Episode 21: Steely Eyed Missile Man

As we were leaving Air Venture Oshkosh 2011, Steve took a flight with Milford down to Arkansas to spend some time with his friends Bill & Earlene Hankins. Steve used to live with Bill & Earlene at first as an exchange student and then later when he returned to the USA to get his pilots’ license.

 

In this episode, Steve chats with Bill about his time in Strategic Air Command as a Titan 2 Combat Missile Crew Commander in one of the many silos located around the Arkansas landscape. Bill talks about the design of the silo and the process to launch a missile then Earlene talks about being an Air Force wife and coping with the strain of Bill’s role. They both then talk a bit about flying with Steve in their Cessna 172 as he was completing his commercial & instrument ratings.