We talk with members of USAF Pilot Training Class 62A, whose careers would take them from the Cold War into Vietnam and some of the most consequential events in modern Air Force history.
They arrived at pilot training from remarkably different backgrounds and left with assignments that would scatter them around the world. Over the decades that followed, members of 62A would fly nearly every kind of Air Force mission imaginable—and experience moments of extraordinary courage, tragedy, ingenuity, and sheer luck.
Some of their most remarkable stories have rarely been told.
More than six decades later, the friendships forged in pilot training have endured. The class, originating from five different bases, continued gathering for reunions all over the U.S. every two years for the last 20 years, preserving the memories of classmates who have taken their final flight and maintaining a bond that began in 1960.
On November 16th, members of Class 62A join the Veterans Breakfast Club to take us inside Air Force pilot training at the beginning of the jet age.
Our guests will include:
Colonel John C. Attebury, USAF, Retired
John Attebury entered the Air Force Aviation Cadet program in 1955, earning his navigator wings and commission before returning to training in 1960 to become a pilot. During 32 years in the Air Force, he served at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam and flew aircraft ranging from the B-25 and RC-121 to the C-141 and C-5, accumulating more than 20,000 flying hours. He is a graduate of the Air War College and holds a BBA from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Illinois.
After retiring from the Air Force, he served as an FAA aviation safety inspector. At age 91, Attebury still builds and flies his own airplanes, teaches friends and family on his flight simulator, and conducts flight reviews for fellow Class 62A pilots who want to keep flying.
Colonel Cliff Tatum, USAF, Retired
Cliff Tatum was born in southern Florida and moved to New York City at age eight. As a young actor, he appeared in 80 network television programs, two Broadway productions—Annie Get Your Gun and The Hot Corner—and the film Room for One More. He performed alongside many leading stars of the era, including Cary Grant and Ronald Colman.
Tatum had always wanted to become a fighter pilot. Just 14 days after earning his BBA, he entered Undergraduate Pilot Training with Class 62A. He later earned a master’s degree and completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development, Air Force Fighter Weapons School, and Air War College. During his Air Force career, he flew the F-102, F-4C/D/E, F-84F, and the U.S. Navy’s A-7E. On the final carrier cruise of the Vietnam War, he completed 152 arrested landings—or “traps”—including 52 at night. He remembers every one of those night traps to this day.
Colonel David F. Tippett, USAF, Retired
David Tippett entered the Air Force through ROTC after graduating from Allegheny College in 1960. During his career, he flew the F-102, F-4C/D/E, F-4 Wild Weasel, and F-16A. He completed a combat tour at Ubon, Thailand, flying missions over heavily defended North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder.
A graduate of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School and Army War College, Tippett served in senior operational and command positions, eventually commanding an F-16 wing. Alongside his accounts of combat, Tippett has a rich collection of stories capturing the mischief, humor, and camaraderie of Air Force life—including one escapade that unexpectedly attracted attention at the four-star level.
Shana Intille Wilcox, Volunteer Historian for Class 62A
Shana Intille Wilcox graduated from UT-Austin in only two years, then earned an M.A. from Yale University and completed postgraduate studies at the École Polytechnique, France’s military-affiliated grande école. Her career included investment banking in Paris and New York with Citigroup and Rothschild, strategy consulting at McKinsey, and CFO of Teris.
Her professional accomplishments include privatizing casinos in Argentina, co-leading the $1 billion sale of a New Jersey water utility to a French company, and raising $75 million in U.S. municipal bonds for a French hazardous waste company. One of her proudest personal accomplishments came in 2021, when the pilots of Class 62A made her an honorary member of her father’s Air Force pilot class.
