In his lifetime, Richard E. Merkling saw four wars, flew over four hundred combat missions, piloted all the fighters the Air Force had during his thirty-four years of service, and shaped world history.
Toy kites and Amelia Earhart inspired his love of flight. He learned to fly in the Army Air Corps during World War II, before the Air Force ever existed. He was offered an opportunity to become an astronaut. He got into a dogfight with a Russian pilot in the skies over North Korea. He test fired the first jet-launched nuclear missile. He brought the C-17, the A-10, the F-15, and the F-16 to the Air Force. He planned the air attack to destroy the Soviet nuclear missiles during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. His refusal of the Nixon White HouseÕs offer of nuclear missiles and the alternative he planned and executed helped end the war in Vietnam.
These are his stories as he told them.