Richard Dunn earned numerous awards during his time as an Air Force pilot. (Photo contributed / November 7, 2011) |
Richard Dunn, who spent 23 years as an Air Force pilot and earned the rank of major, knew he wanted to fly when he was a boy. He was in fourth grade and watching a World War II movie, “Wake Island,” in which the Marines try to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.
“The Japanese were pounding the hell out of us,” recalls Dunn as he discusses his career at his Danville condo. “One airplane was still flying. It was a battle plane. The pilot asked the plane be loaded with bombs. They said, ‘You’ll never get it off the ground.’ The pilot crashed it in to the Japanese Navy ship.”
At this climatic moment in the film, Dunn realized flying was his life calling. “I said, ‘I’m going to be a fighter pilot,’” recalls Dunn, who has racked up close to 15,000 hours of flying time in his career.
With Veterans Day as a birthday, it seems Dunn was destined to be a military man. His father, Marion Homer Dunn, served in the Army in World War I. Dunn laughs at the joke his father played on him when they lived in Covington and his father took him to a Veterans Day parade on his 5th or 6th birthday. “My father told me the parade was all for my birthday.”
Another early connection Dunn had with the military was when he was in high school and played trumpet for the American Legion’s Honor Guard. As an Air Force cadet, he also played in a band, which he says was a strategic move.
“It got me out of all the stand-by and inspections on Saturday because we had to get ready for the parade,” says Dunn, who often smiles as he reflects on his childhood and career.
Dunn, who served from 1953 to 1975, waited until he had completed a couple of years of college and then enlisted. His wife, Martha, says Dunn’s mother tried to play the stoic as she watched her son board a train in Stanford to go to Louisville and enlist.
“She said she wasn’t going to shed a tear. Then she went home and fell into bed, crying her heart out.”
Dunn’s enlistment included a year in Vietnam, where he worked as a forward air controller, directing air strikes. He marked the target for the fighter planes. “I’m not sure they use forward air controller anymore because they do all the bombing by satellite,” Dunn notes.
A room in his condo is decorated with models of planes he has flown and honors he has received, including a Bronze Star. Dunn, who has severe COPD and is a Heritage Hospice patient, has several pairs of wings. He received his first set of wings in 1955 when he became a navigator. After attending electronic warfare school, he received another set of wings.
After seven years and 1,500 hours of flying, he received a set of wings with star on top. After 15 years and 3,000 hours, he received a set of wings with a wreath around the star. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
One photo shows him in the smaller plane he flew in Vietnam and another photo is of a T29 Convair that holds 40 people. He flew visiting dignitaries in that plane from 1966 to 1970.
Dunn decided to take advantage of the military’s Bootstrap program, which gave him time away from the Air Force while he earned a bachelor’s degree. He later earned a master’s degree at Baylor University. His thesis was about the GI Bill of Rights, which he credits as one of the United States’ government’s most strategic moves.
“It was one of the best investments our country ever made if you consider what they spent on it and what they got back.
It gave us thousands of doctors and lawyers and engineers. There are millions of people who went to school who never would have considered it. It started the economic boon and what this country has turned into since World War II.”
After earning his master’s degree, Dunn says his career took a different turn.
“Then they gave me the privilege of flying a large, steel desk.”
The military tradition has continued in the Dunn family. The Dunns have two sons, Michael and Richard, and Michael served four years in the Marines. Dunn’s mother, Shirley Dunn, an avid Lincoln County historian who published books of her research, also was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
After Dunn retired from the military, he continued to fly. He flew for Allegheny Commuter in Terre Haute, Ind. Then he went to Denver and flew cargo planes for a year. While Dunn was working with Allegheny, he and his wife won a trip to Limerick, Ireland, the home of his mother’s ancestors. They thought it was interesting that the paternal family name had ties there.
“The Dunns own that whole town,” says Dunn, who retired to Danville, near he and his wife’s hometown of Stanford, in 1992.
“The Japanese were pounding the hell out of us,” recalls Dunn as he discusses his career at his Danville condo. “One airplane was still flying. It was a battle plane. The pilot asked the plane be loaded with bombs. They said, ‘You’ll never get it off the ground.’ The pilot crashed it in to the Japanese Navy ship.”
At this climatic moment in the film, Dunn realized flying was his life calling. “I said, ‘I’m going to be a fighter pilot,’” recalls Dunn, who has racked up close to 15,000 hours of flying time in his career.
With Veterans Day as a birthday, it seems Dunn was destined to be a military man. His father, Marion Homer Dunn, served in the Army in World War I. Dunn laughs at the joke his father played on him when they lived in Covington and his father took him to a Veterans Day parade on his 5th or 6th birthday. “My father told me the parade was all for my birthday.”
Another early connection Dunn had with the military was when he was in high school and played trumpet for the American Legion’s Honor Guard. As an Air Force cadet, he also played in a band, which he says was a strategic move.
“It got me out of all the stand-by and inspections on Saturday because we had to get ready for the parade,” says Dunn, who often smiles as he reflects on his childhood and career.
Dunn, who served from 1953 to 1975, waited until he had completed a couple of years of college and then enlisted. His wife, Martha, says Dunn’s mother tried to play the stoic as she watched her son board a train in Stanford to go to Louisville and enlist.
“She said she wasn’t going to shed a tear. Then she went home and fell into bed, crying her heart out.”
Dunn’s enlistment included a year in Vietnam, where he worked as a forward air controller, directing air strikes. He marked the target for the fighter planes. “I’m not sure they use forward air controller anymore because they do all the bombing by satellite,” Dunn notes.
A room in his condo is decorated with models of planes he has flown and honors he has received, including a Bronze Star. Dunn, who has severe COPD and is a Heritage Hospice patient, has several pairs of wings. He received his first set of wings in 1955 when he became a navigator. After attending electronic warfare school, he received another set of wings.
After seven years and 1,500 hours of flying, he received a set of wings with star on top. After 15 years and 3,000 hours, he received a set of wings with a wreath around the star. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
One photo shows him in the smaller plane he flew in Vietnam and another photo is of a T29 Convair that holds 40 people. He flew visiting dignitaries in that plane from 1966 to 1970.
Dunn decided to take advantage of the military’s Bootstrap program, which gave him time away from the Air Force while he earned a bachelor’s degree. He later earned a master’s degree at Baylor University. His thesis was about the GI Bill of Rights, which he credits as one of the United States’ government’s most strategic moves.
“It was one of the best investments our country ever made if you consider what they spent on it and what they got back.
It gave us thousands of doctors and lawyers and engineers. There are millions of people who went to school who never would have considered it. It started the economic boon and what this country has turned into since World War II.”
After earning his master’s degree, Dunn says his career took a different turn.
“Then they gave me the privilege of flying a large, steel desk.”
The military tradition has continued in the Dunn family. The Dunns have two sons, Michael and Richard, and Michael served four years in the Marines. Dunn’s mother, Shirley Dunn, an avid Lincoln County historian who published books of her research, also was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
After Dunn retired from the military, he continued to fly. He flew for Allegheny Commuter in Terre Haute, Ind. Then he went to Denver and flew cargo planes for a year. While Dunn was working with Allegheny, he and his wife won a trip to Limerick, Ireland, the home of his mother’s ancestors. They thought it was interesting that the paternal family name had ties there.
“The Dunns own that whole town,” says Dunn, who retired to Danville, near he and his wife’s hometown of Stanford, in 1992.
