Douglas Diehl:
CLASS OF 1966
San Carlos High SchoolClass of 1966
San carlos, CA
Douglas's Story
I graduated from college in 1970 with a degree in Political Science/Geography. While there, I met and married my wife, who grew up in LA.
I went into the Air Force and learned to fly jets at Webb AFB, TX. My oldest daughter was born there.
After graduating from pilot training, I was assigned to Mather AFB near Sacramento. I flew the T-29C, ET-29D, and T-43A while there. I was there for five years and we added two more children to our family -- another girl and a boy.
From Mather, I was assigned to the HQ U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. I was in EUCOM Flight Operations as a CT-39 pilot. I flew generals, ambassadors, and congressmen around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It was the best flying I've ever done. I was the chief of stan/eval for our unit and was also a Berlin Corridor Flight Examiner. It's hard to imagine how much things have changed with the end of the Cold War, but it was deadly serious back then. Our middle son was born in Bad Canstatt, Germany in an old hospital built by Hitler.
When the Air Force started talking about assigning me to North Dakota on a B-52, I thought it might be a good time for a change of scenery. Airline deregulation had just come into being and there was staggering growth in the industry. I caught the bug and decided that I would try for an airline pilot job, too.
Unfortunately, when I got out in May, 1979, airlines started having problems. The American Airlines DC-10 crash in Chicago resulted in all DC-10s being grounded and airlines canceled their hiring plans. I went through the interview process at United, which was the last airline still hiring, but they stopped, too. Good luck and keep in touch.
We had moved back to Rancho Cordova, just east of Sacramento, as we had rented out our house there while we were in Germany. It was also there that our fifth child and third son was born. After a few months of unemployment, I found work with WestAir, as scummy little airline fly CE-402s around Northern California. We moved to Redding for that job. When I got laid off there, I worked in a lumber yard.
Then I got a call to go to Newark, NJ where a new airline was starting called People Express. It revolutionized flying under deregulation. I was one of the first pilots hired, so spent most of my time there as a captain. I also worked in management, holding positions as Director of Pilot Recruiting, Operations Coordination Manager, and Director of Security. I flew the B737 and B727. We also added our last child there in 1983 -- a girl.
In 1988, we were taken over by Continental Airlines, where I continued as a B727 captain. In 1993, I contracted diabetes, which ended my flying career. I was offered a job in management and worked as Director of Flight Operations for Continental. We moved to Spring, TX, a suburb of Houston, for that job. I was in that position until 1998 when my position was eliminated during one of the never-ending cutbacks in the airline business.
Looking for work again, I found a job with a small company in New Jersey, Universal Technical Resource Services. I was hired to help airlines start Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs under a contract with the FAA. I also helped secure a contract for the company doing the same thing for the Air Force. It was an interesting job, but after September 11th, most of the money for safety programs started getting funneled into s...Expand for more
ecurity programs. The contract I was working under lost most of its funding in 2005 and I was on the street again.
I found work as the Director of Flight Operations Safety at Frontier Airlines in Denver, CO. We moved to Aurora, a suburb on the east side of Denver. I love Frontier and the job, but with the price of oil continuing to set new records, Frontier entered Chapter 11. We are still operating (and operating very well, I might add), but the future is uncertain.
I still plan to work for another six years, so who knows where I will end up. I retired from the Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel and just started drawing my Reserve pension, which is sweet. It makes all the sweat over the years worth it.
There have been challenges, but it's really been a great adventure up to this point. Both my wife and I are active in church work and our plan is to serve as full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when we retire.
NEW!! After 48 years of working in aviation (I started work on the ramp at SFO right after graduation), I took a look at my finances and realized I didn't need to work any longer. After retiring from the Air Force Reserve and Continental Airlines, I did my final retirement from Frontier Airlines, where I was Director of Safety. Under new ownership (venture capitalists out of Phoenix) and management, it was like working in a Dilbert cartoon. Insanity and uninspired leadership are just no fun. So, I exited a worsening situation for one that is pretty darned good.
My wife and I have been called to serve as missionaries for the next two years. We will be serving in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission, which covers southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. We will be serving as military relations specialists with an assignment to work at Joint Base Langley-Eustis (formerly Langley AFB, headquarters of Air Combat Command, and Fort Eustis, headquarters of Transportation Command and Training and Doctrine Command). In that capacity, we will be working primarily with young soldiers at Fort Eustis who are in training. During their training, they are unable to leave the installation, so we will be conducting Sunday services for them, as well as other activities during the week. We will also work with families of service members who are deployed overseas. We are currently in training and expect to arrive in Newport News, VA during the first week in February. If you are interested in following our adventures there, we have set up a blog at diehlmission.wordpress.com.
Well, our term of missionary service at Fort Eustis is winding down. We will be released in December and will be heading home to Colorado. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and the impact that we have had on so many fine young men and women serving our country in the Army and Air Force. After our release, we will head to New Jersey, where three of our children (and assorted grandchildren) reside and spend Christmas with them. Then we will head west, visiting family, along with friends from college, the military, and the airlines. We will make stops in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Houston, San Antonio, Big Spring, El Paso, and Phoenix before heading home. It will be a long, but leisurely, trip back to what we hope will be a long and active retirement. There will be lots of travel and new adventures on the horizon.
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