Handing over the controls

Transcript Staff Writer

When Bill Huff began working at Westheimer Airport in April 1982, there wasn't even a control tower -- just a plywood building with plexiglass windows the Federal Aviation Administration used for "football Saturdays," Huff said.

"That was the time of the oil boom, and we'd bring in 300 to 400 airplanes in a couple hours' time," Huff said.

The plywood building was cramped, about 4 feet by 8 feet, and two portable radios were used to communicate with the pilots flying in to attend the OU football games, he said.

With a July 1, 1981, target date for the opening of a bona fide air traffic control tower at Westheimer, Huff said he was one of five air traffic controllers hired that April.

Huff said the airport administrator located the control tower at Tinker Air Force Base that is still being used at Westheimer today.

"He spotted this tower sitting out in a field at Tinker, and the Air Force gave it to the university," he said. "The National Guard got involved and moved the tower here as a training exercise at no cost."

The tower is a 1947-style military tower that the university refurbished. "It was a foot deep in pigeon dung when they started cleaning it up and renovating it," he said.

That was 24 and a half years ago and Huff, now 72, is hanging up his headset and retiring at the end of the month. A retirement party in Huff's honor is planned for 2 p.m. Friday, in Westheimer Airport's terminal building lobby.

In fact, Huff's career has spanned more than 40 years.

"I was in the Army, and in October 1962 entered into the air traffic control school at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi," he said.

After his graduation, he went to Fort Sill in Lawton, and worked in the control tower there for about two years.

His next assignment was Fort Benning, Ga., during an innovative period when the Army was developing the "air mobile concept," which would modernize military warfare structure by replacing conventional forces with air mobile forces. His division was active in the modeling, coordination and training for air assault divisions and air transport brigades.

In June 1965, the 11th Air Assault was joined with the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Benning. The 1st Cavalry Division was in Korea. The divisions exchanged colors and the 2nd Infantry went to Korea and the Ist Cavalry came to Fort Benning, he said.

Huff, with the 1st Cavalry Division, designated air mobile, was sent to Vietnam Aug. 1, 1965.

"In 1965 and '66, I worked in Vietnam as a GCA (ground-controlled approach) operator with the 1st Cavalry," he said.

For the next 10 years, Huff served in a variety of locations and positions, including the city of Hue in central Vietnam, where Huff was designated as the air traffic manager and airport NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge); Fort Campbell, Ky., working as a "flight following specialist guiding helicopters around where artillery was firing," Stuttgart, Germany, where he had "the cush job of running the general's heliport," Fort Knox, Ky., where he worked the control tower and ground control approach radar; Korea, where he was the designated GCA radar chief at Seoul Air Force Base; at Fort Sill, working as control tower chief; and back to Korea working as an air traffic controller at Camp Humphreys.

In 1978, Huff retired from the U.S. Army as a Sergeant 1st Class. "I went to work the next day at Bell Helicopter," he said.

At the time, Bell Helicopter was selling helicopters to the Shah of Iran, and Huff moved his wife and two sons to the beautiful, historic city of Isfahan, Iran, where Huff set up a flight training school and began teaching members of the Iranian Army how to fly and operate as air traffic controllers.

Iran had emerged as an extremely wealthy state following the steep rise in oil prices in the early 1970s, and began to attract massive American multi-national investment. But when oil prices declined in the late 1970s, Iran's economy went down the tubes.

Iranians began protesting the taxes, poor living conditions and misuse of money by their government. Khomeini organized this newly formed revolution from his exile in Paris. In February 1978, radical young soldiers in the Iranian Air Force joined the revolution. The Shah was overthrown and Khomeini became leader of Iran.

"Khomeini came in, the Shah left and we had to evacuate," Huff said. "Khomeini said all Americans should have their hands cut off for stealing Iran's wealth -- which is the Islamic punishment for thieves. That's when I decided to leave."

Huff, his wife and two children boarded a bus with other Americans to Tehran, pulling down the curtains so they wouldn't be recognized and killed, he said. The family traveled to Greece, from where Bell Helicopter arranged for them to get back to the States, he said.

Moving to Lawton, Huff said he sold insurance for a time, along with grease and lubricants to farmers for their tractors and farm equipment.

Then, Aug. 3, 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Union declared a strike, seeking better working conditions, better pay and a 32-hour work week. Ronald Reagan, however, declared the PATCO strike a "peril to national safety" and ordered them back to work under the terms of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Only 1,200 of the more than 12,000 controllers returned to work.

On Aug. 5, Reagan fired the 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and permanently banned them from federal service.

Huff said a private contractor -- Midwest Air Traffic Control Services Inc.-- began bidding for operation of the towers. Huff knew the president and owner of the company, but had seen where the airport in Ardmore was looking for controllers. Huff said he asked the owner of MATCS to recommend him for the Ardmore job. Instead, the man told Huff, "I need you to work for me in Enid." He told Huff that he also was trying to acquire the contract for the Norman control tower, and that if Huff would go to work for him in Enid, he would make him the air traffic control tower manager in Norman.

But when OU officials looked at all the bids, they determined they could more inexpensively manage the tower operations themselves.

"So I decided to apply for the Norman tower and asked the owner of Midwest Air Traffic Control for his recommendation," Huff said.

The owner complied, and Huff commenced his career at Westheimer Airport.

In 1990, the university reevaluated its decision, having not taken into consideration the pay raises due to all the controllers over the years.

OU officials decided to contract out the tower's air traffic control operations, Huff said. And it was Midwest Air Traffic Control Services Inc. that won the contract -- the same company that recommended Huff prior to his hire in 1982, and the company that still holds the airport's contract today.

Huff went to work as the control tower manager. The first manager had diabetes and, ineligible to manage for health reasons, was allowed to retire.

Huff managed the tower operations for nine years. When he turned 65, he decided to go part-time rather than be penalized on his Social Security benefits. He stepped down as manager and went back to working as an air traffic controller.

Later, the Social Security Administration would change their rules, and Huff went back to working full-time, but decided to continue working air traffic control, work he says that he loves.

Westheimer's tower operates three, two-man crews. Huff and his partner, Hosea Herlong, have worked together for 16 years. "We've worked together so long, we've developed a sixth sense about what the other guy's going to do," Huff said.

Huff said he's been shot at while working overseas, worked with explosions all around him, guided pilots safely home whose helicopters and planes were spilling fuel, but he's found his work at Westheimer Airport "the most rewarding of all," Huff said.

"I'll watch the student pilots looking at the plane for the first time, and listen to them tentatively making their first calls on the radio," he said.

Four years later, he said he's filled with pride watching the same students leaving with their degrees and pilots' licenses. Later, they often radio Huff and other controllers as they're piloting commercial jets and other aircraft overhead.

"My satisfaction is these kids. You never know what they're going to do," he said. And in his 24 years at Westheimer, a student pilot has never been hurt, Huff said. The airport's safety record is impeccable, he said. Of the few accidents that have happened at the airport, none have been attributed to controller error.

He's retiring reluctantly, but with no regrets, he said. Huff's wife, Barbara, had a brain aneurysm last year, and although she's expected to make a full recovery, the couple decided to take advantage of the time that's left to travel together visiting other people and places.

"I've already bought a mini-van and my wife's busy planning trips to Branson, MIssouri, and all over," he said.

The Huff's have two sons, both in the Army. Randy, 42, a chief warrant officer, is an Apache helicopter fighter stationed with the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell. Randy has fought in every conflict the U.S. has engaged in since 1990, Huff said.

Michael, 40, is a lieutenant colonel at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. With a background in Patriot missiles, Michael was shooting down SCUD missiles in Operation Desert Storm, Huff said. He now assesses weapons systems as part of an Army acquisition corps, traveling all over the world.

"I've got one son trying to fly 'em, I'm trying to tell 'em where to go, and another son is trying to shoot 'em down," Huff joked.

For further information on the airport, or Huff's retirement party, contact the airport management office at 325-7233 or the Control Tower manager at 325-7303.

Text Only