SWEET TWEET - AS THE T-37 ERA WINDS DOWN, ONE PILOT HAS FLOWN MORE HOURS IN IT THAN ANY OTHER

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Matthew Hannen
  • Torch Magazine
Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas --  There can be only one. ...

As the T-37 Tweet era winds down and gives way to the T-6 Texan II, one pilot will have logged more hours in this iconic aircraft than anyone else in Euro-NATO joint jet pilot training, and possibly the Air Force. And he resides at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, also home of the last remaining active T-37s in the Air Force inventory.

Lt. Col. Bo McGowan, commander of the 97th Flying Training Squadron, has accumulated more than 4,000 flying hours in the Tweet. His first T-37 flight launched April 9, 1984, at Mather AFB, Calif.

"I have so many sorties because I fell in love with the pure passion and desire of flying and wanted to pass that on to others," McGowan said. "I am never more filled as a professional than when I get an opportunity to teach these student pilots how to fly. I enjoy showing them how to fly safely, disciplined and smart. You can't teach from behind a desk; you've got to get them into the machine."

The truth of the matter is, McGowan said, he never passed on opportunities to fly -- sometimes even flying three sorties a day.

"Every time they needed an extra guy to fly with a student, I would go do it," he said. "I love to fly, I love to teach, and I love to watch these young men and women from all these incredibly different backgrounds come in and be able to participate in something bigger than themselves. I could never get over the fact that a kid like me went from farming peanuts in Georgia to flying the most advanced airplanes just because of the training, discipline and desire. I pour my heart and soul into these student pilots because they are the future."

They couldn't have a better role model. McGowan's safety record in the Tweet has been stellar with no mishaps. But it is perhaps crashing a fighter jet early in his flying career that helped shape his success as an instructor even more.

On April 4, 1991, he was involved in a near midair collision in an F-16 Fighting Falcon while assigned to Moody AFB, Ga.

"To keep the other plane from hitting us, I jerked and pulled my plane out of the way," he said. "When trying to recover, I got disoriented. I was about 80 degrees nose low and 60 degrees at a left bank at about 1,500 feet above ground before I bailed."

From the time he narrowly missed the other aircraft to the time his parachute deployed only took eight seconds, he said. He ejected only two seconds before the aircraft smashed into the ground.

McGowan landed in a tree in the Okefenokee Swamp, 18 miles southeast of Moody. He worked his way down to the waist-deep water and then trudged his way out of the swamp.

"I had one moment in time during the (mishap) sequence where if I hadn't let myself be distracted, I would have probably had an opportunity to fly it out," he said. "But I missed the window and had to punch out before the plane hit the ground."

The mishap occurred at his first F-16 unit, and the colonel still shakes his head when he reflects on the most notorious day in his distinguished flying career.

"That incredible failure is key to who I have become," McGowan said. "I've flown probably 4,000 Air Force flights after that and have over 6,100 flying hours (as a pilot in the Tweet and the F-16 and as a navigator in the T-43 and KC-135; he also has another 1,200 flying hours as a 737 pilot for United Airlines). Out of huge failures can come great successes if you're just willing to learn and don't give up."

Luckily for his students and the Air Force, giving up on his dream never even crossed the colonel's mind.

"I remember being a 10-year-old boy, walking up to my daddy and telling him I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force," he said. "I wanted to be like those men who flew in Vietnam. They were such honorable warriors. If the Air Force had told me I had to pay for my training, I would have handed over my credit card. I believe that much in what we do."