William Brandt:  

Hi everyone!. I hope to see you at the reunion in October. I've broken this down into: Military I attended the USAF Academy in Colorado from 1973 thru 1977. Majored in General Engineering and History. I remember much of the history and amost none of the engineering. I played on the squadron athletic teams all four years, Football 1 year, Soccer 1 year, Wrestling 1 year Lacrosse 3 years, boxing 3 years, Rugby 3 years. I enjoyed the athletic field much more than the academic building. I developed the greatest friendships of my life there. Three close friends lost their lives shortly after graduation (all in aircraft crashes) casualties in the Cold War. I went to pilot training in Del Rio Texas and got my wings in September of 1978. (Woops - forgot to say I got married in 1977 in North Richland Hills) After training in the F-4 I went to Okinawa in 1979 and flew operationally there, in Korea, and in the Phillipines until 1982. In 1982 and 83 we were in Austin where I was in Instructor Pilot in the F-4 and where our first two children were born. In December of 1983 I got orders to be in Phoenix for F-15 training in two weeks. So I abandoned my family and went to Phoenix while Susan packed up and moved back to Bedford with her folks. Graduated from Luke (Distinguished graduate) and went to Virginia to the 1st Fighter Wing. Our last child was born in Virginia in 1984. I decided that being in Texas was better than moving around the world all the time and we moved back home in 1986 when I left active duty. I started work at Texas Instruments in their Defense Systems Group and worked there on various projects as a Systems Engineer and Program Manager until 1990. They say that flying ruins you for any real work (Too lazy to work.. too nervous to steal) so I went back to flying in 1990 for Fedex. I stayed in the USAF Reserve at Carswell through this period. We built a house in Southlake and moved in in 1988. Fedex was a very slow go for the first 5 years. I flew 747 (F/E) with several trips to Saudi Arabia in support of Desert Storm. Then with the economic slowdown I went to the 727 (F/E) but in 95 things started to pick up and I went to the DC-10 F/E, F/O and then checked out as Captain in the A-300 in 2002. I moved from several jobs in the Reserves ending up in Washington at the Pentagon in 1998. I happened to be in the Pentagon when we got hit in 2001. After that I had to get in the game and was lucky enough to g...Expand for more