The Rogue Colonel: Exploits of "Daddy" Thyson and his Aircraft Testing Unit during World War II

The Rogue Colonel contains three World War II test pilots' first-hand recollections of flying with their infamous leader, Daddy Thyson. "Don't call me Colonel, call me Daddy"... that's what Colonel Thyson said to the dozen or so Army Air Corps test pilots who reported to him. Not exactly standard Army protocol, but nothing about Daddy Thyson was even close to orthodox. Thyson's style rubbed off on his men, producing a series of outlandish exploits that were recorded by three of them over forty years later. Those stories make up the bulk of this one-of-a-kindl memoir, authored by Mike Thieme, the only one of the three men still living, with research and annotations by his daughter, Susan Rope. Thyson's antics seemingly couldn't, or wouldn't, or shouldn't have happened in the military, then or now. On one occasion Thieme protested, "Colonel, this is just too hot to handle!" But Thyson loved thwarting the system, and he was astute, persuasive, and lucky enough to get away with it. Maybe in spite of Thyson, these noncombat pilots made important contributions to the war effort, testing a wide variety of the latest military aircraft and engineering solutions under extreme winter conditions at Ladd Field near Fairbanks, Alaska. It was hazardous work, to say the least. There was one fatality, one miraculous survival story, and many near misses. Shortly after the war, Thyson's luck ran out, spectacularly, enhancing his mythic status in the eyes of the men who served with him. The three contributors of these stories went on to become leaders in their chosen fields of business and law, remaining friends throughout their lives. The author, Walter I. (Mike) Thieme, a native of Missoula, Montana, graduated in Engineering from Montana State in 1942, just in time to be ordered to active duty with the Army Air Corps. After the war, he received an MBA from Harvard and made his career in business, eventually becoming CEO of American Aggregates Corporation. Fo