A Man On A Mission: Retired Air Force Navigator Zeroes In On Factory Improvements

Few sights are more terrifying than a surface-to-air missile (SAM) targeting you while flying a B-1B bomber 25,000 feet over a hostile part of Iraq at 600 mph. But retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. William Dobbs surprised himself in 2003 by remaining preternaturally calm when he alerted his crew members that a missile launch tone had sounded. His only concession to anxiety, he acknowledges ruefully: “My voice came out several octaves higher than normal.”