American Hero: Colonel Robert E Thacker

Meet the man who flew his B17 bomber directly into the invasion of Pearl Harbor and survived. Crazy as it sounds, that was the easy part of WWII for Colonel Robert E Thacker, who will be 102 this February. He flew countless bombing raids in the South Pacific before heading to Europe, where he led a raid of 2700 bombers over Berlin, the likes of which will never be seen. After the war Thacker then oversaw test pilots like Chuck Yeager and flew spy planes over Korea and Vietnam. He was also the first pilot to fly non-stop from Hawaii to New York, which was the only time he saw the limelight. Given it was Veteran's Day yesterday, I figured I'd make this my first Rumble video. I did this interview a few years back when he was a spry 96.