|
 Judson Brohmer of the F-22 Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB, California, became an aerial photographer circuitously. “As a news producer first for CBS and then later for an ABC affiliate, I often drove by Edwards AFB on my way to and from Los Angeles. Watching the jets streak overhead, I didn’t take long to figure out who had a more exciting job than I. So I quit the news and started my career at Edwards.”
Well, not exactly. “I spent three years of ground-pounding to convince the powers-that-be to let me in the back seat. Ever since, I’ve had the time of my life. Starting with McDonnell Douglas on the C-17 program, I soon found myself working for just about every company in the business, from Embraer to Mitsubishi, Bede Jet to Boeing. Add in about twenty-seven others, and life got pretty busy. And then came the best opportunity of my life, Lockheed Martin and the F-22 program.”
But talking about great aerial photography is one thing. “Truth be known, the pilots are what make it happen. At the F-22 CTF (and down the street at the F-16 test force), we have some of the greatest pilots I’ve ever flown with. Every picture I’m proud of has a story behind it that describes how the pilot managed to put us in that particular position—and often it was no small feat.
“And I absolutely love to fly. Nothing compares to the feeling of zooming along at forty or fifty thousand feet, skimming over wispy clouds, chasing the world’s most advanced fighter. Or being down on the deck, bouncing all around as my F-16 rockets through canyons at two hundred feet above ground level. Reaching speeds pretty darn close to Mach.”
The people Brohmer knew from his old news days? “They would love to have my job. Unfortunately for them, it’s taken!”
In Memoriam: Judson Brohmer
|
