Major Stevie Ray Tucker, U.S. Air Force Retired. Tucker was born in Laurel,

MS, on 8 August 1946.  He joined the U.S. Army Reserve in February 1966 and was ordered to active duty on 26 September 1967 as a Warrant Officer One, Rotary Wing Pilot.  He served two tours in the Republic of Vietnam from October 1967 to March 1970.  For his outstanding service, he received numerous awards and decorations to include Air Medals with 18 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross with four Oak Leaf Clusters.  As an example of his fearless service, I will share an excerpt from one of his Distinguished Flying Cross awards:  Warrant Officer Tucker was serving as the pilot of an observation helicopter, flying in support of a ground operation conducted by an infantry unit in the Gia Dinh Province.  In the early afternoon hours, the friendly ground force was moving through open rice fields surrounded by thick brush when it suddenly came under intensive hostile fire from a numerically superior enemy force.  WO Tucker observed that the infantry unit had several casualties and was unable to evacuate the wounded because of the heavy concentration of enemy fire.  With complete disregard for his personal safety, he maneuvered his helicopter through the perilous fire so that his observer could place suppressive fire upon the enemy. WO Tucker repeated his brave actions several times, enabling the friendly casualties to be evacuated.  Afterwards, he skillfully piloted his aircraft directly over the enemy positions as his observer marked them with smoke grenades. The gunship teams, guided by the colored smoke, began placing heavy barrages of machine gun fire upon the insurgents.  As the insurgents hastily withdrew, WO Tucker kept them under surveillance and forced them to fight.  Using WO Tucker’s accurate information, the friendly forces completely overwhelmed the insurgents.

Again, this is only one of many examples of his courageous acts. Tucker was released from active duty as a Chief Warrant Officer Two on 22 March 1970.

But, that was only the beginning.  Tucker joined the U.S. Air Force on 6 December 1970 and served as a Tactical Airlift Pilot flying the C-130 aircraft, an Instructor Pilot in the T-38, Air Operations Officer and many other positions and receiving numerous other awards.  He retired from the U.S. Air Force after more than 22 years of total service.  He presently lives in North Little Rock, AR.