He led a remarkable life

Col. J. Chris Whitmire (2nd from right), an Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer to North Carolina, with fellow officers, in front of a Blackhawk helicopter

After this he attended Air Force pilot training, graduating in 1992 was assigned to fly the KC-135 aircraft, and later the Air Force’s executive jet, the C-21.

Deployed multiple times around the world

Asked to describe his service, Chris said, “I flew the KC-135 as a pilot, aircraft commander, and instructor for two operational assignments (Plattsburgh AFB and Fairchild AFB). I deployed multiple times around the world, particularly to the Middle East (Southwest Asia), for combat, combat support, and other operational post-1991 Gulf War air refueling missions. Additionally, I flew humanitarian and priority cargo missions during this time.

“While assigned to the C-21, I served as the interim commander of my unit, aircraft commander, instructor, and evaluator. My job was to ensure the safe transport of medical patients, military brass, members of the US Congress, and President Gerald Ford.”

Transferred to the Air Force Reserve

 After ten years’ active duty he transferred to the Air Force Reserve where he remained until 2018 and retired as a Colonel. In the meantime, during his Reserve duty, he applied and was accepted to the flight department of American Airlines in 2001. “Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts.” Starting on the bottom floor as a B-727 Flight Engineer, he was furloughed shortly after 9/11. When recalled in 2002, he was assigned as a First Officer in the Fokker 100 and then the MD-80.

But in 2003 he was furloughed again, this time until 2015. Recalled at the end of that year, he was assigned as a First Officer in the B-737 and then the Airbus 320. He now resides in the captain’s seat of that aircraft.

When Whitmire signed on with the Reserves, he was assigned to the Homeland Security Office in the Air Force’s Counterproliferation Center until 2009. What the heck is that? Simply put, that office is “responsible for providing education and research on weapons of mass destruction threats and appropriate countermeasures to those threats.” (Air University publication, March 2009)

During his time in that office, he served on the faculty of the Air War College and developed the curriculum for the Master’s Program in Homeland Security-Homeland Defense. He was also a primary instructor in that doctrinal area.

Additionally, he authored/edited/contributed to five Homeland Security and Counterterrorism publications all of which remain relevant today (two of which were acted on by the US Congress to address security issues). At the completion of this assignment, he was attached until he retired to USNORTHCOM as a liaison for natural disasters and special security events.

Col. J. Chris Whitmire

Whitmire (far right) is pictured with North Carolina lawmakers and Governor Pat McCrory (seated) for the signing of the Brass to Class Act, which streamlined the process for veterans to transition into classrooms as teachers by ensuring they are granted credit for their relevant experience, certifications, training, and leadership roles. Whitmire was a major sponsor of the 2013 bill.

In the interview with Chris Whitmire, I gleaned the following of what made him who he is. His parents, who molded him with honor and gave him a strong work ethic. The military, which strengthened his resolve, provided discipline and gave him purpose. Serving the people, which gave him the pride he shows daily for Transylvania’s and North Carolina’ s citizens. So as I started out, I come back to this: Chris Whitmire truly is A Man for All Seasons.

What’s next in store for Chris? I don’t think a long vacation is in his future. If we’re fortunate he’ll run to serve the people of North Carolina again. Like Sir Thomas More, a man of conscience.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’”
Isaiah 6:8-13

 Top Photo: Col. Whitmire (left) with his flight suit, which is displayed in the museum’s Air Force gallery, pictured with museum pathfinder Mike Johnson, US Navy veteran

New museum exhibit honors the history of the US Air Force, displaying uniforms from WWI to the present

“The Piggyback Flight” shown in the painting above

Rodney Remus museum volunteer tells the story of the Piggyback flight

Uniform of Brevard resident Chris Whitmire

Oxygen regulator

The First Drones

On one wall is the three-dimensional crest of the highly decorated 432 Fighter Wing which was inactivated in 1994. However, in 2007, it was rebranded as the 432 Wing. It forms the U.S. Air Force’s first unmanned (later remotely piloted) aircraft systems wing (i.e., “drones”). The Wing performs unmanned precision attack and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance combat missions, flying the Air Force into a new age.

Air Force Veteran Volunteers

from the freestanding models to the pictures on the walls, these various donated mementos are from people who desired to have their family’s artifacts live on for the enjoyment of others. Many of the museum volunteers have flown or maintained some of the aircraft you see, so if a question arises, feel free to ask any of us. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll get one for you because we “Aim High” each and every day.

Art Cole (Colonel, USAF, Ret.) served for 25 years from 1970-1995. A Command Pilot who held Squadron, Base, and Wing commands, he also held senior level positions in Headquarters/Strategic Air Command and the office of the Secretary of Defense. Operationally, he flew the EC-47, T-39, KC-135, and B-52. After retirement he flew 16 years with the Federal Express Corporation. He volunteers at the 51şÚÁĎÍř.

War in Vietnam

Some say it must be 50 years gone before accurate history can be written. Well, it’s been 50 years from when I left the Vietnam War behind so allow me to tell you an abbreviated history of our most flawed and fabled war. It was a war that President Nixon declared in 1971, “the end is in sight.” It just didn’t end how he envisioned it would.

The war in Vietnam began to take shape from a letter President Dwight Eisenhower sent to Winston Churchill after Korea. In that letter he expressed his concern that Indochina, as well as those islands on the periphery, could not be allowed to fall into Communist hands. He suggested a coalition of nations to stop that from happening and thus in 1954, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed. It was to act as a common front against Communist aggression in the region.

When, also in 1954, the French were defeated at Diem Bien Phu and cast out of Vietnam, the country was subsequently divided at the 17th Parallel in a negotiated Geneva settlement. Responding to aid requests from the South Vietnamese government, President Eisenhower–using the now-discredited Domino Theory to justify our involvement–sent U.S. advisors to train the South Vietnamese army in conventional and counter-insurgency operations. After five years of “relative” quiet, in 1959 the Communists began to step-up their encroachment into the South. In response, in 1961, now President John F. Kennedy began to add more advisors and Special Forces personnel. That number eventually rose to approximately 15,000.

America’s forces continued to aid the Vietnamese

America’s forces continued to aid the Vietnamese in the foregoing manner until 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson and his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, began an American buildup which would increase to almost 500,000. During LBJ’s presidency when he and his Cabinet were more interested in domestic policies than in fighting a war, they successfully stopped the military from fighting one. Military recommendations were disregarded and all decisions—down to target sets and even the munitions required on aircraft—were made in Washington.

Thus, the war continued unabated until Richard Nixon was elected President in 1968. He began a U.S. drawdown in 1969. By 1972, President Nixon, taking the advice of the military that LBJ discarded, brought the Communists to the peace table. The Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973, and the war essentially was over. But not so fast.

A Congress, hostile to Nixon and subsequently his successor Gerald Ford, reneged on the Paris agreement by not only passing an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill to prohibit further military involvement in Vietnam but also ignored any further Vietnamese requests for aid. So, in 1975 the Communists, seeing South Vietnam standing alone, crossed the 17th Parallel and a Viet Cong flag was raised over Saigon on April 30, 1975. The war and the extraction of the remaining U.S. personnel from the American Embassy had truly come to an end that day. Not with a bang but with a whimper.

Let me close by saying Vietnam was a war we won in 1973. However, two years later it was lost in the halls of Congress. But the sacrifices these men and women made, not only those of the regular armed forces but also by those whose number simply came up in the lottery of the draft, never failed their country.

Author’s Note: I did not receive the scorn you have perhaps heard about directed at other returnees. That may be because we were advised to wear civilian attire and to not go outside the San Francisco airport’s terminal building while waiting for our next flight unless absolutely necessary. However, many vets were vilified and treated as the “face of an unpopular war.” To this day I know that many Vietnam vets still carry the emotional scars they faced over 50 years ago. A war in which they were sent to fight by those who never did.

Americas citizen-soldiers performed with a tenacity

“Dropped into the enemy’s terrain 12,000 miles away from home, Americas citizen-soldiers performed with a tenacity and quality that never may be understood. Those who believe the war was fought incompletely on a tactical level should consider Hanoi’s recent admission that 1.4 million of its soldiers died on the battlefield compared to 58,000 total U.S dead. Those who believe that it was a dirty little war where bombs did all the work might contemplate that it was the most costly war the U.S. Marine Corps has ever fought—five times as many dead as WWI, three times as many dead as in Korea, and more total killed and wounded than in all WWII…To this day it stuns me that so many of their own countrymen have so completely missed the story of their service, lost in the bitter confusion of the war itself.” Senator James Webb (D-VA)

If you’d like to read more about veterans coping with physical and mental issues caused by the nature of war, I’d refer you to a wonderful website,,

May we always have men and women such as these who served.