T-1 sim instructor serves over 50 years, has no end in sight

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Keith Holcomb
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The simple passion of aviation and love of the job has led Dale Hopkins down a 50-plus-year-long career, and it continues to keep him motivated to this day.

Some individuals will retire from a job to seek something else, but Hopkins, a T-1A Jayhawk simulation instructor pilot, doesn’t want to leave the Air Force just yet.

“I joined the Air Force [on Dec. 30] of 1960, went to Officer Training School, and commissioned on the 29th of March in 1961,” Hopkins said.

From there he went through navigation training and bombardier training, to become a navigation officer at Charleston Air force Base, South Carolina.

“I was selected to go to pilot training in 1965, and graduated May of 1966, in class 66-G,” Hopkins said. “After I graduated there I stayed as an instructor pilot.”

For the next five years, he stayed and worked his way to become the Chief of Academics for the T-37 Tweet.

In 1969 he was selected to fly the F-4 Phantom II, stating if he hadn’t been selected for the spot he could have been volunteered to fly helicopters into Vietnam.

Following his next two assignments he was sent to South Korea for an assignment that he remembered fondly.

“They sent me to Osan Air Base in [South] Korea for a remote assignment but my wife went with me anyway,” said Hopkins with a laugh. “We lived in the middle of a rice paddy, where my daughter was born as well; it was interesting to say the least.”

Following his time in South Korea he became the Operations Officer for the 1st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, then the Chief of Standardization and Evaluation for Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, then took command of the 91st Flying Training Squadron.

“After the 91st I was promoted to colonel in December of 1981 and was a group commander of about 4,000 people. That was a lot of fun,” Hopkins said. “Then I went to Randolph AFB, Texas, as the Deputy Inspector General and I retired then in March of 1989.”

After retiring he worked at a department store selling clothes for three years; Hopkins said it was fortunate the positions for T-1 sim instructors then became open for civilians.

“I came over for an interview at that time and was hired; the boss had asked when I could go to work and I said ‘Well I’m not doing anything this afternoon,’ so I started the very next Monday,” Hopkins said.

The T-1 sim instructor’s role is to train student pilots in the T-1 simulators so they can gain experience as the pilot and co-pilot. Working together, the instructor will help when the students need it and provide an assessment of each student pilot’s performance in each role.

“The students like him because he’s a more relaxed kind of instructor,” said Pat Wilson, T-1 sim instructor.

Wilson has been working with Hopkins for more than 10 years and noticed the students gravitated toward Hopkins’ positive attitude and expertise.

“You would have never guessed he had been a colonel,” Wilson said. “You know you’re in the Air Force it’s just go, go, go but this is more of a retirement job, its relaxed and you don’t have to worry about the nuts and bolts, he always jokes that he’ll do this job till he’s one hundred.”

Hopkins said a large reason he enjoys the job so much is he isn’t worrying about doing multiple jobs at once. Unlike being a commander, he only needs to worry about teaching the T-1 to motivated and intelligent students.

“What impresses me most is the quality of the students,” Hopkins said. “When I was on the board we would look through the applicants’ files and select the ones we thought were best fit for the job. Even with the pilot shortage, pilot training hasn’t changed a bit. You can’t afford to place someone who’s failing in the cockpit of an aircraft. People’s lives depend on it.”

Knowing the importance of his job and still enjoying it keeps Hopkins smiling throughout his briefings, making students laugh while giving them some of his over 50 years of experience. He speaks to them with the same motivation they show to him every day.

“To be respected you have to respect others; I’ve always treated my troops with respect,” Hopkins said.

For Hopkins this is the job he would like to do until he can’t work anymore. Flight is his passion; he said his ideal days as a pilot were cool and clear skies, throwing on the afterburners, flying around doing acrobatics and following it up with practice landings.

“I don’t know if I can describe it; I always wanted to fly,” Hopkins said. “Now the simulator is just fine, it’s close enough since I can do what I used to do but now it’s downstairs in a simulator.”