we forget that you know as bad as things are maybe not so bad maybe we're really doing the things we want to be doing if you flew the Blackbird you also flew baby jet the t-38 that's how I got a lot of these photos in chase because we used it as a chase aircraft here over Lake Tahoe camera boy couldn't resist the beautiful little white Ken this kept you current in instruments and formation flying which was very helpful for air refueling the real reason we had the jet with us was her safety chase here the sr-71 is dumping fuel it is has an emergency immediately after takeoff t-38 is going to offer safety assist we just happen to be airborne that day and somebody does happen we've got a rare shot of the two Jets together there's the Sutter buttes and off the nose of the Jets Beale Air Force Base you'll never see a lot of shots like that this is the one photograph I'm going to show you today where I'm going to say that it's a good picture somebody figured out what the word aperture meant common focus my buddy's jettison focus Mammoth Lakes is in focus oh yeah my last week in the Air Force did a little self-portrait as a gift to myself we didn't have the term selfies back then it would still be a self-portrait got a cable release on my camera so I could I could pepper our data system that's a terrific shot took me 25 years to learn how to do that but I didn't some company in New York City picked it up said oh yeah the photos would like to do a book or a puzzle or so that's really great and all of a sudden doors were being opened for the one guy in the squadron and didn't want to fly for American Airlines everybody want to fly for America when they closed down the squadron I didn't and as I said it was ironic that the one guy who did doors were starting to open for his writing photographic career that same year they retired the sr-71 it was going away in 1990 they said that's it budget we could still flag for 10 more years but we put the money into satellites and drones and other stuff Mary said that situation they started flying jets off of Beale Air Force Base to museums 30 museums have this jet today one by one they left and there came a very sad day when the last jet departed we realized we were saying goodbye to a legend I would have taken more pictures that day but tears welled up in your eyes as you realize this was the end of an era we'd never see the likes of every Soviet MIG fighter pilot knew that profile wanted to be first to shoot one never when Victor Malenko defected to this country he said we cannot understand how your decadent capitalist Mickey Mouse society could build a jet in the 60s that we could not shut down in the 90s and the general gut right when his face like a baseball umpire very calmly said Victor that's what you can do in the country where men are free Victor Blanc of Ghana became an American citizen they said now that you lived in the United States what would you like to see he said only two things Disneyland and an sr-71 up close we thought yeah pal that's the closest you ever came to 1 leaving Air Force history passing through the gates of legend the jet sits proudly if not quietly in 30 museums today 29 in the u.s. one in England 1960 to 1962 they built this jet as you're sitting here today on the cusp of 2019 that jet still holds every speed and altitude record has never been surpassed I got out the Air Force I had all these photographs I wanted to do so Donner the jet I said well I would like to write a book what do you think having all the know people appeared you can't write a book you're not a publisher in an orchard No mr. fighter pilot fact you got to be an American airline since that's all you know how to do is fly jets ooh you're a fool you're gonna go pro you're stupid you're gonna stay in Marysville and I just had to I just run off for them I was a teenager by now in my second life I was like 16 so of course I knew everything and then a couple guys sat out a peanut butter sandwiches for a couple of years took out a loan and we did a book called sled driver which is very proud of when we thought about 2000 people would enjoy it or like it and those copies sold so fast we didn't realize the whole world was in love with this airplane and as I'm standing here today 30 years later it is now the single most popular book in the world on the jet we've done two books now and we only print a very limited number each year if you go on the Internet tonight you'll see them for four or five six hundred dollar books if they're signed so a thousand dollars I have the signature sir it's incredible we're doing the book signing today when you're done in support of Wounded Warrior and the books are 235 a price you will never ever see on them anywhere get by him in bookstores can't get them on Amazon unless it's a used $400 company so I did bring so it'll be very happy come back to table take a look also when the jet turned 50 Lockheed or nobody oh forgot to tell you there's still a couple photographs that you may not see in the boat so Lockheed and nobody did a 50th anniversary commemorative we did it gold gold coin piece we did 3000 I went for Mach 3 we have I think about 50 left I brought everything we have left here today so if you're a collector the coin is worth 60 bucks in the gold it's in a week we sell for 50 I thought I had a picture of it I'm sorry I'm always going to be because of the internet or more it's going to be associated with the this airplane almost going to be the Select driver guide no matter what else I do and that's okay that's alright because I've gone on to do other things I flew at the Air National Guard for a while doing a picture project for them I did my last flying with the Portland air National Guard didn't have 15 Eagles here over Mount Hood call this Eagles in the hood I don't find a barn out I gave up on my flying the concentrate on my nature photography and people go how could you do that well it centers me to be out there I lived through 25 years of flying 5000 hours of scared myself almost killed myself under time so now I'm on there and join the natural beauty with two feet on the ground and what I what I found was a flyer I was most impressed with nature's Flyers a simple seagull that you normally would ignore has such an elliptical wing that it gives it such agility and speed and the decals and paint schemes that mother nature puts on her Flyers is so phenomenal as to almost look fake who can take their eyes off of bald eagle in flight it's just the majesty and concentration and the proud looked on the face of That Bird and as an aviator we have to appreciate the butterfly migration egg that monarchs that go from Canada to Mexico every year in a in a navigational feat we still don't understand it's a phenomenal better form and who can who can not fail be amazed at all the aerodynamic forces going on when any grip plucks a minnow from that pond so it's an aviator I've spent the last 15 16 years Schubert's and just loving it because I realized we don't really fly man doesn't fly we build machines that fly and we sit in them birds are really fly and I'll tell you when you watch them for any length of time it's an amazing experience people always say well no matter what else you're doing Brian that had to be the apex of your life right there that had to beat the doesn't get any better than that moment in your life well I'll tell you very proud of that we brought the Berlin wall down be kidding commies ass we did some good things we won the whole the Joint Chiefs of Staff the President himself was looking at her work yeah very proud to be one of 93 men that got to do that you better not my doesn't get any better than that moment number two number one was when I was standing on the top steps of this that hospital and that blue car was waiting down there that was that was like you were getting a do-over you were getting a second chance at life and I had to make a choice my third main point choices I had to make a choice at that moment I was terrified I was underway I didn't know if I could still fly anymore but they were gonna throw me right back into the fire and I thought I'm I have to get enough courage it make that choice to go back because the other road is a dead end and as I stood there knowing that 19019 bounced on young men went to Vietnam and never saw the age of 21 never live their dream pursue their passion never made it to 21 years old and I'm getting a do-over at 24 I get to start over and get a second chance and isn't that all we can ask in life is the opportunity and what we do with that opportunity is the saga of our lives and I made that choice it was the harder choice it wasn't easy it doesn't mean you'll be successful it doesn't mean we'll all work out well Oh No but that's what makes it all worthwhile now before I open the floor to questions and finish up today there's a little story going around the internet that I must address called the LA speed story many of you have dared to send that to me in your emails which I immediately delete because I have to write back to 20,000 people a week and say hey I wrote that story it's in my book I'm the guy you know need to tell me about this cool story you just heard and what I find is a lot of times they sell the story wrong so I'm going to tell you the story today so you are armed and fully capable to go out of the world and correct people on the LA speed story if you haven't heard it you will and the way that this story started is so perfect and so ironic I would have never told this story ever but I was doing the show in Seattle many many years ago over 25 years ago and it was space camp for the kids and a twelve-year-old boy in shorts and a t-shirt that said Space Camp I always remembered was sitting like right over there brown hair and he was just 12 and you know what his question was wasn't it ever just fun he didn't talk about fun to say it was a difficult and scary and dangerous high level and really intended to no and that's exactly the question you'd expect a twelve-year-old ass I know I was 12 twice and I love that kid for asking that question because it made me think well what was it just fun and I thought of this story and now his story has circled the globe a billion and it's yeah I can't get away from so i'ma tell it do you see you know the real story was it ever fun yes it was one day Walter and I were doing a little training mission around the United States where you take off that of Sacramento hit a pro night I hope rip on up to Montana zip across Denver in a right turn Santa Fe I don't for Los Angeles up to Seattle back in just to build two hours 28 minutes and then you do it backwards just the game time you just get an hour's a couple of refuelings in a two weeks they're going to turn you loose to fly real missions you're all done with your training we're feeling pretty darn good about ourselves we made the turn in New Mexico I'm over Tucson I can see downtown LA from Tucson I can see the whole western coast of the United States bathed in a warm glow of an October afternoon the radios are quiet not engaged move into my cockpit smooth as silk air we're at eighty nine thousand feet 13.1 not gonna cactus over 18 miles I and I'm thinking we bed I feel sorry for Walter because he has to monitor five radios in the back seat so I flip the switch up just to listen in la center control on all the bug smashers and mortal plains below US senators are all over the country for those Seattle Center Dallas or wood Center La Center Jacksonville Center Chicago so they control all the fun and in those days we didn't have GPS so every sestak guy wanted to know his ground speed so that he can figure out his position I guess sure enough L a senator Cessna November alpha tango you got a ground speed readout for us now here's the cool thing about Center you can be Joe bag of donuts on your very first flight it doesn't matter he's gonna talk to you like you're John Glenn centers talk to you like you're really somebody and that's all the same guy I'm about convinced it's the same guy all over the country and here's how they talk and I'm not making this up those who either fly you know this is true chef's don't remember alpha tango we show you 99 names your minds on the ground I swear to god that's how big time and we like it and right after that a twin bonanza popped up to Penta guy would speed I guess like Center twin beats you and every got a ground speed readout force now sooner would like to say he got off freak who cares it's Friday afternoon get off but he's not gonna say that he's gonna talk to like his Air Force were between BG we show you 1 21 2 0 knots on the ground right after that a navy f-18 not a little more popped up on fragrance and you knew it's a navy guy cuz he talked really slick on the radio senator dusty 5 to speech I'm thinking and dusty 5:2 has a ground speed indicator and a million dollar f-18 cockpit in fact it's right here in the heads-up display in front of his fat maybe face why is he calling center to broadcast his speed we are just the meanest baddest fastest military jet in the valley today we're taking our little Hornet jet over now with me ripping across Death Valley and we want everyone from Fresno to the coast to know what real speed is and you can almost hear a little Glee in the controllers voice like yeah we put an end to this now it's just that little dusty fight to show you six twenty six two zero nods across the ground and it was then across the ground it was differently we put an exclamation point on that no more it was just unspoken there wasn't an airliner from Seattle to San Diego wouldn't be next on frequency there was a hush on radio and a 12 year old was reaching for the Myra and I thought on our Walters the charts of the radios on them I flew single seen on my life I'm in the family model now we have a division of it no it's the Navy they must die domestic I know but if I do that they'll be upset I want us to be a good crew he's the radio guy down at that moment I heard a click of the mic but in the back seat ladies and gentlemen Walter and I became a crew in his very best innocent what's la Senator Aspen 3-0 be got a ground speed rate of course you can almost hear a silent collective gasp of everyone on freak like God the poor fools I didn't hear the previous transmissions they'll be crushed up while idiots who could that be the senator had to give you that same voice Aspen threes early show you a 1987 nights when I knew I was really gonna like Walter a lot Sony came back I said Center thanks but we're shelled a little closer than two thousand I need to tell them and we did not hear another transmission seem all the way to the coast soda for just a moment it was fun the Navy had been flamed the king of speed lived and a crew had been formed and I've always been thankful that that twelve-year-old asked that question cuz little did I know it would be on my tombstone yeah so what do combat hardened come to fight and fighter pilots do when they retire I shoot pansies now very proud of that opening a gallery marysville of my aviation that nature hurts flowers butterflies in about another year 2020 and our motto see if you're following along here our motto is from butterflies to get it okay so I'm gonna get the motto you'll get our logo pretty cool very cool took us two years to come up with that and the reason is we kept forgetting butterflies there for ways we can put two wings on the butter for it that just doesn't look right and then my my girlfriend put up laces where's the other two legs and go oh my god that's right they have four minutes that boat that was instantly a success little treat for you to take a little little video clip for you for coming out on a holiday week why don't you understand what I'm saying today about attitude perspective choices we make in life a lot of you've had your own experiences in life where you don't need me to even do any of those things but I want you remember that there's gonna be another time in all of our lives when we're gonna have a challenge again we're gonna have the wall we have to get over through around or over somehow and we don't know how and when you come to that I want you to remember this little story I want you to remember that one day and that's our 71 took the runway at Kadena Air Base Okinawa just one that long black nose at a taxiway alpha settle down on the runway for 30 seconds waiting for its official takeoff the time and the pilot with the jet that day could look out the window on a 150 degree heading for 2.3 miles he could see the roof on the hospital he had laid in 12 years earlier legend has it that on takeoff that day the airplane did not climb straight out over the South China Sea to hit the tanker Ono made a hard 90 left turn at the end of the runway and full burner 250 feet some say much lower buzz to certain soccer field sending kids screaming about falling down rattled every window to certain hospital without breaking one as that big black Jeff made an arc back to course it was as if all things had come full circle for that pilot at that moment and he couldn't understand for the first time the events that had transpired in his life that he could possibly understand at the time and he knew right there that Einstein was right when he said imagination is far more valuable than knowledge so for those of you that said he knew the words a little Christmas train for you [Music] Oh whoa [Music] and [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] on its final flight yes our 71 flew from Palmdale California to Dulles field indeed that bar AC Smithsonian Air and Space Museum traversing the country in 64 minutes setting 8 official speed records before they put the jet to bed a remarkable flight for a jet to putting in a museum when Judy Garland says if blue birds can fly why oh why can't I Bradshaw says you can so I will do a very scary thing and open the floor for questions for just a couple minutes since you've been such good audience to come
