There’s almost nothing better for retired Capt. Bob Ford than being 4,000 feet in the air in an aircraft.
Ford took to the sky and flew an airplane on last Saturday for the first time since he was a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War.
“When you’re in a machine that does what you want it to do, and you get up in the air, you just think, ‘How neat is this?'” Ford said.
In 2019, Ford read an article about retired Air Force Lt. Col. Deirdre Gurry, a former squadron commander at Vance Air Force Base and former director at Enid Woodring Regional Airport, and her flying to all 108 public airports in Oklahoma. He then asked her to come to Okeene Public Schools to give a Veterans Day speech.
Gurry said “she was amazed” by Ford and her day at the school. Ford had student council members at the front door to take Gurry on a tour to the classrooms before the assembly and told students to ask her questions. Afterward, she wanted to do something nice for Ford in return.
Ford had hinted he would like to fly in Gurry’s Van’s RV6, a homebuilt, two-seat, low-wing airplane, so they began planning a trip to the sky, but the COVID-19 pandemic derailed their plans until last weekend when it finally came together.
Ford and Gurry flew from Woodring to Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford on July 3, about a 30-minute flight.
“You have two people that have the same motivation, went through a lot of the same type of training, and you’re with somebody that’s a real professional, really good, and you’re up the air, nobody around, and it’s just you in the sky — tremendous feeling,” Ford said.
Ford served from July 1967 to July 1968 with the 282nd Assault Co., nicknamed the “Black Cats,” and flew more than 1,000 missions. The only time he went up in an airplane was with a forward air controller.
Ford is originally from Shawnee and currently is vice chairman of the board of Shawnee Mills, which his grandfather started. After his military service, Ford moved to Okeene to manage the Okeene Milling Company.
Since the war, Ford has flown helicopters. Most recently, about 10 years ago, he was asked to fly in a Huey helicopter over a parade honoring Medal of Honor winners in Denison, Texas. In 2015, he published a book, “Black Cat 2-1,” a memoir about his life as a helicopter pilot.
Gurry said she was surprised when she heard that Ford had not flown a plane since Vietnam.
“I asked him, ‘When was the last time you flew in a little airplane?’ I figured he’d say, ’10 or 20 years ago’ or whatever, and then he says, ‘Probably since Vietnam,'” Gurry said.
Gurry took off and landed, but she handed the reins over to Ford while they were up in the air, joking that Ford — who is used to flying helicopters as most of his missions were flown between two and 10 feet off the ground — kept wanting to descend.
“I gave him the airplane and said, ‘OK, you can fly,’ and slowly he started to descend, and I’m like ‘You’re doing the thing that you do,'” Gurry said with a laugh. “He was like, ‘Hey, I can’t help it. As a helicopter pilot, we never got too far above the ground. I’m more comfortable down there.'”
Ford, complimenting Gurry on her skills as an aviator, said the ride was “as smooth as silk” from beginning to end and that he enjoyed the view of Oklahoma’s landscape from up high.
No matter what he flies — whether a helicopter or a plane — Ford said it’s like riding a bicycle.
“You never lose it,” he said. “You always just feel great when you get back in the cockpit. It all comes back.”
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