Frank Bianca's Biography is as follows.
He Graduated from Southern Illinois University with an EE degree, Dec 1972. Commissioned the same month as a Second Lt. from AFROTC.
He Started pilot training in Jan 1973 at Laredo, TX. Finished T-38 as Outstanding Formation Pilot, and Outstanding Pilot of Class 74-05. Also, Outstanding Graduate.
Was assigned to fly the F-4 and went to the 311th Squadron at Luke AFB, Phoenix, AZ. Graduated Top Gun in the class.
Assigned to the to 80th Tactical Fighter Sqd, Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea for a one year remote tour. Sat many Victor Alerts on the nukes.
subsequently assigned to the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, TASS, as a Forward Air Controller flying the O-2A out of Bergstrom AFB, Austin, TX in January, 1976.
Awarded Regular Commission. Left the regular Air Force in 1979 and joined the Illinois Air National Guard at Springfield, IL flying the F-4D in October, 1979.
Transferred to Missouri Air National Guard in St. Louis, MO flying the F-4E in August 1985.
Col Bianca was one of the Cold Warriors that brought the Soviet Bear to its knees. They accomplished this by being better trained, an example of this training was participating in over 10 Red Flag Exercises at Nellis AFB. He was also the Squadron Maverick Missile Instructor in St. Louis. Col. Bianca also had ten ocean crossings in the F-4. He finished his F-4 flying by being one of a handful of pilots travelling to Cairo, Egypt to fly the Egyptian F-4s in country and then taking them all the way to Hill Air Force Base, Salt Lake, UT for Periodic Depot Maintenance. After the jets were repaired and upgraded, he would fly them back to Egypt.
He flew his last F-4 flight, 21 September 1991 delivering one of the St. Louis F-4s to the Turkish Air Force in Eskisehir, Turkey.
He was then assigned to the 239th Combat Communications Squadron, St. Louis, MO. After being promoted to Lt. Col, he became the Squadron Commander in charge of 191 enlisted and nine officers.
Col. Bianca retired from the military December 28, 1998.
Additionally in his spare time he was also an Airline Pilot and flew a variety of aircraft for Ozark/TWA/and finally United Airlines. He retired from United Airlines in 2013.
His talk to the Veterans Club will focus primarily on Red Flags and his experiences at Nellis AFB.