“He was the total antithesis of the Tom Cruise character. He was calm, even headed, a methodical teacher.”
I had two friends that had been military pilots one a former US Navy pilot, not some high-performance jet, more like the mail plane with propellers, the other Career Air Force that piloted “Puff the Magic Dragon” in RVN, later he spent much of his time chauffeuring brass, it was a job, he said.
One quiet and studious, if you wanted to know about Puff you almost had to pry it out, the other more loquacious on aviation. Both VERY smart.
Both gone now, I wish I could still ask about the A-10 and pilot personality types.
Once we had a discussion on how high birds can fly, they put out some big numbers, which I did not accept.
This was pre-internet, but I knew that the Chicago Tribune had an answer desk.
The answer was (to me) crazy high, sighting from planes, from mountains, and radar!
I miss them.
I was grunt in Vietnam. Got a commission and into Aviation later.
We had “Spooky” (Puff) save our bacon one night.
Your “mail plane with propellers” was probably a C-1 Trader (COD), an S-2F, “Stoof” ASW plane or the Airborne Command version, the “Willy Fudd” (E-1 Tracer). It may have been a later, larger, turboprop version, the C-2 Greyhound. The C-1 and the C-2 both flew the “COD” Carrier Onboard Delivery missions... “mail planes with propellers”
Whatever their missions, these pilots still had to land on aircraft carriers, day or night, in any weather.
My wife & I once hopped a “Liberty Run” on a C-1 COD from Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico to St Thomas, Virgin Islands. It was running parts over to the radar station on St Thomas and had “Space Available”. My wife got a kick out of it!
FWIW, the engines on the C1/E1/S2F were the Wright Cyclone R-1820. This engine powered the B-17, several versions of the DC-3/C-47, the Sikorsky H-34 helicopter and the second airplane I ever flew, the T-28 B/C Trojan. Up to 1425hp on the right grade of AvGas!