Milam will recount harrowing episodes in his test pilot career like the time he became disoriented in an F-16 while flying between two mountain ridges near Edwards Air Force Base and pulled up just minutes before he would have bottomed out.
“Out-of-control flight in the F-16 was a tough problem to solve,” said Milam, who spent most of his career working to improve the performance of the F-16.
He also flew the F-16 in the 1981 Dayton Air Fair.
Milam, 69, was born in Tucson, Ariz., but at the age of 4, moved to Pueblo, Colo. where he graduated from Central High School.
“The Air Force Academy was just getting started and they used to come down to Pueblo to play their football games in our stadium,” said Milam, who graduated from the Air Force Academy with a BS in aeronautical engineering in 1963.
“It was only 41 miles from the Academy to my house.”
Milam, who is an Eagle Scout, was accepted into flight training and graduated with the Outstanding Student Award before training as a fighter pilot flying the F-100.
His first assignment was at the British Wethersfield Air Base, where he and his unit were responsible for maintaining the nuclear alert at Aviano in Italy and Ciggli Air Base in Turkey. In 1968, he completed a tour in Vietnam.
“I arrived in Vietnam on my birthday and I left on my birthday,” said Milam, who celebrates his birthday on July 12.
In 1969, Milam returned to study and complete an MS degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Arizona.
A one-year tour teaching thermodynamics and fluid dynamics at the US Military Academy at West Point in New York was followed by an assignment at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where he flew 60 different types of aircraft, but spent much of his time testing the F-16 fighter.
In addition to testing the planes, Milam also later served as an instructor at the test pilot school.
Milam also served as the deputy in the B-1B program and eventually was named Chief of Staff of Acquisitions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
In 1990, he married his wife, Donna, a program manager at the base.
The couple has two children; Julie Hangen, a 2005 graduate of Centerville High School who is completing a PhD. in physical therapy at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and David Jr., a junior at CHS.
After retiring from the Air Force in 1993, Milam became the president and CEO of Wright Technology Network, a position he held until 2003.
Milam currently works part time as a program manager for the Advanced Virtual Engine Test Cell in Springfield.
He is a past board member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, a founding board member of The Entrepreneur Center in Dayton, and an elder at Southminster Presbyterian Church.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
About the Author