Jack enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1956 and served his entire two year hitch in Southern California, mostly at Camp Pendleton. After a little over a year at several jobs in California and Seattle, Washington, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in November, 1959. Given a choice of base assignment he selected Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada. After winning base airman of the month in May 1960 he was rewarded with a flight in the supersonic F-100 aircraft. This spurred him to apply for officer training. He entered the Officer Candidate program in January 1961 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in June 1961. Fortunately he was one of the few to receive a pilot training assignment to Vance AFB, OK, and won his pilot wings in October 1962. Graduating as top pilot gave him the opportunity to pick a fighter aircraft, the F-100 at Luke AFB, AZ. After that training was complete he was selected to fly the next six years with assignments to McConnell AFB, KS (twice), Germany, and a combat tour in Southeast Asia during 1967. The 100 missions over North Vietnam resulted in numerous decorations including 3 Silver Stars presented by President Lyndon Johnson at McConnell AFB. Jack’s mother, Ruth Phillips, had a wonderful time that day and got to meet the president! Subsequent assignments included: staff officer, aide-de-camp for a 3 star general (and his personal pilot), operations officer for an F-4 Phantom squadron, and chief of flight simulation for Tactical Air Command. Jack elected to decline an assignment to the Pentagon and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel with 20 years service.
