1. Brian Shul was an American pilot and photographer.
19 Facts About Brian Shul
1. 2.
Brian Shul was so badly burned that he was given next to no chance to live.
3.
Major Shul completed a 20-year career in the Air Force.
4.
Brian Shul wrote four books on aviation and ran a photo studio in Marysville, California, until his death in Reno, Nevada.
5.
Brian Shul was born in Quantico, Virginia on February 8,1948.
6.
Brian Shul graduated from Radford High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1966 and from East Carolina University in 1970 with a degree in history.
7.
Brian Shul served as a Foreign Air Advisor in the Vietnam War, flying 212 close air support missions in conjunction with Air America.
8.
Unable to eject from the aircraft, Brian Shul crash landed into the jungle.
9.
Two fellow American soldiers went in to the burning wreckage and pulled Brian Shul, and surviving in hostile territory with extensive wounds for more than a day.
10.
Brian Shul activated his radio and confirmed his identity and general location, and an aerial search was initiated.
11.
The only practical way to recover Brian Shul was by helicopter.
12.
Once Brian Shul was located, the team provided medical treatment to ensure that the extraction would not result in further wounds or make his existing wounds worse.
13.
Two days after being released from the hospital, Brian Shul was back flying fighter jet aircraft.
14.
Brian Shul went on to fly the A-7D Corsair II, and was then selected to be a part of the first operational A-10 Thunderbolt II squadron at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina, where he was on the first A-10 air show demonstration team.
15.
Brian Shul made an Air Force safety video titled "Sierra Hotel" where he described his crash ordeal in explicit detail in order to motivate other USAF pilots to be more safety conscious and teaching them how to better survive such incidents.
16.
Brian Shul often posted these online, with detailed descriptions of the circumstances involved in taking the photograph.
17.
Brian Shul later reported that this was the most-repeated story about the SR-71 in history, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
18.
Brian Shul collapsed right after giving his famous SR-71 presentation for an audience in Reno, NV on May 20th, 2023.
19.
Brian Shul was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest at the age of 75.