RAdm. Paul Gillcrist, USN (Ret.), commanded a fleet fighter squadron on three carrier combat deployments to the Tonkin Gulf during which he flew 167 combat missions over Vietnam. For these he was awarded seventeen combat decorations. In his thirty-three year flying career as a fleet pilot and Navy test pilot as well, he flew 71 different US and foreign tactical airplanes including the US Air Force's F-104, F-105, F-106, F-15, F-16, YF-17 and F-20. He flew the Navy's F-4, F-5, F-8, F-11, F-14 and F/A-18 as well as several key foreign tactical airplanes. During his carrier flying career, which spanned an amazing twenty-seven years, he commanded a fighter squadron, a carrier air wing and was the wing commander for all Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons. He flew from sixteen carriers, and in his last flying assignment accumulated over four hundred flight hours in the Tomcat culminating, at age 51, in becoming the first flag officer to land the Tomcat on an aircraft carrier--the USS Kittyhawk on October 21, 1980. The author of Feet Wet, Reflections of a Carrier Pilot, Gillcrist is eminently qualified to write the F-14 story!
