Brig. Gen. Russell Axtell ’77 became a fighter pilot in 1968, while a junior at WSU. “It was always my goal to go into the Air Force and fly while I was in college,” he says.
At the time, the war in Vietnam was raging, and Axtell knew that if he were drafted, his ambition to be a pilot would be dashed. He weighed his options, then spoke to his father, who suggested the Air National Guard.
“As it turned out, they needed pilots,” he reports.
He received his commission in 1968, completed pilot training and later flew part-time at McConnell while finishing his undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering. Since 1969, he’s logged more than 4,000 hours flying time in F-100s, F105s, F-4s, F-16s and B-1 bombers.
Axtell’s only goal, when he first entered the service, was flying.
Yet he discovered he enjoyed not only flying, but also teaching, and he worked his way up the ranks by, as he says, “looking for the next opportunity to be useful.” He eventually became wing commander at McConnell, then chief of staff of Kansas’ Air National Guard. He is now assistant adjutant general of the Air Guard, which puts him in charge of all Air Guard forces in Kansas. “It’s been amazing,” he says. “It’s been fun. Who would have thought?”
— Kelley Ripley
