On April 11, 1974, Lt. Brian Shul was shot down over Vietnam while flying an AT-28D Trojan as part of a covert mission along the Cambodian border. Unable to eject, Shul, a US Air Force pilot serving as an adviser with the CIA’s Air America program, had to crash-land into the jungle..“[I was] completely blind, as my helmet visor had melted,” Shul later recalled. “I did everything by feel.” By some miracle, he climbed out of the wreckage, and waited for the rescue team he hoped would arrive..A rescue helicopter did arrive, but there was nowhere to set it down. Instead, it hovered while the rescue team pulled Shul from the brush and hoisted him into the chopper “like a sack of rice.”.The ordeal would just be the beginning. According to a social media post from his sister, Maureen Shul, on Monday, Shul was speaking in front of a large military group in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday night. He died later that night. He was 75..As was his custom, he ended the event by signing copies of his books — he wrote several, including 'Sled Driver, Flying the World’s Fastest Jet' that chronicled his experiences flying the SR-71 Blackbird..According to the post, “After his speech and after the book signing Brian suffered a heart attack and collapsed.” .After the daring helicopter rescue in Vietnam, Shul was first flown first to a hospital in Thailand, where doctors predicted that he would die en route to the intensive-care burn unit in Okinawa. Somehow, he survived. From Okinawa, Shul was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. There, the doctors made another grim prognosis, telling Shul that he would never fly again..Sorry pal, your flying days are over, they said..Boy, were they ever wrong. During the year he spent at BAMC, he underwent 15 surgeries and endured intense physical therapy. But just two days after being released from the hospital, Shul took to the skies in a jet fighter and checked the necessary boxes to retain his pilot qualifications..Back in the cockpit, Shul continued to build upon his remarkable career..In 1977, he was recruited into the first-ever operational A-10 squadron. He also became an instructor at the USAF's Fighter Lead-In School, rising to become the Chief of Air-to-Ground Academics..And then, the big one … Shul was tapped to become a so-called “Sled Driver,” the nickname for the pilots of the world’s fastest spy plane: the SR-71 Blackbird..He had reached the absolute pinnacle of flying. Nothing but the X-15 flew faster or higher.. SR-71The SR-71 Blackbird, the world's fastest jet. .His missions took place at the height of the Cold War. Shul described being chased by Russian MiGs that couldn’t catch the SR-71 and added that the flights were often frightening and very fatiguing — since they required eight hours in the cockpit — but were also rewarding..But he returned to combat in 1986. President Ronald Reagan had ordered bombing missions against military targets in Libya, and it was up to Shul to gather photographic evidence of the damage..Moammar Gadhafi had established the “line of death” across the Gulf of Sidra and vowed to shoot down any intruder who tried to enter..Shul would put that fear aside, and take the biggest gamble of his life..“On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph,” Shul wrote for a website, adding that surface-to-air missiles (SAMS) had targeted his aircraft. “The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit.”.Shul reached Mach 3.5 and successfully outran the missiles to return to base..Shul was a favorite speaker at airshows, fly-ins, and aviation museums..He would often tell audiences declassified technical information about the once-super-secret SR-71, including details as to how the windows of the aircraft would get as hot as a pizza oven and he would heat up his lunch..It had to be consumed through a straw — since the flight crew wore astronaut pressure suits and helmets — by holding the tube of food against the window with his gloved hand..He would retire from the Air Force in 1990. clocking more than 5,000 hours of flight time and hundreds of combat missions..(With files from Flying magazine.)
