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Flights of fancy
Pilot lives his dream as Thunderbirds commander
By Corinne Colbert
In his days with the Flying Bobcats, John Venable, BS ’81, would daydream in the team’s hangar, gazing at a photo of the Navy’s Blue Angels precision flight team.
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Photo by TSgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald
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| Thunderbirds Commander John Venable, BS ’81, poses in front of an F-16C jet used by his squad in air shows across the country. |
He attended
Ohio University specifically for its Air Force ROTC program, and
he majored in business administration to learn how to deal with
people effectively — all because he had his sights set on becoming
a member of the Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s acclaimed air
demonstration squadron.
“I knew I wanted to be a Thunderbird years ago,” Venable
says. “Some kids want to be ballplayers or doctors or dentists.
This is all I ever wanted to do.”
His Air Force career sent him around the world: Spain, Korea, England.
He became a fighter pilot, as Thunderbirds must be. With each assignment,
he moved closer to his goal.
“You have to want to be a Thunderbird,” he explains. “You
have to compile a record worth boasting about. You don’t actually
boast, of course, but you have to build a résumé.”
By 1998, he’d done that. And he believed he possessed an important
quality required of Thunderbirds: a flexible personality. With only
eight pilots on the squad — and just six who fly in demonstrations
— new members have to fit in.
“I like to say that if you have a team of holy rollers, a devil
worshipper doesn’t fit in,” Venable jokes.
Finally, in 1999, he got the word he’d waited for all his life.
Lt. Col. John Venable didn’t just become a Thunderbird; he
became commander and lead pilot.
“This is a childhood dream realized, and it’s actually
better than the dream,” he says. “To be able to go out
and fly the way we do and go all over is just a great feeling.”
Thunderbirds give up to 88 flight demonstrations a year. In its
48-year history, the squad has performed for more than 310 million
people in all 50 states and 59 countries around the world.
Each demonstration includes about 30 maneuvers. Four of the pilots
perform precise maneuvers, such as a tight diamond formation, to
showcase their training and skill. Two other pilots do solo maneuvers
to display the capabilities of the F-16C jets used in combat.
This summer,
Venable and his flight squad will perform at the Dayton Air Show
July 21 and 22.
“I went to the Dayton Air Show in 1977 after I graduated from
high school and saw the Thunderbirds,” he remembers. “I
went again in 1981, after I finished college, and saw them. This
will be 20 years since that summer.”
People who come out for the shows always are eager to meet the team’s
members.
“We meet folks from all over the U.S., and I’ve found
that this is a really grateful nation,” he says. “You
don’t get to see that when you’re just a normal guy in
the Air Force.”
There’s a wow factor at home at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force
Base, too. While his 5-year-old son has become a little blasé
about Dad’s job, the 2-year-old is not. “He says ‘Da-Da’
whenever he sees a flag or an airplane,” Venable says.
That may be what keeps Venable aloft after the end of this year.
Pilots are assigned to the Thunderbirds for only two years, which
means when 2001 is over, so is his command.
“I’m looking for my replacement right now,” he says.
He isn’t looking too much beyond that right now. “I want
to stay in the Air Force,” he says. “I like it, and it’s
been good to me.”
Corinne Colbert, BSJ ’87 and MA ’93, is a freelance
writer living in Amesville, Ohio.
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