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The Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers annual banquet may have been held in Grand Rapids on April 19, but it definitely had an Ely flavor.
Ely logger Elroy Kuehl, a founding member of ACLT, was given a Lifetime Logging Award for his years of service to the organization.
His son James was the guest speaker and managed to connect logging and being a Top Gun pilot in his speech.
“It was pretty cool a little logging kid from Ely, Minnesota got the opportunity to fly those cool machines and live in that environment,” said James Kuehl.
“I always like to start off with a joke, just kind of set the stage, and because tonight’s topic is yours truly, and some of you may have heard about the huge egos that pilots have. Here we go.
“How do you tell if there’s a fighter pilot in the room?
“Don’t worry, he’ll tell you.”
James talked about naval aviation, aircraft carriers, and flying fighters off aircraft carriers as well as Top Gun.
“I venture to bet that my upbringing is not much different than any of you in this room.
“From as young as I can remember, my fondest memories were getting to go to work with my dad.
“My mom once told me that was the way that she was finally able to potty train me.
“The only way that I could go in the woods or ride the logging truck was if dad didn’t have to change diapers.
“As a kid, I loved getting to go to work with dad. I mean, what kid doesn’t like to go ride in a semi or go ride around in a skidder and all the cool logging equipment?
“So I guess you could say from an early age, the logging kind of got in my blood.
“Like most of you, I started working in the woods, operating equipment and driving truck not long after the time I could reach the pedals.
“The more I grew, the more I got to do, and the more equipment I got to run.
“By the time I was 11, I’d already tipped over my first skidder. At 13, I cut my leg with a chainsaw. And by 15, I’d smashed and totaled in my first logging truck.
“A whole life’s worth of experiences, and I didn’t even have a driver’s license yet!
“I was starting to realize, although I love logging, maybe I should find something that’s a little safer.
“Maybe that’s why I started looking into flying.
“So when I was seven, we moved out by the airport, and that set the stage for another love affair to take off, pun intended.
“This time, it was with aviation and flying. And I’ll never forget my very first time I got to ride an airplane.
“My dad had to go to Duluth to pick up a truck. And somehow, he talked his friend, Gary Shaver, into flying us from Ely, Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin.
“I was just a kid, but I got to go along. I’ll never forget that feeling you get in your stomach.
“You know, that tickle when you first take off and when you lift off the ground. It had me hooked.
“Some folks don’t really like that tickle, and that’s okay. But for me, I thought it was the coolest feeling that any kid, to this day I still love it, could ever experience.
“So a special shout out to Brian Shaver and his family. Brian, a heartfelt thanks to your dad for setting me on this journey.”
Brian Shaver is a 1985 Ely Memorial High School graduate.
“Well, growing up next to the airport and constantly seeing those airplanes, I decided to get my pilot’s license when I was still in high school.
“And that was it. I had my private pilot’s license the day after I finished my junior year in high school.
“And I was addicted to flying and knew I wanted to pursue a career in aviation.
“Right about that time, a certain movie came out. You may have seen it.”
On the screen a picture of the Tom Cruise movie “Top Gun” was shown along with the familiar theme song.
“Man, I wanted to fly those jets so bad. And I figured out that a college degree was a requirement. And in order to fly it, I had to become a commissioned officer in the United States Navy.
“So off I went to college. University of Minnesota, Main U and Navy ROTC.
“Now, I know everyone in this room has done something that they really didn’t want to do, but they had to.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s grease the skidder or service your truck. Or maybe it’s go to the dentist or get a colonoscopy. That’s exactly what college was to me.
“It was a necessary evil that was a prerequisite to get to fly those really cool airplanes that they had in that movie.
“So after college, I was accepted to Navy flight school and I got to fly three really cool airplanes.”
James Keuhl showed pictures of the three planes he flew, the T-34 Charlie Turbo Mentor, the T-2C Buckeye, and the T-45 Goshawk.
“Now all of these orange and white training planes were like sports cars compared to the Cessnas that I was flying.
“The T-34C Turbo Mator in the top left was about the same size as the Cessna, or a small Beechcraft. “But the Turbo Prop produced over 650 shaft horsepower.
“And compared to that to 160 horsepower, the Cessna I was flying, it was a rocket ship. And it was just the beginning.
“The ugly one in the top right is called the T-2C Buckeye. Or as it was affectionately known by our pilots that flew it, the Thunder Guppy. And it certainly was ugly.
“But where it lacked sex and ramp appeal, it made up for it in thrill. It was the first jet that we actually got to intentionally spin.
“And spinning a jet, just so you know, gives you just a little bit more than a tickle in your tummy. In fact, it’s downright violent.
“To give you a frame of reference, we enter the spin from about 25,000 feet. We literally get the jet to stop flying completely and then force it into a spin. Once it was established in the spin, it would rotate 360 degrees in just over a second.
“And all the while it’s doing that, it’s falling to the ground at a rate of about 20 to 25,000 feet per minute. Not a whole lot of time to recover before the ground becomes a major factor in your decision making.
“The one at the bottom is the T-45 Gosshawk. And it holds a special place in my heart. It was the first jet we got to land on a carrier.
“Did you know the first time they let us do that, you’re solo? You’d think they’d put an instructor in the back seat. But no, you’re only going to kill yourself.
“We had to do it solo. Man, was that a thrill. I was so high on life when I got back to San Diego after my first carrier landing, I was bopping around. I’m like, oh, I forgot to call mom.
“Mom wanted me to call her as soon as I got back to make sure I survived. So I called her up. We’re chatting, I’m like, hey, mom, I’m still here. You know, everything’s going good.
“It’s like, oh, yeah, so what was it like?
“Indescribable. Simply indescribable. But...if I have to compare it to anything... Let me put it this way. If God came down and said, James, you have to choose. You can either have sex or you can land jets on aircraft carriers. I’m picking jets. And I said that to my mom. What the heck’s wrong with me?
“Anyway, the T-45 was the last jet I got to fly before I earned my naval aviator wings of gold. In August of 96, I graduated from flight school and earned my wings of gold.
“My family was there to celebrate with me as I had proven to the United States Navy that I could land a jet on an aircraft carrier.
“And I had potential to become a real fighter pilot. The day I was winged, I also selected what jet I was going to be flying. And lucky me, I got the F-18 Hornet.
“Now, if those orange and white planes were sports cars, this thing was a freaking Lamborghini. Holy cow, did it go. What a blast!
“The F-slash-A-18 Hornet. The F-slash-A stands for fighter slash attack. It’s a multi-role, day-night, all-weather, bad-ass war machine.
“I literally can talk about this jet for hours, but I promise I won’t. A couple of highlights. Top speed does 1.8 Mach. In English, that’s 1,360 miles an hour. My personal best was only 1,320, but hey, I tried.
“The Hornet can drop dump bombs, smart bombs, it carried air-to-air missiles. It had a 20-millimeter Gatling gun that could be used both for dogfighting and air-to-ground strafing. A Gatling gun that carried 6,000 rounds a minute. 6,000 rounds a minute of armor-piercing, exploding bullets. That’s 100 rounds a second.
“But the big catch was we could only carry 578 rounds. That’s all our magazine carried. So you better be damn sure where you were pointing before you pulled the trigger.
“All right, back to my story. Initial F-18 training took almost a year. When I got to my first operational squadron, Strike Fighter Squadron 25 in Lemoore, California.
“I made two deployments with them in the Persian Gulf, 1998 and 2000 on the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln is a Nimitz aircraft carrier.
“It looks big in pictures. But you really never appreciate the true awesomeness and the awe and the massiveness until you’re standing beside one.
“If you ever make it to San Diego, I highly, highly recommend taking a tour of the USS Midway. It’s a retired aircraft carrier that they made into a museum.
“Now it’s much smaller than what we’re currently using. It’s only about two-thirds the size. But it’s still pretty awesome. And when you’re up there, make your way up to the flight deck and take a close look at the F-18 that’s on display.
“I flew that exact jet when I was at Top Gun. I have the number in my logbook to prove it. Makes me feel really young. The jet that I used to fly back in my glory days is now part of a freaking museum. Oh man.
“Now for all the gear heads in the audience. As I said earlier, this thing is massive. Total length of a Nimitz-class carrier is 1,092 feet. That’s three and a half football fields. The width of the beam is 252 feet. It’s so wide that we can’t go through the Panama Canal. If we have to go from the East Coast to the West Coast, we have to go around the Horn of South America.
“It weighs, or its displacement is the nautical term, 106,000 tons fully loaded. The distance from the flight deck to the water? Sixty feet. The ship goes another 40 feet below the surface to the bottom of the keel. It’s powered by two nuclear reactors. They power four shafts and four propellers. Each shaft produces 260,000 shaft horsepower.
“Now put that in your Peterbilt and race up Thompson Hill.
“All together, it will produce a top speed that I can tell you about, unclassified top speed, in excess of 30 knots. Once again in English, that’s faster than 35 miles an hour. Fast enough to water ski behind. Holds up to 90 aircraft, including helicopters on deployment.
“Here’s the really cool part. The total crew compliment? 5,000 people are living on that thing, 5,000 people. That’s more then in my hometown. Without a doubt.
“It’s got four catapults used to launch aircraft. There are four sets of arresting gear. But let’s get back and talk about the catapult for a second because that is the most fun. I mean you want to talk about a kick in the pants. This thing is a carnival ride like no other.
“In the summertime in the Persian Gulf with a full combat limit, we go from zero to 200 miles an hour in two and a half seconds. Yeehaw! Wow!
“Just like flying anything if there’s any pilots in the room they can attest to this. Take off is the easy part. Now we got to turn around and land on this damn thing.
“So the landing area…is offset by 10 degrees and that’s on purpose so in case you miss a wire you don’t run anything and crash into the rest of the jets that are up on the bow. You can simply do a touch and go and take off again.
“The total dimensions of the landing area. It’s 125 feet wide and 786 feet long so about two and a half football fields. As I said it’s got four sets of wire, four sets of arresting gear.
“Although the landing area is just over 700 feet, the real kicker is you have to land where those wires are. The distance from the first one to the last one is only 120 feet.
“That’s less than two Peterbilts. I mean you got to touch down there if you want to stop otherwise or you’re going around. Sound challenging? Running one of those new feller bunchers with all the buttons is just as tough.
“Okay so let’s throw in the last three variables. Number one your approach speed or your landing speed of an F-18 is 144 knots or in English 165 miles an hour. Number two the whole ship is moving away from you. Sometimes as fast as 30 miles an hour. And number three it’s a ship. The deck goes up and down and up and down. The flight deck, your landing area, your runway is moving all the time.
“The distance from the bottom of the hook to the flight deck or the hook to ramp distance is 14 feet when you’re on the glide slope. So you cross the back of the ship and you only have 14 feet of clearance. 14 feet low and you hit the ship. Bad, good, bad, good.
“Alright. So normally that’s no big deal. But you throw in night time you throw in bad weather you throw in high seas and you throw in a pitching deck a pilot’s got his hand full.
“But believe it or not we can safely land jets on aircraft carriers when the back of the ship is moving plus or minus 25 feet. And I’ve done it up to 30. On those days that 14 feet it’s kind of important and it certainly keeps your attention.
“Alright now that you hopefully understand some of the complexities about these carriers let’s talk about teamwork at its finest.
“A proficient aircraft carrier can land a jet, recover a jet, every 45 seconds during the day and every minute at night or in bad weather.
“Now it is an orchestra to watch and amazing to see. I only got to be one part of it and they certainly didn’t put me in charge of the coordination. I just had to land and get the hell out of the way. But it is amazing. I mean teamwork at its finest.
“So after my first two deployments, I applied for and was accepted to the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School. Top Gun. Alright, first I was a student and then I was invited to stay on staff as a instructor.
“The course itself is nine weeks long. It starts out with nearly a week of academics and then they use a building block approach for the flying phase.
“I was getting asked what it was like, you know what was Top Gun like? Well from my perspective as a student it was the most challenging professional endeavor I had ever undertaken. Ever.
“But as an instructor it’s the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never worked harder at any job or any position than a Top Gun instructor but the bar to pass the class is here. The bar to instruct is way up here.
“But all that work it was worth it. Whenever you see the student in his head you see the light bulb come off and he finally gets the concept.
“Sometimes it took a lot of work. “I mean I remember a few flights when the student was struggling. I’m literally looking over my head, over my shoulder, doing a dogfight pulling Gs, talking on the radio making sure that the student in the other jet sees the exact right sight picture at the exact moment telling him when to maneuver his jet so he finally gets it and sees what he’s supposed to see so we practice in this multi-dimensional dogfight maneuver. And we knock it off, we set it up again and he would do it perfectly or she would do it perfectly.
“There’s nothing more gratifying than when somebody finally gets it. Especially when you’re trying to teach them. Right dad?
“Our other responsibility as a Top Gun instructor is to support the mission of Top Gun and we did that by developing testing and teaching tactics that win in combat.
“Now all organizations have a mission. ACLT, established back in 1989 has a purpose or a mission. That’s to simply give loggers and truckers a unified voice to negotiate against larger corporations and sometimes the government.
“Top Gun’s primary mission hasn’t changed since its inception and that’s to win in combat. Sure the jets have changed, the technology has developed but the men who are currently on the Top Gun staff are doing the same things I did when I was there and the same things that the first group of instructors did.
“We’re using our nation’s intelligence to assess the threats, exploit their weaknesses and develop tactics that win wars.
“After Top Gun, my career got a little boring. Imade another deployment on USS John C. Stennis. Completed a set of workups and right before deploying on the Ronald Reagan, I left to attend Naval War College. There I got my master’s degree and then I went to Colorado Springs for a staff tour and I flew a desk for three years.
“It wasn’t until my last three years, 2010, I finally got to go back to the cockpit and fly with Top Gun again from 2010 to 2013.
“All in all, I had a great career. To this day, I still miss the flying, but I miss the people more. Friendships were made and unbreakable bonds were formed that are still strong to this day.
“In July of 2013, I realized it was time to hang up my helmet bag and I retired from active duty. I had a great last flight with one of my best friends. Two of us, two jets. We went out and yanked and banked, tore up the skies, and very quickly turned 2,500 gallons of jet fuel into noise!
“Had a great retirement party at the Officer’s Club. Dad and Gramps were there and so was my fatherin- law. And then after retirement, I got picked up and was hired by United Airlines and started my second career.
“Now since retirement, two big things, two major things have changed in my life. My body and my airplane have both gotten fatter and slower.
“Alright, anybody want to guess what my favorite part was? Top Gun. Top Gun instructor. Without a doubt, Top Gun was a pinnacle, the absolute high point in my professional career. There’s nothing I’m more proud of. Until I had wife and kids, it was the high point in my life.
“To me, Top Gun is a lot more than all the glamour you see in all the movies. Although don’t get me wrong, that part certainly, certainly has its benefits.
James displayed a photo of himself with Top Gun actor Tom Cruise.
“I’m proud to have been a part of that organization. Belonging to something bigger than yourself has no higher calling. Top Gun instructor’s relentless pursuit of perfection and excellence is second to none.
“Never before nor since have I been surrounded by such dedicated individuals, all willing to sacrifice everything for the mission. It truly was amazing.
James asked a series of fact or fiction questions including: “Government contractors that support Top Gun are smoking hot and beautiful, like Charlie, the first one.
“Fact. I met my beautiful wife, Sarah, while I was an instructor at Top Gun. She was just a smoking hot defense contractor at Top Gun working on a Department of Navy contract. We’ve been married almost 20 years. That’s a fact.
“Well, to be honest with you, I got a head start growing up in the logging industry. It gave me a huge head start compared to all the kids I competed against. The work ethic instilled in me at a very young age. The same, the very same work ethic that permeates throughout the logging and trucking industry allowed me to go toe-to-toe with anyone. Stay until the job is done.
“Even in some of the harshest conditions like the ones in northern Minnesota can throw at you. Suck it up and do your job is what I told myself more than once. Logging also forced me to deal with stressful situations.
“Now I’m not going to stand up here and tell you that running a skidder is as stressful as landing an F-18 on an aircraft carrier at night.
“That’s not what I’m saying. But, tipping over a skidder at 11 years old kind of gave me a head start on some city kid who’s most stressful then at age 11 may have been losing a basketball game.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that because I was given the opportunity to run equipment starting at a very young age and continuing through high school and college it improved my hand-eye coordination.
“Striving to always be a better operator and constantly challenge myself on those skills. As all of you know, the conditions in this industry are always changing. You may start out the day with the best plan, but someone or something is always going to throw a monkey wrench in it. Right in the middle.
“Every day you’re forced to think on your feet. To steal a phrase from the Marine Corps adapt, improvise, and overcome. You may find this hard to believe, but growing up I really enjoyed working in the woods and driving a truck. So much so that had I not found flying I would have been content following my father’s footsteps. I still love to come home and go to the woods with my dad and uncle. Although when I do it these days I probably enjoy it more just because I don’t have to do it every day. It is a real treat.
“But having a livelihood that I really enjoyed and knowing I could fall back on and I could always come home and logging would always be here. Now there are no guarantees in life and there certainly were no guarantees in my journey. I didn’t know I got a pilot slot until a moment before college graduation.
“I didn’t, in primary in flight school you didn’t know if you got jets until you finished the first phase of primary. And you didn’t find out if you got to fly fighters until flight school was completed all together.
“There were other worse alternatives you could have gotten if your performance or grades didn’t measure up. As a matter of fact, in the two plus years it took me there on my wings during flight school we were only allowed to fail three flights. Pink sheets we called them for a bus ride. Three pink sheets and you were done. They shipped you off to go drive some dumb ship so you could fill out your service obligations and pay back for your scholarship.
“Lucky for me, I only got two. “But what it really allowed me to do, the only thing that I realized is the only thing I could do was just try my best.
“Although logging gave me a head start, there’s got to be more. How did I do it? What made me special? I tried to answer this. I work hard, prepare, leave nothing to chance, risk it all, capitalize on every opportunity, news flash, that’s not it.
“The reality is I didn’t do it alone and I couldn’t have done it alone. I had the love and support of family, parents, grandparents sister, brother- in-law, aunts, uncles and cousins. Now my wife and kids take on the biggest role.
“Everyone played a part and I could have done it without them. In college, the classmates helped each other out. I’m pretty sure I would have flunked out of aerospace engineering had it not been for great friends and classmates.
“I would have never made it through flight school without the help of my fellow student pilots. We shared everything. What maneuvers were the most difficult, how to get through, what maneuvers were easy, what instructors were the worst, which ones were the best, what their pet peeves were, we had it all written down and it was passed down from generation to generation to generation.
“We shared everything. When I finally got to fly F-18s, there’s no way I would have survived my first squadron tour had it not been for my mentors. They took me under their wing when I was a fledgling little fighter pilot and showed me what to do and how to do it.
“When I was at Top Gun, the dedication of the instructors and their willingness to help a fellow pilot could spend countless hours until concepts and tactics were understood and mastered. It was unmatched. It was truly unbelievable.
“And during my deployments on aircraft carriers, it took all 5,000 of us to get the job done. Let that sink in. During my deployments on aircraft carriers, it took all 5,000 of us to get the job done.
“So how did I do it? Quite simply, I didn’t do it alone. And I’ll leave you with this last thought. Life is not a solo journey. You can’t achieve excellence in anything unless your entire team is all striving for the same goal.
“Look around the room. Go ahead, take a look. People sitting next to you, across the room, different tables, friends, family, neighbors, fellow loggers and truckers. That’s your team. United with a shared purpose and everyone marching in the same direction to the beat of the same drum with the same goals, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that you can’t achieve.
“So the next time Governor Goofy down in St. Paul has a bill in his hand that’s going to kill jobs in this industry or cut into your pocketbook, get your team together, set your goals, start your trucks, drive down, park on his front lawn and get the job done.
“Thank you and God bless.”
