After a storied career in the AC-130U Gunship, Colonel Michael J. D’Argenio was tasked by Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) to lead the fielding and deployment of the U-28A Tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (T-ISR) platform in...
Kenneth H. Dahlberg’s amazing life has taken him from the farmlands of Wisconsin to the skies over Europe as a World War II triple ace and on to a hugely successful career as a business entrepreneur. Dahlberg was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1917 but grew up...
COMMBAT CONTROLLER AND SPECIAL TACTICS OFFICER Lieutenant Colonel (ret) Dan Schilling spent more than 30 years in the military, primarily as a Combat Controller and Special Tactics Officer, though he proudly started his career as an infantry grunt. His numerous combat...
F-16 Pilot/CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE AIR FORCE General David L. Goldfein is a Fighter Pilot and the 21st Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. The son of an Air Force colonel, who was also a Fighter Pilot, Gen Goldfein and his two brothers grew up traveling as...
One of Great Britain’s leading aces, William Dennis David, downed 20 enemy aircraft during the Battles of France and Britain. Commissioned in the Royal Air Force in 1938, the 19-year-old Welshman earned his wings in August. His first post was to Hurricanes with...
Graduating from West Point in 1936, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became one of only two black line officers in the US Army at the time–the other was his father. Initially assigned to the infantry in July 1941, he joined 12 cadets in the first flying training program...
Brigadier General George E. “Bud” Day was first selected as an Eagle by Air Command and Staff College’s Gathering of Eagles in 1992 and subsequently honored in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2013 respectively. He was born in Iowa in...
CEO, DEKA Research and development corporation Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and tireless advocate for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As an inventor, he holds over 1,000 patents, many of which are for innovative medical devices that have...
Eugene Deatrick has flown more than 50 types of aircraft and logged more than 12,000 flying hours in a lifetime devoted to aviation. Born in 1924 in Morgantown, West Virginia, Deatrick graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1942. He entered the United States...
Colonel (ret.) Charles B. “Chuck” DeBellevue is America’s top ace of the Vietnam War and the last ace to serve on active duty in the United States Air Force. Colonel DeBellvue was first selected as an Eagle by Air Command and Staff College’s...
Jeff DeBlanc became an “ace” in the Pacific during World War II and earned the Medal of Honor! Born in 1921, DeBlanc grew up in St. Martinsville, Louisiana. After high school and three years of university studies, he entered the Naval Aviation Cadet...
General Rafael del Pino is a former fighter pilot who served at the highest levels in the Cuban Air Force during the Cold War. Born on 22 September 1938, in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Del Pino joined Fidel Castro’s Revolutionary Movement in 1956 and fought with...
Sgt Israel “DT” Del Toro was born on 27 April 1975, in Joliet, Illinios. In 1988, his father died of a heart attack, and a short time later his mother was killed by a drunk driver. As the oldest of four children, and just a teenager, Israel became the...
Dieter Dengler was the only United States military pilot to survive capture by communist forces in Laos and successfully escape. Dengler was born in Wildberg, Germany, in 1938. As a young boy in the small town in the Black Forest, he watched fighter aircraft flying at...
Prayer and covert communication were the biggest weapons we had,” declared Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr., former prisoner of war. Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1924, Denton attended McGill Institute and Spring Hill College. In 1946, Denton received his commission from...
Joseph R. Deslauriers represents the new face of Airmen on the battlefield. Throughout his sixteen-year career, Master Sergeant Deslauriers has deployed in support of numerous operations and has disarmed more than 200 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in support of...
In a 38-year career in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Ron Dick flew over 5000 hours in 60 types of aircraft and was recognized as an exceptionally skillful pilot in both fighters and bombers. Born in 1931 in Northumberland, he grew up in London, where he watched as his...
Captain C. H. “Punch” Dickins, who was born in 1899, is a Canadian ace of World War I and one of his country’s most famous pioneer bush pilots. In 1917 he transferred from the infantry to the Royal Flying Corps and flew 83 combat missions in the DH-9...
Colonel Archie Glen Donahue is a United States Marine Corps Ace credited with 14 confirmed aerial victories in World War II. Colonel Donahue was born on October 24, 1917.in Casper, Wyoming. Donahue dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot early in his childhood. Donahue...
“That Others May Live” is the motto of the USAF Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service–Frederic M. “Marty” Donohue more than lived up to that motto! During his career, he flew 132 combat missions and conducted over 100 peacetime rescues....
Lt. Gen James H. Doolittle was first selected by Air Command and Staff College’s Gathering of Eagles in 1982 and subsequently honored in 1982. “Jimmy” Doolittle, born in 1896, has repeatedly pushed back the frontiers of aviation technology while making his...
Dr. Natalie Crawford is a senior fellow and distinguished chair for Air and Space Policy at the RAND Corp. She has excelled in many roles most notably as vice president and director of Project Air Force. Dr. Crawford shaped RAND’s research projects focused on...
Benjamin Alvin Drew, Jr. is a NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel who completed two space flights and was the 200th person to walk in space. Drew was born on 5 November 1962 in Washington, D.C. He graduated from the United States Air Force...
William “Willy” Driscoll, and his pilot Randy “Duke” Cunningham, were America’s first aces of the Vietnam War. Driscoll, born in 1947, earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from Stonehill College in 1968. In 1970, he received...
Bomber Pilot A. G. “Tony” Dudgeon claims he has the “Luck of the Devil. ” Born in Egypt in 1916, he yearned to be a pilot, and at age 17, was accepted to the RAF College at Cranwell. Despite his preference for fighters, he was posted to 11...
The tenth man to walk on the moon, Charles M. “Charlie” Duke, Jr. never dreamed he would be a member of such an elite group of Americans when he was growing up in South Carolina. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina on 3 October 1935, Duke was the 1953...
Gottfried P. Dulias was born on 25 June 1925 in his family home in Germany during the start of Adolph Hitler’s rise to power. As a young boy, he had a relatively normal upbringing in a well-to-do family in Konigsberg, capital of the former German Province of...
Michael Durant was the first helicopter pilot to engage a SCUD missile launcher during Operation DESERT STORM. Born on July 23, 1961, Durant was the son of a full-time First Sergeant in the Army National Guard and grew up in Berlin, New Hampshire. His interest in...
