Colonel Gerald Knox Bishop served over 25 ½ years active duty in the United States Air Force. During his career Col. Bishop served as a Command Pilot; and as a planner, programmer, wargame & systems analyst, and congressional actions advisor at Major Air Command and HQ Air Force levels. He has also served as Exec to the Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command (who also functioned as the Joint Chiefs of Staff ‘s Director of Strategic Target Planning, responsible for the nuclear war plans of our country). In his career he participated in the planning of the full range of issues from national nuclear policy and arms control to Air Force-wide mission area analyses Air Force war fighting force structure and its supporting systems and the programming, budgeting & congressional support planning they required. He was intimately involved for over 25 years with our most advanced technologies, from stealth bombers & cruise missiles, to advanced ballistic missile and space systems, including third generation trans-atmospheric vehicles. He served as Vice Commander of the 384th Bomb Wing flying B-1Bs & KC-135Rs at McConnell AFB, Kansas, for two years. He then returned to Washington, D.C. and HQ Air Force until August 1991 as Director, Strategic & Global Force Analyses. After leaving the Pentagon, he served as Director of Administration, and Installation Commander, at the HQ Army and Air Force Exchange Service in Dallas, until his retirement from active duty in November 1993.

Col. Bishop's flying experience includes over 3,000 flying hours in 10 different aircraft

T-37, T-38, T-41 trainers

T-39A mission support aircraft

B-52 C, D, F, and G model strategic bombers

FB-111A strategic bomber

KC-135R aerial tanker

and the B-1B strategic bomber

For 489 days during 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, he flew 119 combat missions in Southeast Asia in the B-52, including the "Eleven Day War" over Hanoi. He has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and six Air Medals for his combat service. He helped plan and analyze the effectiveness of strike and support sorties for the first Gulf War. He has also served as president of four different Aircraft Safety Investigation Boards.

Following retirement from active duty, he served as the Curator of The Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field for 10 ½ years. He also served as Operations Director for the FINA Dallas Airshow at Dallas Love Field for 8 years. He retired from there in July 2004 and now volunteers there once a week while residing full time in Graham, Texas. He has owned & flown a Cessna 182 and still enjoys actively flying his own 1947 Navion. Col. Bishop's civilian educational background includes a BA in Government from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was an Air Force ROTC Distinguished Graduate in 1968. and an MA in Management and Supervision from Central Michigan University.

His military education includes the Air War College, the Armed Forces Staff College, the Air Command & Staff College, the Squadron Officers School (Distinguished Graduate), and Strategic Air Command Safety/Accident Investigator Course.

He has published aviation history articles for the "Journal” of the International Plastic Modelers Society since 1966, and has published military history articles in "Campaigns" magazine as well. He taught the history of aviation for Mountain View College’s Professional Aviation curriculum in Dallas for 9 years. He created and presented 46 aviation history programs totaling over 2,400 pages for The Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, and taught nearly 210 hours of aviation history courses for the museum’s Docent corps. He also teaches college credit American History to traditional college & dual credit high school students. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Becky, of Graham, Texas, and they have two married adult daughters, and three grand children. His interests include flying, aircraft history, illustration and model making. He enjoys teaching, having taught aircraft systems & operational tactics as an Instructor Pilot in the Air Force, Adult Bible study in his church, high school & college level history, and college level aviation history & business personnel management.

This information was provide by individual. Many thanks for this contribution.