190928-F-PO994-0031
Air Force Reserve Col. Christopher Zidek, 413th Flight Test Group commander, and his wife, Kate, pose for a photo with retired U.S. Air Force Col. Bill Wheeler Sep. 28 during the Thunder Over Georgia 2019 Air Show at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. Wheeler, 101, is a Jefferson City, Missouri, native who joined the U.S. Army in April 1941 as an infantryman. After applying for a pilot slot with the Army Air Corps, he commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot’s wings in December 1942, one year after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Wheeler left active duty in 1945 to serve with a Reserve unit at Scott Field, Illinois, but commissioned into the U.S. Army Air Forces a year later. The Army Air Forces would become the U.S. Air Force in 1947. Serving in World War II and the Cold War, he flew the PT-19, AT-6, AT-7, C-119 and B-47. Wheeler retired on March 1, 1970, and currently lives in Savannah, Georgia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jamal D. Sutter)