LA JOLLA, CA, September 08, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Florian Philip Meinhardt has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Prior to his retirement from the U.S. Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1986, Col. Meinhardt built a prolific 34 year career as a Navy aviation electronic technician, USAF pilot, instructor pilot, command pilot, contingency and war Planner, and aerospace engineer. He graduated from the Naval Academy Preparatory School, the USAF Academy (General Engineering degree and rated USAF Navigator), Squadron Officers School, the Dale Carnegie Course, Air Force Command and Staff School, and the UCLA School of Management (MBA). (Note: In the early years at the new Air Force Academy, all cadets graduated as rated navigators, because the Strategic Air Command wanted dual-rated navigators-pilots for its bombers.)
He served one tour in France, two tours in England, and one tour in Vietnam/Thailand. During his tour in France, the U.S. Rome Air Development Center had created $650 million of top secret new equipment, called Bamboo Tree, to fly the Berlin Air Corridor. The Russians would lure aircraft off course and shoot them down over East Germany. In 1965, Capt. Meinhardt put it together in a manual for the pilots and Berlin Control for flying to and from Berlin. No losses occurred after the manual was written.
During his last tour in England in 1985, as Chief of Command and Control of 90 F-111s with 200 nuclear weapons, he and his wife went on a two-week tour of Russia with the British. They had a week in Saint Petersburg, a dilapidated train ride to Moscow, and a week in Moscow during the height of Communist power. It was the most educational trip of his life. He has flown into most airports in the U.S. and Europe, some in the Mediterranean, and has visited every U.S. base in the Pacific, Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. He wrote the successful evacuation plan for Phnom Penh, Cambodia called "Eagle Pull," which extracted 1600 evacuees with no evacuees hurt. One marine was slightly wounded by an accidental weapon's discharge.
Following his Vietnam tour, he graduated from UCLA and served eight years at the USAF Space and Missile Organization (SAMSO). He served in the Comptroller's office for four years to pay the Air Force back for his MBA, then joined the engineering side. As Director of Advanced Concepts, he completed the Conceptual Phase of Engineering Development for the DARPA Net, which morphed into the Internet. The father of the Internet was Vint Cerf of Stanford University. He was assisted by Professor Haas of UCLA. The Internet was conceived as a means of communication in a nuclear environment. Senator Gore sat on the Congressional Committee that allocated funds to The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA's funds were off the public books. At the same time, Col. Meinhardt began the Conceptual Phase for a small (5,000 pound) ballistic missile which he named LONGBOW. The British had defeated the French at Agincourt in 1415 with Longbows which out ranged the French close-in weapons. At the time, the Navy was promoting their cruise missile called Tomahawk, which flew at about 400 knots on terrain-following radar. By contrast, the 5,000 pound Longbow had a 110 Kilotons warhead that came in at 10,000 feet per second. It could be fired from aircraft, ships, submarines, or trucks and had a 1,500 mile range. With Global Positioning System (GPS), the truck with six missiles could be driven anywhere and fired. It scared the Russians so bad that they reached the Gorbachev-Reagan Intermediate and shorter range missile (INF) agreement in the mid-1980s. The Russians gave up their SS-20s, Intermediate range missiles. At the time, the Russians were so worried with Longbow and Reagan's Star Wars that they built 47,000 nuclear warheads and were spending almost 39% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on weapons. Russia essentially went broke and Communism ended. Information came from a KGB General at the 10-year Declassification of the Reagan era at the Reagan Library. Col Meinhardt considers LONGBOW the most important work of his life.
Background: Florian was born in late 1934 during the Great Depression on a small farm in rural Kansas, 25 miles west of Topeka. The community was very anti-war and kept close tabs on history. To escape war, his grandfather deserted the Prussian Army at age 17 and stowed away on a ship to England and the U.S. in 1871. Unfortunately, all that really happened was that they changed sides. His grandfather had 74 grandchildren and many served in America's wars.
Florian's parents lost their nest egg when the banks failed, and it was hard for a family with nine children. There was no electricity until 1949 despite the fact that the Rural Electrification Act (REA) was passed in 1936, and the main power line was only one-half mile away. So, there was no refrigeration, running water, central heat, air conditioning or indoor toilet. Toilet paper was the previous edition of the Sears catalog; no one liked the slick pages.
He graduated in 1952 from a small rural high school in Paxico, Kansas, 25 miles west of Topeka. He was Valedictorian, President of his class, and Editor of the school paper, but there were only five members of his class. For three years, he safely drove a 1934 Ford Sedan to school which had no brakes, defroster, or heater. Slowing down and stopping involved downshifting. In his senior year, he placed second in the state in a Future Farmers of America (FFA) contest at the University of Kansas. 1952 was a very hard year for him as his mother was sick from kidney stones and died in March. He had a hernia from bucking bales of alfalfa all summer. He had to get up in the morning, start the kitchen fire, milk the cow, make his breakfast and get ready for school. He was afraid of the coyotes, so he carried a 32 caliber pistol between the house and the barn. Sometimes, he did not have time to make his lunch and he was embarrassed when his stomach growled in class.
When he graduated from high school, he wanted very badly to go to college. He thought electronic engineering would be a good career field. He applied for a scholarship at St. Benedict's College in Atchison, Kansas, but was rejected because of an inadequate high school education. For example, there were no advanced math, or chemistry courses available. For five months, he looked for a job, but there were no takers. He was shy and developed a couple of mottos: "Boldness has Genius, Magic and Power" and "Nothing Brings Luck so Much as Not Relying on It". Then, the Korean War draft started creating vacancies, and he was hired by The Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Railway General Offices in Topeka, Kansas. He started out in the mail room and in two years moved to Payroll, Sante Fe Real Estate, and Corporate Tax. Along the way, he monitored Sante Fe Railway Demurrage Accounts. He bought a nice car.
At the same time, he joined the Naval Reserve in Topeka to avoid the draft. The Navy told him if he wanted to become an electronics technician, he had to score 100 on his IQ test. So Florian paid attention and scored 148. He went through Boot Camp and then had a cruise on a destroyer the next year. After much paint chipping on the destroyer, he transferred to Naval Air at Olathe, Kansas. In mid-1953, a truce was signed in Korea and it looked like they would stop the G.I. Bill for college, so Florian volunteered for the draft. The Navy, as promised, took him on active duty, but their requirements had also declined, so there was no electronics school. Nevertheless, he was assigned to the best location in the Navy (Moffett Field, California) and the premier Composite Fighter Squadron Three (VC-3). He studied the Aviation Electronics Manual for four months without leaving the base, and passed the test for Aviation Electronic Technician Third Class Petty Officer. His pay went up from $78 to $113 a month. Lt Jg Jim Lovell, later the Astronaut, redirected Florian to the Naval Academy Preparatory at Bainbridge, Maryland. On his entrance exams for the Naval Academy, he was 17th in the nation.
At the same time, Florian applied for Notre Dame College and the new Air Force Academy. He now had the GI Bill. For the Air Force Academy Class of 1960, there were 29,000 applicants for a class of 306. Five were selected from Kansas, and Florian was the only one from Kansas that graduated. On the Graduate Record Exams at the Academy, Florian scored in the 97.7 percentile in his favorite subject, history. He is now the second oldest graduate of the Air Force Academy.
Shortly after graduation, he married a Continental Airlines stewardess and they had two boys. Both graduated from USC. Greg is now a retired Special Agent, GS-14, from Homeland Security and Brad runs a large aircraft insurance agency.
He next graduated from flying school at Chandler AFB, Phoenix, Arizona. On his first flight after receiving his wings, he led a four-ship jet formation consisting of new pilots and instructors, for 150 miles inside the Grand Canyon and down the Havasupi Channel at a speed of 450 miles an hour. He could have gone to F-100 fighters with 20 accidents per 100,000 hours, but chose a safe assignment to McGuire AFB, New Jersey Aeromedical Evacuation (Air Evac). Their twin-engine C-131 Convairs had been modified with litter doors, 12 litters, and 36 ambulatory seats. Domestic Air Evac had no accidents for 18 years. Unfortunately, the Air Evac pilots were the first to go to Vietnam. His squadron had only 15 pilots, but 5 were killed in Vietnam, and one was a POW for 6 years. The dead included the Chief Pilot and Val Bourque, the first student at the new Air Force Academy. Val had slept in his sleeping bag outside the gate of the Academy at its temporary quarters at Lowry AFB in Denver, Colorado so he could be first. Now he has a life-size statue at the Academy. Florian considered the Chief Pilot one of the smartest men he ever met. And he had a pretty wife and four teenage girls and boys nearly ready for college. Air Evac at McGuire landed at all airports in the eastern half of the U.S. with at least 4000 feet of runway and had a never-ending supply of wounded from Vietnam. All international Air Evac flights from Europe and Vietnam landed at Andrews AFB in Washington. On the west coast, it was Travis AFB near Sacramento. When he completed his first tour in Europe, he was sent back to Air Evac at McGuire. As a result he has 1100 landings in New York City at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Floyd Bennett Airports. In 1968, he frequently made four round-trips a day between Washington and New York. Many wounded still had their combat boots on.
Colonel Meinhardt flew for nearly 26 years without so much as blowing a tire. And it included a successful landing of a single engine aircraft when the engine failed on take-off as the gear was raised. The contractor had put in the wrong spark plugs. Air Evac had taught him that the last thing you do before take-off is to tell the crew what you will do in the event of an emergency on take-off. Some glider training at the Academy also helped. He put the gear down at 50 feet and ballooned the airplane onto the runway with flaps.
Lt Bourque and Lt Meinhardt were in simulator training at Brooks AFB, San Antonio in early 1964. Air Evac headquarters was also at Brooks. Lt Meinhardt spent nearly all of his free time at Personnel and at great risk volunteered for an overseas assignment. A personnel officer took pity on Lt Meinhardt, and when they returned to McGuire, Lt Bourque received an assignment to Vietnam and Lt Meinhardt was assigned to a new 322 Airlift Division at Chateauroux, France. Lt Bourque was shot down by the time Lt Meinhardt reached France. As soon as he reached France, he was offered F-4 fighter aircraft, but declined. One of his Air Evac squadron mates accepted and spent 6 years in a Vietnamese prison.
At Chateauroux, he became a contingency and war planner with additional duties as a co-pilot on the General's airplane. During his time with the 322nd Air Division, the Division along with Belgium, evacuated Stanleyville (now Kisangani) and Paulis in the Congo. The 322nd also evacuated Lahore and Peshawar during the India-Pakistan war. The Division also cleaned up after the accidental dropping of four nuclear weapons on and near the coast of Spain by a B-52 in a collision with a refueling tanker. Two of the nuclear bombs went into the water and were recovered. Two hit the coast. There was no nuclear explosion, but one scattered radio-active plutonium on the coast. There were no U.S. casualties in any of these operations. Two days before the Six-Day war between Israel and an Egyptian Coalition, he was in Beirut, Lebanon. The General and his Intelligence Officers were snooping.
After two years, General DeGaulle asked US forces to leave France and the 322nd Airlift Division moved to High Wycombe, England. During the move to England, Capt. Meinhadt was promoted to Chief of War Plans and inherited the entire nuclear inventory of 7500 nuclear weapons in Europe. It was the Airlift Division's job to move them as necessary. And he became the new General's pilot. As such, he landed at most airports in Europe, Greece, Turkey, and the Mediterranean. When his tour was over in England, he was sent back to Air Evac at McGuire AFB, New Jersey. Causalities were high in Vietnam and the Air Evac was short of pilots.
While at McGuire in 1968, Capt Meinhardt was accepted at Harvard University for an MBA and planned to leave the Air Force if he could. Since he had not been to Vietnam, it was very uncertain if the Air Force would let him out. A former boss found out about his intentions and "name requested" him for his Policy Division at Headquarters Military Airlift Command (HQ MAC). Air Force personnel refused since he had not been to Vietnam. A General at HQ MAC replied, "We don't care. He knows more about European Airlift than anyone here."
His three years at HQ MAC were very productive. He frequently briefed the Commander on various problems/solutions. He changed the Air Evac system so that aircraft with wounded coming in from overseas landed at New York, Chicago, Charleston and San Antonio, as well as Washington and Travis AFB. Prior to his arrival, Reserve Medical crews flew on Reserve aircraft with dummy patients. Major Meinhardt had them fly on active duty aircraft with real patients. Suddenly they got to travel the world. When the Vietnam prisoners were released at the end of the war, 70% of the medical crews that flew into Hanoi were Reservists. Along with Pacific Air Force Command (PACAF), he visited every base in the Pacific: Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines. He then wrote a programming document that gave them major improvements and more parking space for the new C-5's.
Major Meinhardt was then selected for Air Command and Staff College. For three weeks, he was an exchange student with Canadian Armed Forces Staff College in Toronto. When he graduated, he was again offered F-4s but chose Air Force Liaison Officer with the Vietnamese Joint General Staff.
In Vietnam, he was a key action officer in establishing a joint Lightship/Gunship force that patrolled Saigon every night. The lights were fabricated by the Navy at sea. The Lightships were flown by U.S. Army personnel with Vietnamese observers who knew the city very well. The gunships were Cobras. It had such firepower that the Vietcong would not even shoot at it. No attacks occurred in Saigon at night after initiation of the force in October 1973. Unfortunately, he saw too much of Vietnam as he was expected to accompany Vietnamese Generals on trips to various combat zones. He believed such trips were no longer necessary, as the war was essentially over. On one trip the General's aide threw up on his neck during a missed approach at Pleiku. Sitting on the floor of a helicopter with no seats and no doors while holding on to the pilot seat, and going into BaTo/Mo Duc was interesting, but should not have been necessary. The truce took effect in January 1974 and allowed 200 U.S. Personnel to remain in Vietnam. Major Meinhardt's job was one of them. It seemed that everyone wanted his job and Major Meinhardt was eager to give it up. He was sent to a new Air Force Headquarters in Nakhom Phanom, Thailand called Hq USAG. His first task was to take control of 17 Top Secret safes from MACV Hqs in Vietnam. All classified materials were burned by MACV except the 17 safes. Since Major Meinhardt loved history, he did a lot of reading. Then Pacific Command (PACOM) asked how long the headquarters should remain in Phon Penh and what the manning should be. Again, Major Meinhardt was the action officer and sent 119 personnel home early.
Cambodia was looking more and more unstable, so Major Meinhardt went in to Phnom Penh to begin planning its evacuation. Hq USAG controlled 36 heavy-lift helicopters that could each take 50 evacuees, 18 HH-53s and 18 CH-53s. The HH helicopters had air-to-air refueling booms. There were about 1600 evacuees plus CIA personnel. Major Meinhardt examined the likely landing zones. The airport was ruled out as too difficult to defend. Along with counterparts in the Phnom Penh Military Advisory Group, Major Meinhardt established and tested a Single Sideband Communications Radio in an Officers Quarters room connected to USAG's Blue Chip Command Post. Communications were poor between Phnom Penh and Nakhom Phnom. The plan was to take in a protection force of Air Police or Marines, extract the evacuees and return for the protection force. Major Meinhardt then made two more trips to Phnom Penh to coordinate efforts. On the second trip, he bought 100 Temple Rubbings for the USAG Commander's Secretary. On the third trip, he took in the helicopter Commanders and Operations Officers to show them the landing zones. As their T-39 was departing the Phnom Penh Airport, and they banked toward Nakhom Phnom, rocket explosions were walking down the runway. Good idea not to use the airport for the evacuation.
Military Advisory Group, Thailand, however, was assigned the mission and heard of USAG's efforts. They did not want to give it up. Their plan was to use the Phnom Penh Airport and take the evacuees to Saigon, which was now untenable. Additionally, they had inadequate aircraft for the task.
So nothing was done until the situation looked dire. Hq USAG got a message from Headquarters Pacific Command in Hawaii (PACOM) which gave USAG 72 hours to send them a plan. Major Meinhardt wrote the plan in 12 consecutive hours, called "Eagle Pull", coordinated it in the headquarters and sent it to PACOM. He then created an Emergency Action Book for the Blue Chip Command Post. At the end of the 72 hours, Major Meinhardt had just ordered dinner at the Officer's Club with his Army and Marine Colonel bosses when he was paged by Blue Chip. The Ambassador's House in Phnom Penh was under rocket attack. Someone in Blue Chip had misplaced the Emergency Action Book and they couldn't find it. So at nine o'clock at night, Major Meinhardt sat down with General Bellamy, the Director of Operations, and deployed the Eagle Pull force. The helicopters were sent to their Forward Operating Base with a Security Police Force from Nakhom Phnom. The Officer's Club was emptied; at that stage, most pilots probably had a lot to drink, but nobody crashed. Then General Bellamy lit up Phnom Penh all night with flares and the next morning at daylight, all the airpower in Southeast Asia bombed the East Bank of the Mekong River. The fall of Phnom Penh was staved off for another several months. The Navy got involved with carriers, helicopters and Marines. The final Eagle Pull was a joint effort with the HH-53s acting as decoys. Only one Marine was slightly wounded with an accidental weapon discharge.
Major Meinhardt returned to UCLA for an MBA in 1974. He bought a home in Tarzana with five bedrooms and a 20x40 foot swimming pool for $73,000. It was formerly the home of Roman Gabriel, Quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams. His two boys got to attend middle school and high school in one place. During their earlier years, both had attended many schools, including French and British Schools. Florian became Assistant Scoutmaster of the Boy Scouts and his son Brad became an Eagle Scout. Major Meinhardt graduated from UCLA with a 3.725 average on a 4.0 scale and then spent eight years at USAF Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO).
He served as Comptroller for four years to pay the Air Force back for his MBA, then joined the engineering side. As Director of Advanced Concepts, he completed the Conceptual Phase of Engineering Development for the (DARPA Net) which morphed into the Internet. The father of the Internet was Vint Cerf of Stanford University. He was assisted by Professor Haas of UCLA. It was conceived as a means of communication in a nuclear environment. Senator Gore sat on the Congressional Committee that allocated funds to The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA's funds were off the public books. At the same time, Col. Meinhardt began the Conceptual Phase for a small (5000 pound) ballistic missile which he named LONGBOW. The British had defeated the French at Agincourt in 1415 with Longbows which out ranged the French close-in weapons. At the time, the Navy was promoting their cruise missile called Tomahawk, which flew at about 400 knots on terrain-following radar. By contrast, the 5000 pound Longbow, with a 110 Kilotons warhead, came in at 10,000 feet per second. It could be fired from aircraft, ships, submarines, or trucks and had a 1500 mile range. With Global Positioning System (GPS), the truck with six missiles could be driven anywhere and fired. It scared the Russians so bad that they reached the Gorbachev-Reagan Intermediate and shorter range missile (INF) agreement in the mid 1980s. At the time, the Russians were so worried with Longbow and Reagan's Star Wars that they built 47,000 nuclear warheads and were spending almost 39% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on weapons. Russia essentially went broke and Communism ended. Information came from a KGB General at the 10-year Declassification of the Reagan era at the Reagan Library.
Then Col Meinhardt was promoted to Director of Advanced Space Development. As such, he brought the first Microsoft computer to Space Division. It was sold to him by a computer specialist who worked on the movie Star Wars. It cost $45,000 but it enabled his unit to do its own briefing slides. He had the first Air Force payload on the Space Shuttle and got to sit in the Space Shuttle pilot's seat.
Col Meinhardt wanted to return to flying. In the Air Force, each pilot must fly four hours a month to stay current. But that was not available at SAMSO. So Col. Meinhardt instructed students at nearby Torrance Airport. He frequently flew to Catalina Island. And he taught his son Brad to fly over Los Angeles. Brad later parlayed his license into a career in aviation insurance for the airlines, private aircraft and helicopters.
So, in 1982, Col Meinhardt went back to a flying assignment as Air Force Liaison Officer to the Louisiana Civil Air Patrol. He lived in the French Quarter and had a twin-engine Cessna 402B to fly.
Wanting to return to return to Europe, Col Meinhardt volunteered for Chief of Command and Control of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Upper Heyford. They had 90 F-111s and 200 nuclear weapons. It was easy to get the job, no one wanted it. His boss, Air Force Civil Air Patrol, strongly warned against it. It could be a career wrecker. But Col Meinhardt believed his career was nearly over and his wife wanted very much to go. So, they sent her Volvo to England for European travel, and ordered a new right-hand drive Jaguar for English travel. Col Meinhardt sold his 380SL Mercedes. When they landed in Europe, they stored most of their luggage and went to Cannes, France for a month.
When they returned to England, they picked up the Jaguar and bought a home in Woodstock. It had an art gallery on the lower floor which his wife ran (she was an art history major in college.) Their backyard was the grounds of Blenheim Palace. Each year Air Force personnel get a months leave, so Col Meinhardt had saved up three months leave. Then he got another two months for his two years in England. Then an Air Force Academy class of 1980 graduate showed up at Upper Heyford. He had been grounded because he been promised fighters and his boss assigned him to C-130 transports. Florian made him his deputy and Florian and his wife traveled for three months in Europe with the Volvo and one month in England/Scotland with the Jaguar. After his assignment was over, his deputy transferred to fighters in the Navy. He was in the attack force against Saddam Hussein. The Wing Commander, Col Meinhardt's AF Academy classmate made General and everyone was happy. Col Meinhardt retired and he and his wife came home on the QE2.
In 1988, he ran for Congress, 2nd District Kansas. Senator Bob Dole and President Reagan were big supporters, but he failed to unseat the two term incumbent in a liberal district which included Kansas University and Kansas State University. So, he and his wife moved to Paris, France and lived near the Moulin Rouge for a year. Because of her grandaughter's health problem, they returned to the U.S. and moved to Seattle and he worked for MetLife.
Col Meinhardt and his wife, Nancy, are now fully retired and divide their time between Rancho Mirage and La Jolla, CA. They belong to the Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage and The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and La Jolla Country Club in La Jolla. Col Meinhardt intends to write and publish an autobiography tentatively entitled "My Incredible Life.
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