Page 7 - February 2015 Volume 9, Number 2

o Served
h
This is exactly the type of support Walter Fricke envisioned when he started Veterans Airlift Command. The wounded have a better chance to heal when their spirits are lifted by family, a lesson he learned the hard way: he spent most of six months in the hospital with 700 miles separating him from family after he was injured in 1968 while serving in the Vietnam War.
A Vietnam vet giving back
Fricke is a decorated former Army aviator, having flown hundreds of combat missions as an Army helicopter pilot with the 68th Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam. He received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with the Silver Star and palm, two Bronze Stars, 21 air medals and a Purple Heart.
An instrument-rated commercial airplane and helicopter pilot with multi-engine land and sea ratings, Fricke flies at airshows around the United States in support of VAC as part of a T-28 warbird aerobatic formation demonstration team called the Trojan Horsemen. He collects and flies vintage and warbird aircraft including a Great Lakes, Waco, Staggerwing and Grumman Widgeon.
Fricke started VAC in 2006 after retiring from a career as an executive with GMAC-Residential Funding Corporation and then as founding president and executive director of the Homeownership Preservation Foundation. He serves as the chairman and CEO, and
Army Sgt. Eric Hunter after a VAC flight. (PHOTO CREDIT: MAX HAYNES)
care for a month but his wife, Allison, a retired Army captain and Blackhawk pilot, hadn’t yet visited him due to the pregnancy.
Breg wasn’t recovering well and needed the support of his wife. Harris flew the family to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where they boarded a second VAC-coordinated aircraft that would take them to San Antonio. The Veterans Airlift Command, a national network of volunteer aircraft owners and pilots, provides free air transportation for medical and other compassionate purposes to post-9/11 combat-wounded soldiers and their families.
Breg would go on to spend four months in the hospital and endure more than 20 surgeries. Now a retired major, he is working toward his Master of Business Administration at the University of Chicago and a career as a financial adviser.
FEBRUARY 2015
Veterans Airlift Command Founder Walt Fricke assisting Army Ranger MSG Cedric King after a flight. (PHOTO CREDIT: MAX HAYNES)
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 5