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LTCOL WHITEHEAD, JOHN L

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WHITEHEAD, JOHN L
LTCOL
Pilot
1974
HQ/ADC
By F-106 Crew Chief Al Dirty Durden 20 June 2017 LTC John L. Whitehead was a Tuskegee Airman and amassed 9500 flight hours with 5000 in jet aircraft but LTC Whitehead was also an F-106 test pilot at McClellan AFB in the early 70s before he retired in 74. He flew some of my F-106 aircraft. I was an F-106 Crew Chief at McClellan in the sixties and seventies. He was a real Hot Shot Pilot. He always taxied out of the shelter and turned fast like he was scrambling to intercept enemy aircraft. Other F-106 pilots taxied out slowly and turned on the idle trust when they turned to avoid blowing the Crew Chief away but not John L. He would taxi out like a bat out of hell and away he would go. Ground personnel would have to run and duck behind the power cart to keep from being blown away. He was so skinny and scrawny that when he put his helmet on, he looked like he was 12 years old. He was one of a kind. His grave marker says he was A LEGEND IN HIS TIME. He is and always will be part of the History of McClellan AFB. He was so skinny that he earned the nickname as Mr. Death. When he flew my aircraft, I wondered how someone so emaciated could get to be an F-106 Fighter Pilot. That is because I did not know his history then but I do now. He learned to fly by the seat of his pants out of necessity and he did things his way which was not necessarily by the book but it got the job done. At the time, I did not know that he had been a Tuskegee Airman. If I had known then, I would have had more respect for him which proves that you can’t tell a book by its cover. All old men look like old men but you never know what they did as young men until you open the cover. I look in the mirror every day and ask myself, who is that old fart and what ever happened to that young F-106 Crew Chief named Al Dirty Durden.
9/6/1992
Obituary URL Link
3809
8/20/2017

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