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David Dale was a skinny teen with divorced parents. He lacked confidence and self-esteem. Then, while in high school, he learned to fly. It changed everything.
Aviation Therapy: Stories of Perseverance and Personal Growth from the Cockpit, by David Dale, tells how flying changed his life for the better. It recounts his flying career from 1978 through 2004.
Through much of it, he was a US Air Force officer: He was a navigator aboard a Strategic Air Command B-52 during the Cold War, a tanker pilot during Desert Storm and the Bosnian campaign, and a VIP courier aircraft pilot afterward. Even before joining the Air Force, he flew. He soloed flying private aircraft in his teens, hang-glided, and skydived in college.
Along the way he gained confidence, changing from a skinny, uncertain kid to a confident leader. Dale describes his triumphs, disappointments, accomplishments, and setbacks over four decades.
He describes the joy of soloing in high school. He writes of his determination to fly jet fighters for the Air Force, his pride in getting his officer’s commission, and his disappointment at being assigned to navigator training rather than pilot training. He tells how he found and wooed his wife, and their enduring marriage.
He shows the value of perseverance. While disappointed to have become a navigator, he embraced the job and excelled. He was accepted to flight training through an Air Force program that permitted top navigators to transfer to pilot slots.
He describes how he and the rest of his class were tracked into flying KC-10 tankers instead of the fighter he preferred – then discovered that flying the KC-10 was both interesting and challenging. He also tells of his transfer to flying a Gulfstream C-37, a sporty executive VIP transport.
He also made history. Not by leading the charge, but by participating in great events. He describes the high points of his career: becoming a SAC Blue Ribbon crew, refueling aircraft during Desert Storm, flying out of Mogadishu ahead of a storm while under fire, flying General Franks during the Iraq War, and meeting the Dream Team at the Sydney Olympics.
Aviation Therapy is the story of a man doing what he wants to be doing. While it took hard work for Dale to achieve his dreams, readers can tell how grateful he feels to have achieved them, and the joy he felt for the support of his wife and family.
“Aviation Therapy: Stories of Perseverance and Personal Growth from the Cockpit,” by David Dale, Stoney Creek Publishing Group, November 2025, 398 pages, $24.95 (Paperback), $5.95 (Ebook), $19.50 (audiobook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Discussion (4)
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At least no one tells jokes about KC-10 pilots.
What's the difference between God and a fighter pilot?
How do you know if there is a fighter pilot at your party?
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Tom Watson Jr, longtime head of IBM, said in his autobiography that learning to fly and service in the Air Corps during WWII had been key to his development and coming out from the shadow of his father. From my review of his autobiography:
Watson’s relationship with his father was never an easy one. From an early age, he sensed a parental expectation that he would follow his father into IBM, despite both his parents assuring him that this was not the case and he could do whatever he wanted. This feeling that his life course was defined in advance, combined with fear that he would never be able to measure up to his increasingly-famous father, was likely a factor in the episodes of severe depression which afflicted him from 13 to 19. In college Watson was an indifferent student and something of a playboy. His most significant accomplishment during this period was learning to fly airplanes—-”I’d finally discovered something I was good at”a skill that would have great influence on his future. His first job at IBM, as a trainee salesman, did little to boost his self-confidence or his sense of independence: he was aware that local IBM managers were handing him easy accounts, wanting to ensure success for the chief executive’s son. It was only when Watson joined the Army Air Force during WWIIhe flew B-24s and was based in Russia, assisting General Follett Bradley in the organization of supply shipments to the Soviet Unionthat he proved to himself that he could succeed without special treatment.
Father, Son, & Co
CONTRIBUTOR
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God knows he's not a fighter pilot.
He'll tell you.
Jokes work equally well if you substitute astronaut for fighter pilot.