Henry Whitney
West Covina, California
Henry Whitney enlisted in the USAF, Sept. 7, 1950 in order to avoid being drafted into the Army. He worked in the IBM Unit at Wing HQ at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas for approximately two years. He was then reassigned to Parks AFB, Pleasanton, California in early 1952.
Hank, as he is known to his friends, applied for USAF Officer Training in Sept. 1952. Despite the fact that he did not have a 4-year college degree, he was selected for USAF OCS because his entry exam scores were extremely high. Following that, he was selected for and reassigned to Lackland AFB to begin Officers Training, June 1953. Hank completed USAF OCS in 1953 in top 10% of his class, December 1953 and was selected for USAF Pilot Training.
Hank trained to fly B-52's out of Westover AFB, and was assigned to 384th Air Refueling Squadron. He spent the end of the Korean Conflict refueling B-52's over Korea.
Major Whitney left active duty in December 1957. In civilian life, he worked for the FAA in the control tower at Edwards Air Force base during the glory years of test-piloting. He spent many an afternoon with the "rocket jockeys" of fame including Chuck Yeager.
Hank continued to love flying and joined several of his friends in the purchase of a P-51 fighter just for fun. They spent happy days chasing the rabbits out of the bushes on low level flights to Las Vegas. On one particularly urgent flight, when they found a flat tire on the plane, Hank decided on a plan to continue the travels. He sliced open the tire, stuffed it with rags, bound it up with duct tape. He flew and landed the plane without incident. Hank and his high-flying friends were members of the famous "51 Club" along with Clay Lacey in Palmdale, California.
Following a few years as a flight controller at Bracket Field in Pomona, California, Hank was eventually offered a better position at Orange County Airport Air Traffic Tower where the mix of large commercial flights and small private crafts made for intense anxiety. Hank became famous for making jokes and telling wild flight stories to keep his buddies in the tower from stressing out.
When he retired from the FAA, Hank accepted a position with Mt. San Antonio College as a classroom instructor teaching flying and air traffic control. During his tenure, Professor Whitney was credited with training and placing more FAA flight controllers in towers than any single instructor in the United States. His blend of humor, sarcasm, and dramatic story-telling made his lessons spellbinding, according to all of his graduating students. He retired from teaching at Mt. San Antonio College in May 1994.
Bored with his retirement from his third career, Hank continued to teach flying in small, private aircraft and particularly enjoyed qualifying pilots for their instrument ratings. He has three daughters one of whom was a flight crew member for Southwest Airlines for many years. One of Hank's daughters is a writer now working on a book about Airmen and their own dashing stories. The third daughter is an event designer for Air Force Week, Los Angeles. Hank is married to his wife Sharon, who learned how to pack and unpack efficiently in under 24 hours as an Air Force wife. She is a retired school administrator and keeps his feet on the ground while his head is in the clouds. To this day, Hank keeps in touch with many of his friends from Officer Candidate School and continues to tell wild flight stories.
