Rank: Retired as a captain
Hometown: Haskell,Texas
Crew job: C-130 aircraft commander (Pilot)
Served in the Air Force: 1972 to 1977
Dyess AFB tour: March 4, 1974, to Feb. 28, 1977
He could either follow his dream and work toward becoming an instructor pilot in the sleek T-38,
“There was no telling what you were going to haul around on any given day, from high value cargo like human beings to the colonel’s kitty litter,” Perry told the Reporter-News in a recent phone interview.
He wanted to fly T-38s, but not badly enough to move to Selma, Ala., where he would have been assigned. So, Perry chose to stay in Texas and fly the C-130.
In 1974, he moved to Dyess Air Force Base, about 55 miles from his hometown of Haskell, and began a career that took him all over the world and shaped his political future.
“It was one of the great adventures of my life,” Perry said. “I had a fairly pedestrian life until I was 23 years old.”
Perry could count on one hand the number of trips he had taken out of his home state by the time he graduated from Texas A&M University, but everything changed when he joined the Air Force.
Flying C-130s, Perry lived in Germany and Saudi Arabia. He flew in Central and South America, North Africa and all over Europe.
“I saw all of these different types of governments and I made the connections to how the people acted and looked, and it became abundantly clear to me that, at that particular point in time, that America was this very unique place and that our form of democracy was very rare,” Perry said. ” … That was the greatest gift I received from my years of being in the military, and they really shaped my outlook on the rest of my life.”
Perry retired (discharged) from the Air Force in 1977 — but not without one last adventure.
As his final days approached, Perry was assigned to a mission to “haul trash” to Bermuda with a relatively inexperienced crew.
“I’m sure the young guys stayed up a little longer than the older guy, which would be me at 26 years old,” Perry said, and they fell asleep on the way back to Abilene.
About the time the plane reached Atlanta, a fire light for the No. 3 engine flashed once. And then it flashed again.
Perry poked his co-pilot as the light reappeared and held steady on red.
Using the headset, he asked the loadmaster to take a look at the engine from the window and about that time, the engine exploded and blew a tail pipe off the plane.
“He started screaming that we were on fire and that we were all going to die,” Perry said. “The aircraft operated as advertised and flies amazingly well on three engines.”
Perry and his crew were stuck at Pope Air Force Base while awaiting a new engine. With three days left in his enlistment, Perry called the command post at Dyess and informed them that they would have to send a new pilot along with the engine if they didn’t hurry.
“I said, ‘In three days, I’m not Captain Perry anymore, I’m Mr. Perry, and I’m going home,” Perry said.
The engine arrived and the plane returned to Dyess in time for Perry to retire Feb. 28, as planned.
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