L.A. Times Article...Taking Flight with Ace Advice      Click Here to open pdf.

Paso Robles Press Article...Driscoll Honored by Warbirds   Click Here to open pdf.

Ronald Regan Crew Welcomes Driscoll Article    Click Here to open pdf.

Stonehill College: Article

Commander William P. Driscoll '68, U.S.N.R., one of the most highly decorated living Naval Aviators of the last fifty years, has a message for people of all ages. Whether his audience is a classroom of Navy jet fighter pilots going through the TopGun Course Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, an auditorium filled with Stonehill students, Lou Holtz, and the University of Notre Dame football team or the youngsters he coaches on the little league baseball and soccer teams in his community, his message is always the same - make a commitment to do your best, stay focused and persevere. It's as simple as that.

What is not simple is developing the self-discipline that it takes to accomplish your objectives, to do the very best that you are capable of doing no matter how difficult the task. Bill explained his philosophy to a group of Stonehill students at the Joseph W. Martin Jr. Institute of Law and Society during a visit to the college in April. He mesmerized the students with his unclassified version of the "Air Combat" presentation that he delivers to every TopGun class.

And Bill is qualified to speak on the subjects of winning and losing. He received his Navy Wings of Gold in 1970. His twenty-year career flying Navy jet fighter planes, he found, was a continual exercise in the survival of the fittest. Mentally, physically and psychologically he had to always be at his best. During his Navy career, Bill acquired approximately 3,200 hours of jet fighter flight time, flew 200 combat missions in Vietnam, and achieved distinction as a member of the Navy's only team of flying Aces (fighter pilots with a shootdown record during combat of five enemy planes). Bill has received the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, The Purple Heart, 10 Air Medals, and a nomination for the Medal of Honor, as well as serving as a TopGun instructor. Only one out of every 2,500 pilots make it to TopGun and even fewer pilots who have flown fighter planes in combat become aces. Despite his many achievements, Bill remains a modest person.

"I see myself as a normal, everyday, average guy. I don't see myself as anything special, just a guy who did his job and did what I was trained to do. We (my pilot, Congressman Randy Cunningham and myself) were confident in our ability to do what had to be done and enjoyed the challenge of having to work through intense pressure to accomplish our objectives. We never thought about failure, although we faced many life-threatening adversities and problems. We knew how to get through them because we had been well trained and we are confident in our ability to succeed. Make no mistake, I thank the good Lord for that, and I thank the Navy for providing me with the training I needed to be able to succeed. We were lucky in many areas, but we were also well prepared. We knew what we were doing.

Bill taught at TopGun for four years. Three years ago he was invited back by the prestigious flight school to be a permanent guest lecturer, and to give the "Air Combat" presentation. This presentation focuses on winning and losing as it relates to today's high speed, sophisticated jet dogfights. Bill emphasizes the importance of the proper preparation necessary to achieve success in this high stress air combat environment. Although Bill mainly speaks to TopGun classes, he feels that anyone who strives for excellence under very stressful conditions would benefit from this motivational lecture. (Lour Holtz, head football coach at the University of Notre Dame, asked Bill to speak to his players last year the night before their big game with USC.)

According to Bill, today's highly complex $40 million jet fighter planes have more than 300 different cockpit positions, nine computers and 80 displays. The planes can fly at speeds in excel of 1,200 miles per hour and can sustain "G" forces in excess of 7.5 times the earth's gravity. A typical catapult launch of a 34-ton fighter jet off the flightdeck of an aircraft carrier takes less than two seconds, with the aircraft accelerating to more than 160 miles per hour during that time. (The force involved in this launch could shoot a brand new Lincoln Continental automobile eight miles out to sea.)
However, despite all this expensive equipment and sophisticated technology, air combat today is still reduced to pilot against pilot in a viciously violent "G" dogfight to the death.
Bill's "Air Combat" lecture is an intense three-hour presentation delivered to every TopGun class a few days before they graduate. An important objective of the presentation is to help the students understand the incredible range of psychological and emotional feelings that they will experience while they are engaged in these dogfights.

As Bill says, "The real world dogfight is an intense struggle with your life or death hanging in the balance. It usually occurs over hostile territory at low altitudes within visual range of large numbers of enemy fighters. There is only one rule: No matter what, don't lose. It is also most obvious who wins. The end comes with a fiery explosion for the loser. During these dogfights, the tension, anxiety and pressure are almost unbearable. Of course, our opponents had to deal with the same problems. However, we honestly believed that we were better prepared to handle this pressure. And that was the biggest key to our success: win the preparation battle, control your emotions and victory in the ensuing dogfight was sure to follow. It was also very important to always fly your plane very aggressively with supreme confidence regardless of the situation. This involved capitalizing on any mistakes made by your opponent. Most dogfights are won because we beat an opponent, but rather because an opponent made a fatal mistake and we capitalized on it. The opponent beat himself."

During the lecture, Bill conveys to the pilots a sense of levels of apprehension, tension, anxiety and fear that they will experience during different phases of combat missions. But, he tells them they mist maintain a certain degree of mastery over their emotional response and psychological outlook in order to survive. Pointedly, the ability to to perform under this acute pressure is essential and failure to perform may cost them their lives.

Bill explains his approach with the students at TopGun, "It's very important to me that these TopGun pilots understand in blunt language what they are getting into and some of what real air combat is going to be like. We therefore discuss mental, physical, emotional and psychological preparation as it relates to combat. I emphasize that if they adhere to basic combat rested techniques, then they will do just fine. What's important after preparations are completed: They must have the willingness to engage the enemy pilot in mortal combat. Without this willingness, they will never succeed in air combat regardless of how sophisticated the planes are or how long they've prepared. I also emphasize that if they think they can win, they will, if they don't think they can win, they won't. They must realize that if they are serious about dealing with the emotional-psychological pressures of air combat, then it's critically important for them to start acting themselves into this new way of thinking. Do you think you can become an ace? If you think you can: Great. Now, stop thinking about becoming an ace and start acting like one. Our experience is that only one-tenth of one percent of all combat fighter pilots actually become acres. They are the ones who have that unique ability to perform well under this excruciating pressure. Typically, these aviators are bond fide, unadulterated overachievers. I the world of the fighter pilot, great flying talent is nice, but not a prerequisite. Fighter pilots with even average ability can get to the top of their profession if they're willing to work very hard and remain totally committed to their goals."

Bill explains that there is a uniquely special camaraderie and friendship that exists among the pilots when they are training and flying together. The camaraderie still exists today at gatherings and reunions of pilots and TopGun instructors. "You can't fly with a guy in the same plane or as his wingman in this environment and not have a uniquely special bond. As a former TopGun instructor, I still stay in touch with 75 percent of the aviators who were on the staff when I was there."

"I found the character of men who are attracted to Naval fighter aviation and TopGun to be remarkably high. They are intensely motivated and disciplined, very clear on where they want to go and how they want to get there. They are excellent under pressure. Aviators who qualify for the TopGun course do not just pay lip service to being self-disciplined. They are self-disciplined. They do the hard, difficult grunt work that it takes to become good at something. They spend the extra time studying and doing whatever else is necessary to be as prepared as they are capable. They are also very confident in their ability to handle any problems they might encounter."

Bill's reverence for the type of high caliber individual it takes to become a good fighter pilot, as well as the elevated caliber of individual it takes to become an ace, is clear. "I would have to say that becoming an ace is like taking the last step to the top of a unique pyramid. It's the pilot who not only says he is going to do it, but who actually does it all under the most trying of conditions. The aces all seem to have the unique mental toughness which says: 'although my world is upside down, I'm exhausted and the tension and anxiety are at an unbearable level - still I can do it. I accept this challenge. I'm an impact pilot and I love this added pressure to perform.'"

Although I am very proud of our five victories, what I remember most graphically about combat is our own shootdown by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). Shortly after we were hit, we started losing control of our plane. The fire along the fuselage moved into the cockpit. It was real hot and smokey. I had a hard time reading the gauges and actually had to squeeze over the right side of my ejection seat because of the fire. We were still about 30 miles inside enemy territory. We were also worried about several enemy who were within visual range of us and were about to roll-in and finish us. Despite the cockpit fire, we knew if we ejected then, we would be captured and face torturers. We therefore stayed with the plane and tried to keep it pointed toward the ocean. Although the place was rolling with more uncontrolled intensity through each vertical loop, we worked real hard not to stall it or lose it in an out-of-control high speed dive. However, we knew we had to somehow reach deep down inside ourselves, not lose our composure and star focused or we would be surely finished. We therefore utilized all our remaining strength and concentration to continue flying our plane as best we could. At the coastline, the plane went into an unrecoverable spin. We then ejected. As I was getting adjusted to being in a parachute and what we had just gone through, I looked over and saw our plane burning badly and slowly fluttering through the sky like a falling leaf. It ehn exploded. About seven minutes later we landed in the ocean about two miles from the enemy coastline. Although hostile P.T. Boats came to get us, we were rescued by Navy helicopters about 20 minutes later. On that day, the good Lord was certainly with us and we were very lucky."
Equally clear though, is that while Bill is proud of his achievements, he requests that they be looked at in the right perspective.

As he puts it, "I tried to let the students at Stonehill know that I am not some swashbuckling, arrogant fighter pilot type who enjoys bragging about what I have done. I am just a normal everyday kind of guy. I went to Stonehill, am pretty conservative, married to the same super lady for thirteen years, have a couple of great kids, and am a practicing Catholic. I am just doing the best I can with my family and life. It was important to me that I came across to the students at Stonehill as someone who at one time was one of them. I wanted to convey that while academics are certainly important, you don't have to be at the top academically to be successful. It's helpful and a way of measuring things when you are an undergraduate. However, once you graduate, the ???? on you to perform starts all over again. Your confidence within yourself, motivation, self-discipline and commitment to your goals, with the help of the good Lord, should steer you to success."

Bill also credits his happy family like growing up in Framingham, Massachusetts, as the root of his ability and successes. He visits his parents, two brothers and sister in Massachusetts several time a year. He believes that the basic values he learned from his parents as a child and young man have him the foundation he needed to be able to achieve success. Bill and his family, wife Barbara and children Michael and Megan, live in Solana Beach, California.

Success has followed Bill in his eleven-year career as a Commercial Office Leasing Specialist for a company in Carlsbad, California called CB Richard Ellis, a full-service commercial real estate brokerage company with offices throughout the world. Bill, who primarily covers the San Diego area, has been the number one office leasing specialist in his office for the past nine years, and the number one salesman for four of the past seven years. Any success Bill has had as a businessman he feels is directly attributed to the habit patterns, self-discipline and outlook on life that he learned as a Naval Aviator.
Bill has fond memories of this Stonehill days. He says that those memories also served him well during some very stressful times in his life. "I loved Stonehill as an undergraduate and I have tremendous fondness for Stonehill today. I always enjoyed the fact that I have traveled the world several times and have spoken before a large number of diverse military and civilian groups. I always make it a point to be introduced as Bill Driscoll who went to Stonehill College. In many parts of the world, people are not even sure where Boston or Masschusetts is, let alone Stonehill College. But I've always had a very strong internal sense of pride that I got my start at Stonehill, and I most willingly explain to whomever is interested about Stonehill College."

"It is a great place for me. I still have some very good friends from my college days. The values that the College represent, its great sense of family and the beautiful campus are all very special. Where it helped me and gave me a lot of comfort was during times when my life was totally upside down. It was then that I remembered those happy Stonehill times, playing varsity baseball, beautiful campus walks, the outstanding people of Stonehill, and all the fun. The whole Stonehill experience was just so enjoyable. They are very pleasant memories. They were also very soothing and relaxing. Without question, I would have to rate my Stonehill years as some of the most happy, uncomplicated and enjoyable times of my life."
"In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all members of the Stonehill community and their families much good health, happiness and a long, peaceful life."

Aces' Interview

Willie Driscoll was commissioned through AOCS and joined VF-96 for a combat cruise in 1971. Following his tour with that squadron, he served with TopGun as a staff member before transitioning to the F-14 with VF-124. He made two cruises with VF-2 then returned to VF-124 as an instructor. Cdr. Driscoll left active duty in 1981 and affiliated with the Naval Air Reserve, serving with VF-301. He has 1,200 hours in the F-4, and 2,000 hours in the F-14. He recently retired from the Naval Reserve as a commander, but still maintains liaison with the Navy Fighter Weapons School as a guest lecturer. He is presently a commercial real estate broker in the San Diego area.

Approach: Thorough knowledge of your aircraft and its systems is always stressed as a prime factor for surviving in combat. During your 1972 combat cruise, and especially during the 10 May engagements, how did your knowledge of the F-4 help you?

Cdr. Driscoll: You go into a combat situation thinking you're well prepared, but you had no idea what you were getting into. It's dramatically different from what anyone has told you. The major thing I had to deal with - as do most combat aviators - is what we call the outer stratosphere of tension and anxiety, trying not to come unglued in a life-or-death situation. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying it isn't absolutely critical to know and understand procedures and NATOPS. But what happens to you in combat is so far removed for the NATOPS trainer that your daily surface consciousness fades. Your backup consciousness, which is all you have left, has to be absolute as far as your basic knowledge of the aircraft and tactics is concerned. Your surface consciousness will be tampered with in combat.

I made up cards, with boldface and tactical problems; I was always reviewing quizzes. I wanted to know the materials cold, but I found combat is such a stressful thing in terms of how I had prepared myself. In retrospect, I should have spent much more time working on my basic procedures. During combat, intimate knowledge of NATOPS doesn't shoot down bandits or prevent them from shooting you down. What is involved is the fundamental makeup of the man, his aggressive spirit, his will to live and win, and his ability to correctly execute basic tactical procedures.

Approach: Would you say that today's RIO does not have to be as aggressive as the pilot, but more knowledgeable about the systems?

Cdr. Driscoll: I believe that for the best pilot-RIO team, both crewmen have to be psychologically aligned the same way. You need intensely dedicated, aggressive RIOs, especially in combat. It is critically important that the RIO have that same sense of enjoyment about the work. I always looked at it with a cold, detached, unemotional approach. When I had the chance, watching a bandit explode was a thrilling experience.

Approach: What can you say about trying to keep yourself in position to be rescued while under fire during the post-ejection SAR effort on 10 May?

Cdr. Driscoll: Well, when I entered AOCS, I was not a very good swimmer and was assigned to extra instruction, sub-swim. At the end of AOCS, I was on swim hold. It was not a day at the beach. All the instructors helped us, but the effort had to come from us. One day I was really working hard in the pool, determined to get through, and the light just seemed to come on. The water didn't seem to be trying to push me down; it was really enjoyable. And that was it. I passed all the swimming requirements that morning.

During the mission on 10 May, we were hit by a SAM just south of Hanoi. Shortly afterward, there was heavy smoke and some fire in the cockpit. We didn't want to eject over land for fear of being captured. I knew the Navy's approach to water survival had helped me and I was confident of surviving an over-water ejection. I was more concerned with the remaining MiGs and other hostile fire.

As we floated down after the ejection, I got my mask and gloves off and secured them. Then I got on the survival radio to broadcast our position. I was also able to wave at Randy to make sure he was OK. After I broadcast our position, I switched to the beeper and prepared to deploy my raft. I landed in the water about 15 minutes later. The landing could have a replay of D-WEST training. I flipped over onto my back and popped by koch fittings, just like in training. There was a little breeze, although I don't remember being dragged. Despite the dogfights and the SAM hit, with the D-WEST training I had received, the water entry was almost routine. (This is quite a statement for me to make since I had always hoped that after an overwater ejection I would land in water no deeper than my knees.)

Approach: The SAR portion of your story has not been repeated as much as the aerial portion.

Cdr. Driscoll: Well, the North Vietnamese sent two PT boats out to get us. I think they were just coming out to get two Naval Aviators and didn't know what Randy and I had just done. We swam over to the raft with all our gear on. I saw schools of sea snakes and I thought it would be prudent to get into my raft immediately. I was tired and I was probably functioning on adrenalin. I pulled myself in and relaxed for a moment. Then, I remembered the PT boats and got out of the black raft thinking I could hide behind it. (I couldn't' see the PT boats because the waves were too big. Also, I was in quasi-shock.)

Approach: Did you get out of any of your flight gear?

Cdr. Driscoll: No, I kept everything on, including my helmet, except for my mask and gloves. It was just like D-WEST at North Island. The helo put a swimmer in the water, while several Marines manned the machine guns. We got right on the hoist and were hauled up into the CH-46. I wanted to stand up, but they told me to lay down and relax.

Approach: What makes for a superior combat aircrew, communication, knowledge?

Cdr. Driscoll: That's a good question. You'll find that sometimes your better crews in training aren't necessarily your best crews in combat. I think it's a combination of things. Combat, first and foremost, is such a heavy trip, a place you've never been before; it is laden with tension and anxiety - shooting, people crying on the radio, getting sick; it's hard to put into words. Real confidence in your abilities is fundamental to your survival.

You develop this confidence first in training, doing the same thing over and over again. In the fighter community, you sometimes see guys with a lot of swagger and arrogance. Many times, those people don't do well in combat. I always felt the confidence to look for was the real confidence, someone who knows what they're doing because they've done it over and over. Also, one of the keys is not to get bored with yourself doing the same basic thing over and over. That always helped Randy and me.

Kills in combat are produced not by great moves, but by avoiding or trying to minimize bad moves. You'll make bad moves - what I call gross mistakes, but your enemy will too. You want to capitalize on his mistakes and kill him. Try to never let a poorly flown bandit live. You want to continually work on minimizing the number of bad mistakes you make in training. None of this stuff about going up in the sun, dropping the flaps, reversing - that's stuff you read in books or see in movies.

Approach: Is there anything else you can tell us?

Cdr. Driscoll: I always read Approach when I was on active duty. There's a lot of excellent information in the magazine. As a matter of fact, Randy and I may not have survived that SAM hit I described if we hadn't read an article by then Lt. Duke Hernandez. The article dealt with handling an F-4 after it sustained major battle damage to the hydraulic lines.

Hernandez recommended that aircrews faced with a similar problem severely restrict stick input when trying to control the aircraft's attitude. He felt the F-4 should be controlled by rudder only. In that way, the aircraft might fly a little longer before depletion of the hydraulic system.

That's exactly the same situation we faced after the SAM hit. We still had 25 miles to go before "feet wet," and we used Hernandez's technique by doing a series of barrel rolls with no G. That's one of the main reasons I've always considered Approach a must-read for every Naval Aviator. It's fundamental to being the true professional you want to be.

-- Peter Mersky

Bill Driscoll
1244 Via Mil Cumbres
Solana Beach, CA 92075-1727

T 858.755.7990
C 858-922-6158
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bill@willydriscoll.com