Born to Fly – Celebrating a Career of Aviation Excellence

Interesting content alert! Well, actually, it’s ALL interesting on “In Orbit.” But this week, we’re thrilled to feature Scott Hudson, chief UH-1 pilot with Kord Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of KBR. Listen as Scott recounts his remarkable flight career, which started at age 13 and has included flying missions for the U.S. Army in Europe during the Cold War, fighting fires with the U.S. Forest Service, training the next generation of pilots, and amassing more than 11,000 flight hours in helicopter cockpits. You won’t want to miss it!

Transcript

IN ORBIT A KBR PODCAST

Season 3, Episode 3

Born to Fly – Celebrating a Career of Aviation Excellence

John Arnold

Hello, I'm John, and this is In Orbit. Greetings, and thank you for joining us for another episode of the In Orbit podcast. If you're a repeat offender/regular orbiter, we are so glad you're back and if you're just finding us for the first time, welcome. I read today that there are between three and four million podcasts out there to choose from, so we're grateful that you're spending time with us today. And at time of recording, we're sitting at 9,850 downloads — so close to 10,000! Hopefully you'll keep coming back so we can get that next 10,000.

We talk a lot on the podcast about the work that KBR's amazing people are doing all over the world. But what you might not know is that many of those amazing people are former service members. KBR has a long history of supporting active-duty soldiers, veterans, and their families, and our extensive support of the U.S. and UK governments and their allies includes offering former service members new opportunities to continue serving their countries while also forging civilian careers.

Our guest today, Scott Hudson, is part of that cohort. Scott is the Chief UH-1 pilot, UH-1 one being a utility military helicopter, at Kord Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of KBR, and he works primarily out of Fort Hood in Texas. Scott's with us today to talk about his impressive career as an aviator — from the U.S. Army to fighting fires with the U.S. Forest Service. He's also going to talk to us about the work he does out at Fort Hood and about a remarkable career milestone he recently achieved. Welcome to the podcast, Scott.

Scott Hudson

Thank you, John.

John Arnold

First of all, thank you for your service, sir.

Scott Hudson

Well, it's been a pleasure. The Army's been very good to me.

John Arnold

That's outstanding. Well, before having people on the podcast, I like to do as much internet stalking as possible. Reading about your experience on LinkedIn, it looks like you were born to fly. How did you first get into aviation?

Scott Hudson

Well, it's kind of funny that you mentioned “born” because I actually just about was born into aviation. My father purchased his first aircraft when I was two years old.

John Arnold

Oh, wow.

Scott Hudson

Most kids grow up with family cars. I grew up with family cars and family airplanes. By the time I was 13 years old, my father had taken his hobby and he'd converted it into a full-time occupation. He was doing instructing and he was rough line charter trips, and he actually took over as a local airport manager. So as a kid at 13, I had a pretty good advantage. At 13, I logged my first official flight in my logbook, and that was in 1967.

John Arnold

Wow.

Scott Hudson

And of course that was what, 56 years ago, I guess.

John Arnold

That's tremendous.

Scott Hudson

I had to wait three years before I was old enough to solo because you had to be 16 to solo. And it's kind of ironic because the state of Michigan — at 16, you're not allowed to drive a car at first. You got to go 30 days with a supervised adult. So, on the morning of my 16th birthday, I couldn't drive to the airport. My father had to drive me to the airport. But once I got to the airport, I jumped in three different airplanes to solo. So I could legally fly an airplane by myself, but I couldn't drive a car yet.

John Arnold

That is amazing. Is the age for soloing still 16 or has it increased since then?

Scott Hudson

To my knowledge, it's still 16. By the time I was 17 on my 17th birthday, I got my private license.

John Arnold

That's incredible. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about your flight career at post-17 years old before joining Kord and KBR.

Scott Hudson

Well, like I said, at 17, I got my license and I'd also signed up in the Army in high school. I took five months delayed entry. I was planning on going right into high school to flight school, but while I was in delayed entry, the Army put a two-year college requirement on. I'd already made up my mind to come in, so I scored real high in mechanics, so they sent me into mechanics. I was a UH-1 crew chief mechanic, came down on orders for Vietnam in 1971 as a door gunner. But at the last minute they said, "Well, we got too many of you guys, so put in for another school." So I got fixed-wing maintenance then. Once again, I come down on orders for Vietnam, and at that point they said, "Well, you know, can go to Vietnam if you want, but you're the distinguished graduate of your class, so we'd rather you go to the Presidential Flight Detachment.” So two hours later, I left Fort Houston and I was in a Washington D.C.

And then in 1973, I ran into a CW4 [chief warrant officer] on the flight line, and he says, “Hudson.” He says, “I've been looking for a Hudson.” He says, “Did you ever put in for flight school?” And I said, “Yeah, but I forgot about that.” He said, “Well, give me your social security number.” So I gave it to him and the next day he calls me up and he says, “You're the guy I've been looking for, but they told me you went to Vietnam,” he says. I said, “Well, who are you anyhow?” And he goes, “Well, I'm the guy that picks guys to go to flight school.” So a couple weeks later, I was on my way to Fort Wolters, Texas — this is in Mineral Wells — and I was the very last class to go through Fort Wolters.

In 1974, I graduated from Fort Rucker, Alabama — did my second part at Fort Rucker, and they sent me to Germany. I got to Germany — it was kind of unique in Germany because all the pilots in Germany were guys out of Vietnam. They didn't need them in COTUS [the continental U.S.], so they'd send them to Germany. So I come in as a brand new W1 [warrant officer 1], they hadn't even seen a W1 for years there. But the thing was, none of these pilots had an instrument ticket. They all had what they called a tach instrument ticket.

John Arnold

Scott, let me interrupt you for a moment and ask you what's W1, just for our listeners.

Scott Hudson

Okay. A W1 is a warrant officer one, and he's basically equivalent to the second lieutenant.

John Arnold

Gotcha. Okay.

Scott Hudson

And at that time, we had W1 through W4, the W4 being equivalent of a major. So anyhow, I get over there, there's no instrument-rated pilots. We got 50 officers in the unit and two examiners. So instantly I come out of the flight school with a standard instrument rating, and that was unheard of at that time. So instantly I'm made into an instructor pilot for teaching instruments, and I'd get the guys qualified, and I'd send over to the examiners to finish them off. Did that for a couple years. And then in 1976, I was a young CW2 and I was an air mission commander. Our unit had a classified program. We were hauling nukes around Germany.

John Arnold

Oh, wow.

Scott Hudson

I was an Air Mission Commander in that program, and it was being run by a captain who is an artillery branch commander, and he had a fallout with a commander. The commander relieved him and sent him off to the states, and they didn't know who's going to take over the program. It wasn't a warrant officer slot, it was a captain slot, so the next thing I know as a young CW2, I found myself as a Seventh Core Aviation Surety officer, and it's my job to train pilots to fly nukes around, and also Air Mission Commanders. So it was kind of interesting two years. I did real good and it was a good feather in my hat for me. I did that up until 1978 when the Army sent me off to the UH-1 Instructor Pilots’ course to be a full-fledged instructor.

At the same time, they sent me to the Cobra [single-engine attack helicopter] transition right after that. And the reason being is the Cold War’s going strong then, and at that time, the Russians were a big threat because they had 21 tank divisions for every one division we had in Germany. So they were looking for attack helicopter pilots because basically a helicopter could kill about 20 tanks for a loss of one.

John Arnold

Oh my goodness.

Scott Hudson

So after four years in Germany, I found myself reassigned right back to Germany. I was in the Second Armored Cav [Cavalry] Regiment, and it was really one of the most rewarding jobs I think I've ever had, patrolling the East Communist border. I was patrolling East Germany and I was patrolling Czechoslovakia. We flew every day of the week. Seven days a week, Christmas holidays, it didn't matter — we had to be out there. And we had a real mission, and I got a lot of flight time doing it. I think I was on my third Cobra tour back in Germany again, and I was flying the 501 Ansbach, Germany when we got a brand-new division commander come in by the name of Crosbie E. Saint, Major General. And this guy, his division was Southern Germany, and he didn't like to stay in the office at all. He wanted to visit his troops, and he was looking for a pilot.

Well, at that time, the attack helicopter pilots had basically been cut down because the money was tight in the Army, and the first thing they cut is the attack helicopters. So I was also the UH-1 instructor pilot in the unit, so when he was looking for a pilot, I raised my hand. He and I connected good, and I actually stayed with him for 10 years.

John Arnold

Oh, wow.

Scott Hudson

He got his third star. He took over Fort Hood and he took me with him and was I flying to Fort Hood. And then he got his fourth star, and he went back to Germany, that was 1988, and he was now what they call a CINCUS, or CINC being Commander in Chief. And that's when I got my Black Hawk transition. I flew with him and when he retired, I had about 22 years in the Army, and I figured, “Okay, I'll retire too now.” General Maddox took over as his position at that time, and General Maddox come in, says, “Scott, I'm bringing my pilot Dave Tomlin in, who's a heli pilot, and I want you to train him to fly Black Hawks [four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter].”

So I stayed on with General Maddox, and when General Maddox left, I was going to retire again. And then General [William] Crouch come in and says, “Scott, I want to keep you on.” And finally in 1995, I think it was, I told General Crouch, I says, “Sir, I got to go home. I got a brand-new house built. It's my retirement home. It's been settin’ two years empty. I'd really like to go back.” So it's kind of a mistake on my part, because when I went back, and now I'm a CW5, and the Army said, “You're too valuable to be a Peter Pilot [generally a U.S. Army captain that had flight orders and was assigned to some sort of liaison duty]. So they make me a staff officer, and I was a brigade safety officer the 2nd AD [Armored] division, aviation safety officer. And to my surprise, I was actually quite good at being a staff officer, the first time in my life I've done something like that. But I wasn't flying, that was the only problem.

A couple years later, they sent me back to Germany as a COSCOM [Corps Support Command] aviation safety officer, and I did that for a very short time. I was having a good time doing it, but I wasn't flying. And then I get a phone call from Heidelberg and it says, "We got a new CINC over here. His name is General Meigs and he's looking for a pilot, and the guys in Heidelberg still remember you. “So we'd like to have you come in for an interview.” I said, “Okay, what do I do?” And they said, “Well, come on in at 4:30 in the afternoon at the VIP lounge in Heidelberg, and you can meet with the general.”

So I'm thinking, “That's what I'll do.” I show up at 4:30, I go into operation, I said, “I'm here to meet General Meigs.” And they said, “Oh, you're Mr. Hudson. That jet outside is waiting for you. You're going to Sarajevo.” I said, “What? I didn't bring in any overnight gear.” And they said, “That's okay, you won't need it.” And they said, “We'll have you back tonight.”

So I go down Sarajevo. Well, turns out he was wearing two hats. He was the CINC USAREUR [U.S. Army Europe]. He was also the SOFOR C Commander, which is stabilization of forces command. That was when Bosnia was really getting underway. So, he and I hit it off. It turns out when I was a young W-2 flying the border, he was a lieutenant on the border. And so General Meigs and I just hit it off. I took over as his pilot, and I had to maintain two special CINC Hawks in Heidelberg for him in Germany, and I had to maintain two of them in Sarajevo, Bosnia, when he was flying around down there. I did that and then basically I retired. Did 30 years out of that job and got to fly for my last couple years.

John Arnold

That's amazing. Because of the caliber of your ability, they couldn't let you go. They couldn't let you retire.

Scott Hudson

Well, the general told me he liked to see gray hair in the cockpit.

John Arnold

Experience! Experience. You need somebody that's been around. That's amazing that at 22 years you were looking at retiring, and then eight more years tacked on after that. That's incredible. So what are some of the highlights ... you've mentioned a lot of them in that little synopsis … what are some of the highlights from the military or from fighting fires? What are the highlights in your career?

Scott Hudson

Well, I think military-wise have to say it was flying the nukes around, flying on the border. And I also had one good mission — I got sent … when the [Berlin] Wall first fell … I got sent clear over to Podpora, Czechoslovakia, which was on the Russian border to fly Vice President Dan Quail.

John Arnold

Oh, wow.

Scott Hudson

The U.S. ambassador at the time was Shirley Temple.

John Arnold

Oh, I recall that, yes.

Scott Hudson

So I got to fly her, and I got to tell you, she was just as sweet as she is on TV. She was wonderful. She took pictures with us beside the aircraft and everything, so that was one of my highlights.

John Arnold

That's right. I'd forgotten that she was a U.S. ambassador at that time. So tell us a bit about your role then at Fort Hood.

Scott Hudson

Well, once I retired, I never thought I'd see a helicopter again, but it turns out a guy by the name of Rem MacNealy hired me about 18 years ago, and I started doing firefighting on Fort Hood. Yeah. So that got me into firefighting. And then later on, I went out, I spent about eight years firefighting for the [U.S.] Forest Service out in the northwest, which I'd spend my summers out there doing that. But then when Rem hired me to fly for Kord — basically what happens, he says, “Okay, you got to start the program.” He says, “We got a Huey that's sitting in a rec hangar, because the hurricane had taken a hangar out down in Galveston and collapsed down the tail boom of a Huey.” We purchased the Huey, we sent it down to Kentucky, and the guys in Kentucky were going to do a full restoration for us to the tune of about $750,000.

My job was to fly to Kentucky, occasionally, oversee the restoration of the helicopter. When the helicopter was restored, Rem MacNealy and I, we did the acceptance flight on it. At that time, we took the helicopter, we flew it down to Huntsville so the guys at Kord could get a look at it. We did a static display so they could see some of the other facets of what Kord Technologies does. And then it was my job and Rem flew with me. We flew the helicopter back to Texas. Once I got back to Texas, my job was then to, I had to find a hangar, I had to find a maintenance program, I had to get a mechanic trained up on the helicopters.

John Arnold

My goodness.

Scott Hudson

A 1969 Vietnam helicopter's got bullet holes in it, so it's kind of an old bird to find the parts and everything for it. But anyhow, we got a mechanic all trained up on it, then my job was to get pilots trained, and most of the pilots I trained were Apache pilots. We're talking going from high technology to low technology, but most of these guys it's always been their dream to fly an Apache and a UH-1 helicopter, Vietnam bird. So the guys are happy and having a ball doing it. And then basically, we got two missions here. We do reconnaissance and we do firefighting. Those are our two missions.

John Arnold

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

Scott Hudson

I got to say, probably the thing that I just enjoy the most is nature. I mean, you can't imagine what nature, how beautiful it is until you fly low level in a helicopter. And basically, our mission is to fly West Texas. Our training area is for Fort Hood all the way out to San Angelo. It's a lot of wilderness out there, and we fly at treetop level because that's where the missions are done, and we're looking for hazards in our recon. And you'll see turkey, you'll see wild hogs, you'll see deer. I mean, I can't believe people are paying me to do this, to be honest with you.

John Arnold

Scott, can you tell us a little about some of the broader work? You've mentioned some of the stuff that you and other pilots do at Fort Hood. What's some of the broader work that our folks are doing at Fort Hood?

Scott Hudson

Well, we have a turnkey operation here. Basically, we support the Dutch military. It's hard for the helicopters to fly in Holland. Holland is such a populated area, they don't even want their police helicopters to fly.

John Arnold

Interesting.

Scott Hudson

So what happens is they come to the United States, and they've been coming to Fort Hood for about 20 years now. And what it is, every six weeks, we have a new class. They have Apache helicopters and they have Chinooks. They're brand-new helicopters, they're really nice helicopters. And they've turned those helicopters over to Kord. And what Kord does is we maintain them, we provide the mechanics, we provide the test pilots, the instructor pilots. And every six weeks, a new class comes in. they can just jump in their aircraft and go out and fly. If they need instructors, we can provide them. And we probably have about 159 people here at West Fort Hood, and they're all mostly ex-military, the highest caliber people, there's some true professionals out there.

John Arnold

That's outstanding. Well, you've recently achieved a significant career milestone, and I want to give listeners a little perspective first. I've read that a budding commercial pilot has to log 250 hours of flight time, that an entry-level airline pilot has to log between 1,000 and 1,500 hours. You recently hit the 11,000 flight hours mark. Can you tell us about that? Put that in perspective for us?

Scott Hudson

Well, for an airline pilot, that wouldn't be that much, but for a helicopter pilot, it's a lot. Basically, we say is, helicopters — that one hour helicopter is probably equivalent of four or five hours of fixed-wing flying.

John Arnold

Wow, okay.

Scott Hudson

And that's mainly because of an airplane has maybe five hours of fuel. The helicopter has two hours of fuel. They'll go out on a cross-country flight, they put the autopilot on, and four or five hours later they're landing. We'll go out and we'll work for an hour, at 1.8 hours, and it's time to go home with our fuel reserve. And I can tell you, I also flew as a contract pilot in Afghanistan for a couple years. That's flying King Air 300. So it's not all helicopter time. I do have a couple thousand hours of fixed-wing time.

John Arnold

That's amazing.

Scott Hudson

But I can tell you that doing two hours of firefighting single pilot wears me out a lot more than doing five hours at 20,000 foot in the King Air 300.

John Arnold

And that's just because flying a helicopter is, it's more hands on, I take it.

Scott Hudson

Yeah, it's all seat of the pants.

John Arnold

That's amazing. About how many hours do you log in a month?

Scott Hudson

Well, we're contracted for 170 hours a year here at Fort Hood. So that, and I have my own private airplane, I probably put 50 hours on. So I probably accumulate about 18 hours a month. However, that's not a lot of hours, 18 hours. But I'm basically semiretired, so for me, it's the perfect amount. Because you start working more than that, it becomes work, and as it is now, it's just pure fun.

John Arnold

Was this something that someone on the base keeps track? I mean, obviously you have to record your hours, but was this something that you were cognizant of as the milestone was coming up?

Scott Hudson

Yeah. Every flight I've ever done from day one, I have a logbook and I make an entry. Even when I was in the Army and the Army takes care of your flight time, I still kept my own private logbook. I'm now on logbook number eight. Every time you have to total up your pages, you know where you're at. So I almost wish I hadn't told anybody I was coming up 11,000, because everyone's making such a big deal out of it.

John Arnold

It's a big deal! What's another milestone you hope to achieve in your semiretirement?

Scott Hudson

Well, I'm coming up on 70 years of age right now. For me, most of the milestones I ever wanted to accomplish, I've done. Probably at this point, in my age, the milestone is just passing those class two flight physicals. I mean, when I was 20 years old, they were pretty easy, but 70, I got to work at it. Basically, my milestone is keep passing those physicals so I can keep doing what I love doing.

John Arnold

That's awesome. I commend you for that attitude. That's wonderful. I wish that everyone could love their job as much as you seem to. Before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to add for our listeners?

Scott Hudson

Well, like I said, I'm coming up on 70 years of age, and I'm still flying helicopters. I'm flying airplanes. I'm riding motorcycles. And for the last seven years, I've been doing that with an artificial leg.

John Arnold

Oh my goodness!

Scott Hudson

But that's another story, I don't want to get into right now. And I would like to mention my co-pilot. I have a really good co-pilot. Like me, he's a retired military officer. He's a retired Master Aviator, CW4. Like me, he started out in Hueys, and then he went to Cobras like me. He did go on to fly [Cessna] Citation jets and Gulfstream jets for the Army. Like me, his name is also Hudson.

John Arnold

Oh, wow.

Scott Hudson

And that's because he's my brother and we flew together in the Army. We flew together as contract pilots in Afghanistan, and now we're flying together for Kord and KBR.

John Arnold

Scott, that is amazing. What an amazing story. A family element! Surprise! Sneak attack, right at the end! Well, I appreciate your taking time out of your schedule to speak with us today. This has been a real treat. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.

Scott Hudson

Oh, I sure have, John. Thank you very much.

John Arnold

Thank you.

That's all for this episode. A big thank you to Scott Hudson for taking time to be with us on the podcast to talk about the incredible work he has done in his career and that the broader KBR Kord team is doing at Fort Hood. As always, a big shout out to Emma, our producer for her amazing work as well.

If you're a former service member and are interested in exploring possible careers at KBR, please check out the careers page on our website, kbr.com. There's a special page that talks about the work we do supporting veterans, so definitely do not miss that. You can also look up opportunities on LinkedIn and other career websites.

If you liked what you heard today or have an idea for an episode, please let us hear from you at inorbit@kbr.com. Just shoot us an email. We've also got two seasons of content in our back catalog that you can check out if you like what you're hearing. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please tell your friends or professional network about us by sharing the episode on social media.

Finally, thank you again to all of you who are listening. We'll be back in a couple of weeks with more good stories. But in the meantime, stay safe, take care of the planet, eat your vegetables. Take care.