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James I. McDaniel, born in Fort Myers, Florida on May 30, 1944. Fort Myers High School class of 1962 (same class as "American Graffiti" --
I think I saw my 1951 Ford Victoria in the background of the movie when they were crusin' the strip).
I attended Florida State University from 1963-65. In December 1965, as a Junior, I stayed out a semester to work when money ran low.
Didn't last long -- I got my letter from the draft board before January was over. Was sworn in at Coral Gables, FL as a Private E-1 on
April 6, 1966. Basic at Ft. Polk, LA. Attended Warrant Officer flight class 67-3 at Ft. Wolters, Texas and Ft. Rucker, Alabama,
graduating and receiving my Army pilot's wings in April 1967.
I arrived at Cam Rahn Bay in May 1967, and after my first Chinook ride (to Chu Lai), caught a 174th Dolphin slick down to Duc Pho.
From May till November 1967 I flew UH-1D Dolphin slicks, and from November till June 1968 I flew UH-1C Shark gunships.
I was just a snot-nosed kid fresh out of college who couldn't even grow a moustache yet. Some
of my photos and descriptions are scattered around the 174th home page -- see the 1967 and 1968 pages.
Because we had a lot of pilots from my flight class (67-3) assigned to the unit at the same time (which meant we'd all leave at the
same time a year later), I was caught up in a DEROS-shuffle in late 1967. I was offered the "opportunity" to transfer to another helicopter unit or, if
I wanted to stay in the 174th, I'd have to "voluntarily" extend for an additional 30 days. I didn't want to leave the Sharks, so
I wound up coming home in June 1968 instead of May.
I returned to Florida and married my FSU sweetheart (Charlotte Anne), who I'd started dating my freshman year in 1963. After a short honeymoon to New York city, I
reported to Hunter AAF (Savannah, GA) and served as an instrument flight instructor from 1968 to 1970. Whereas most flights focused on only basic
instrument flying or advanced instruments, my flight did both. We took students all the way through instrument training --
basic instrument flying the Bell TH-13s and advanced instruments in Hueys. They say if you really want to learn how to do something, teach it!
That is so true, and I got a lot of experience in instrument flying. I would be thankful of that assignment throughout my flying career
(both in the Army and afterward), as I was always comfortable with instrument flying. For example, having repeatedly (for three years) demonstrated
cross-cockpit full instrument takeoffs (ITOs) from the co-pilot's seat (the students were in the pilot's seat) you will get an understanding and
ability that is hard to pick up otherwise.
I put that training to good use my second tour when I was sitting on a hill-top Fire Support Base (FSB) way out west of Chu Lai in Indian country, during monsoon season, and the
clouds closed in on me while on the landing pad. I was sitting there at flight idle in a white-out. After a few minutes, with visibility at essentially zero,
we began to take VC mortars on the fire base. The bad-guys knew I was there -- they could hear me on the pad I'm sure. I was in the left seat (co-pilot's seat),
and I got everyone onboard and took off with zero-zero visibility. Having demonstrated it so often to students while teaching in flight school,
I did a zero-airspeed vertical climb-out from the landing pad. I continued the instrument climb till we broke out on top above 10,000 feet, then turned
east toward the South China Sea till I was picked up by Chu Lai GCA. They brought me home. Had I not had the experience as an instrument instructor,
I probably would not have been able to accomplish a take off like that "on such short notice."
My first son, Scott, was born in Savannah in 1970. I took a direct commission from CW2 to 1LT in the Air Defense Artillery (ADA) branch in 1970, and I got my
fixed wing commercial and instrument ratings through the GI bill in 1970. En route to my second tour in Nam in 1971, I went through the Department of the Army
Instructor Pilot and Instrument Flight Examiner schools.
On my second tour in 1971 I was a Captain, back with the 14th Combat Aviation Battalion (CAB) for a second time. I flew the same area of operations (AO) in Americal Division
(again), but this time with the 116 AHC Hornets. LAM SON 719 was in full swing when I got back in country. I'd asked to go back into the 174th, but
I was told the 174th had lost many of their aircraft in Laos and didn't need that many pilots right then. The 116th, that was supporting the entire Division
at Chu Lai, was hurting for pilots. So that's where I went. LZ MaryAnn was overrun while I was in-processing at the Americal Combat Center.
In the 116th, I became the unit Standardization Instructor Pilot (SIP) and unit Instrument Flight Examiner (IFE). I stayed in
slicks the whole tour. I had asked to go back into the guns (the "Stingers"), but the Old Man had a gun platoon leader but he didn't have an SIP.
I became Hornet 20 and the unit SIP. We lived on the beach at Chu Lai until the
Americal Division stood down, right after Typhoon Hester tore everything up. That's when we closed down Chu Lai and gave it back to the VC
(there wasn't that much left after Typhoon Hester anyway).
Interesting: I was flying Hueys for Americal when they formed in 1967, and was flying Hueys for them when they stood down
in 1971. Would you believe we were still putting combat assaults into the same rice paddys and LZ's in 1971 that we were in
1967? True! And practically all the same Fire Support Bases (FSBs) were still there and active, except we'd moved
further out to the west in 1971. Let's see, I believe FSB Professional was one that'd been closed down in 1971, and
FSB's Siberia and Maryann were two new ones.
We then moved to Marble Mountain (near DaNang) after we closed Chu Lai, and I lived there awhile before I finished my tour living at "Gunfighter Village" on the main DaNang
air base (with the pilots from a USAF F-4 Phantom squadron with the call sign Gunfighters). I was the SIP for an "ad hoc"
joint unit charged with training Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) pilots to fly all those Hueys we were giving them as U.S.
helicopter units stood down. Can you say "Vietnamization?" MAN, what a JOB! In most cases language was the most
difficult part of teaching flying: "We go up now." "We go down now." "I have the controls!" Whew! I finished
up my second tour just before Christmas 1971 with 1700 total combat flight hours, basic load of Air Medals (44), Purple Heart, etc.
After returning from Nam to Ft. Riley, KS, I spent SIX YEARS in ADA ground assignments in CONUS and Germany as battery commander,
operations officer, and ADA Group (brigade-level) S-2 (Intelligence Officer). Just after I was assigned as a battery commander at Ft. Riley in
a Chaparral/Vulcan battalion in the First Infantry Division (Big Red One), the entire battalion came down on
Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders for Germany. We were the Big Red One's organic Air Defense battalion, and as the 1st ID was the "Reforger"
unit then, they shipped their Air Defense unit to Germany to be able to participate in Reforger. During non-Reforger times (which was most
of the time) we were assigned to the 32nd Army Air Defense Command. When assigned as the Group S-2, we had the low-altitude air defense responsibilities
for Kaiserslautern, Permaisens Army Depot, Bitburg AFB, Hahn AFB, Spangdallem AFB, Ramstein AFB, Sembach AFB, and some others. It was certainly an interesting time.
I logged ZERO flight time during those years, as it was a "Category B" assignment (meaning non-flying), and at that post-Vietnam
time in the mid-1970s, if you had over 1,500 flight hours and was in a Cat. B assignment, you were "prohibited" from "performing air crew duties." Bummer.
A lot of my friends, really good pilots and officers, got caught up in the post-Vietnam draw-down and were "let go" in the Army's Reduction-in-Force" (RIF).
As I recall there were three separate RIFs, and by the end of the third one the ranks had been considerably thinned. I think the only thing that saved me was
the fact I'd returned from Vietnam and, being an ADA officer, had gotten good reports as an ADA battery commander. Many of my friends had remained in the cockpit,
and those officers without what they called "branch material" assignments were swept away in the RIF flood. Too bad.
My second son, Mason, was born in Germany in 1973 at the large military hospital complex at Lanstuhl, near Kaiserslautern. The family now numbered four.
We returned from Germany in 1975 to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas for the ADA Officer Advanced Course. Following completion of the advanced course, I was
accepted into the "degree completion" program for my bachelors degree, and I went to school full time at the University of Texas at El Paso.
There I learned to eat Mexican food -- HOT! This arrangement worked well for me, as I was allowed to stay in government quarters at Bliss while attending college.
I finished my bachelors degree at El Paso in 1977, then got lucky and was accepted into fixed wing transition course at Ft. Rucker.
I transitioned through T-42s (Beech Barons) to U-21s (King Airs) to C-12s (Super King Airs).
In 1978 I was assigned to the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Flight Detachment at Ft. Monroe, Virginia, supporting the Commanding General and
his staff. The CG was General Donn Starry when I arrived. I became the unit executive officer and flew UH-1s, T-42s, U-21s, and C-12s. What a wonderful job --
a glorified taxi driver!
Great taxi's though.
While at TRADOC, I started a master's degree program attending school at nights with the George Washington University's extension program. Being a "gadget guy,"
I selected computers as my major field of study. When I left TRADOC in 1980, I was able to get the Army's Automatic Data Processing (ADP) school en route to
my next assignment, and I was assigned an "alternate specialty" of ADP Officer. Interesting that my primary specialty was Artillery Officer and ADP was my alternate.
My qualifications as a Senior Army Aviator was considered a distant third.
Following TRADOC (and the ADP school) I went to Washington, DC and served on the
Army staff at the Pentagon. I was on the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) staff as a computer guy working on battlefield automation systems.
Remember, this is 1981 -- prior to the introduction of the "personal computer." We were coding in FORTRAN and Basic languages. We still had IBM cards.
I bought my first "home computer" then, a Timex Sinclair 1000 (you don't want to know), followed shortly by a Commodore-64. It didn't even have a floppy drive.
Had to load programs using an audio cassette tape with mini-phone plugs to the computer. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I got a 5-1/4" floppy
disk drive. I completed my masters degree in 1982 while at the Pentagon.
In 1982 I branch transferred out of ADA branch and became a charter member of the new AVIATION BRANCH when it was formed. My number three specialty now
became my number one specialty. Yeeehah! I still have my Aviation Branch Charter Member coin.
Following the Pentagon job, I went to Davison AAF at Ft. Belvoir, VA, just south of DC's beltway. Initially I was the Chief of Flight Training,
in charge of the command's instructor pilots and Synthetic Flight Training System (SFTS), then I became the Airfield Commander for the remainder of my time
there, 1983-85.
From Davison I joined the National Defense University faculty at Ft. McNair, DC in 1985 as the Computer Security Department Chairman for the
DOD Computer Institute. I supervised a staff of instructors who taught computer security to mid- and senior-level military managers, and we provided
consulting services to military organizations.
My final military assignment was as a liaison officer for the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters in Washington DC.
Somehow I got them to designate it as a Category A (flight slot) assignment. I joined the FAA's headquarters flight program and, through the
years, have flown Beech Barons and both the Cessna Citation V and the Citation Excel business jets. What great scooters -- who'd have thought
a Cessna would fly over 425 knots and climb to 45,000 feet. Included is a photo of N2, one of the Citation Excels I often flew.
I worked in FAA headquarters as a "plain-clothes" Lieutenant Colonel from 1987 until I retired in 1990 (just under 25 years
active duty). I then stayed on as a real-live bureaucrat with the FAA doing research and development (R&D). I managed the
FAA's Civil Tiltrotor Program and the Vertical Flight Program in the early 1990's (basically rotorcraft R&D). I left the rotorcraft business several
years later (my boss called it career broadening?) to do other FAA work in the areas of oceanic data link, aeronautical hazards, aeronautical
data link research, advanced avionics, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B). I am still at FAA headquarters and am
currently working on advanced technologies R&D. Am trying to help expedite the fielding of new, cool "stuff" into the National Airspace System.
Lots of interests and hobbies. Some include:
 Family -- Both boys are now grown, married, and (most importantly)
support themselves and their families with REAL grown-up JOBS! My kids are great! They both work in the technology field and live in the
Washington DC area. My oldest son Scott and his wife Michelle live near us and made Char and me grand parents for the first
time on March 19, 1999. Grandfatherdom: What a Grand Institution! It just don't get much better than grandchildren! (Ask
any Grandpa.) Mason and his wife Amy also live nearby and provided us with a grandson in August 2005. It's great having
them all so close. We get together often. Wonderful kids! I still have my FSU sweetheart (pictured here with an early photo
of our granddaughter -- I think Grandma is enjoying the Elmo computer game as much as our granddaughter).
Free Masonry -- I am an Ancient Free and Accepted Master Mason
at Acacia Lodge No. 16 in Clifton, Virginia, a fine brotherhood of men. I am also a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Free Mason and
a Shriner with KENA Temple in Fairfax, Virginia. I play that old Scottish Warhorn (the bagpipes), and am the Pipe Major for
the KENA Highlanders Pipe and Drum band.
Family genealogy -- and research of my Clan Donald Scottish
ancestors and history. I am active in Clan Donald U.S.A. I continue to research my family lines and have two lines back
to the 1500s. Lots of work remaining to document sources, however. Genealogy is a hobby you just NEVER reach the end of.
Antique cars -- I own and restored a 1951 flathead V-8
Ford black-and-white sheriff's cruiser. I often take it on Club tours, to car shows, and through the years have supported several law enforcement
agencies in parades and displays. The first photo above of the old Ford was taken at a Police Officers memorial service for
the Arlington, Virginia police department. Until recently I also had a "driver" 1952 Ford flathead V-8 F-1 "Fat-Fender" pickup. Great
little truck! Although I had to get rid of the truck because I didn't have a place to keep it and I just couldn't stand to see
it rust away out in the rain and snow, I just can't bring myself to remove the photo. Loved that old truck.
Both the car and truck are almost completely original (except for safety reasons I installed seat belts and run radial tires on both),
and everything on both of them works (including the siren and all lights on the cruiser). Both have recently
received new (well, 55-year-old rebuilt) flathead V-8 engines. I drive the cruiser a lot, and all the local cops wave and
the kids stare! A fun (but expensive) hobby.
Computers -- I have had a home computer since the "dawn of
civilization" (PRE-Commodore 64), and am Internet webmaster for this site.
Doting Grandfather Pictures Below
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