Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:21 | Forward Air Controller Al Muller had some tense moments when he was confronted by a MIG during a flight. There was also some tension when he encountered a Special Forces soldier who offered him a drink from a skull, but not for long.
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As an aeronautical engineer, Al Muller had done a lot of interesting work in the Air Force, but as a Forward Air Controller flying out of Thailand, he added the experience of war to his resume. After targeting a vast ammo dump that burned for two weeks, he got a surprise when he returned from R & R.
Al Muller recalls how his survival training for the steamy Asian jungle was conducted at the top of a mountain in sub-freezing temperatures. At least the pine bough bed was comfortable.
He always wanted to fly. In fact, Al Muller was building model airplanes before he could read. This naturally led him to the Air Force and after basic training and a first assignment transporting troops, he entered the Air Force Institute and became an Aeronautical Engineer.
After the Air Force Institute of Technology made an engineer of him, Al Muller worked on re-entry vehicles and lifting bodies, pure design work that paved the way for the Space Shuttle program.
Al Muller had a nice assignment recovering satellites and their film but the switch to video ended that mission. Before he left Honolulu, a chance encounter with a lost pilot led to a stuffed alligator hanging on the wall. This began an amazing odyssey for the trophy.
All Al Muller knew about the safety field was that if you were assigned Safety Officer, you would be stuck in that position the rest of your career. When he was assigned to Systems Safety at the HQ level, though, he discovered that it was one of the best assignments possible.
At the Air Force Safety Office on his last assignment, Al Muller worked for two legendary fliers, Robin Olds and Chuck Yeager, each with colorful stories surrounding them. Those two embodied an esprit de corps that Al found lacking when he visited bases in his post-service career.
Al Muller gives a surprising answer regarding the hardest thing about being Safety Officer, and recalls how an accident investigation uncovered problems in maintenance.
After his Air Force career, Al Muller worked on some very interesting research, including a burning wing that squirted the craft forward like the squeezing of a watermelon seed and a non-aerodynamic rotating wing that puffed air out through slits.
