Interview with John
Booner
In my last interview with our present
medical center staff, it has been my good fortune to get to know
John Bonner a bit.
On the surface John can appear as an
ordinary, average guy but in sitting down with him and asking
pointed questions this unassuming, funny, Renaissance man comes into
view.
John was born into a down-to-earth
country family. With hard work and intelligence John earned a BS in
Aerospace Engineering, and then an MA in Management. He worked
forty years as a pilot, first in the Air Force where he flew 115
combat missions in Vietnam, a couple of which he says he should not
have survived. He has four awards of the Distinguished Flying
Cross. The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) is our nation's highest
award for extraordinary aerial achievement and is awarded to
recipients for heroism while participating in an aerial flight.
John went on to serve two tours with
The USAF Presidential Wing. While John points out, not on the Air
Force One Crew, he piloted countless people who literally stepped
off the front pages of The Washington Post, and up the stairs
of his aircraft, journeying to all fifty states and seventy
countries. A tiny selection of these famous names: Gerald Ford,
George H. W. Bush, Nancy Reagan, Bob Hope, Henry Kissinger,
Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, Barry Goldwater and the list of
interesting names go on and on.
Retiring from the military, he
continued flying for a corporate flight department in San Antonio.
Having traveled all over the world and seen more places on this
planet than most, John happily and most contentedly feels blessed to
call our little mountain village his home.
In 1998, following a recommendation for
a vacation spot, John and his wife Shelby discovered Lake City and
as can happen, that one trip kept them coming back. Soon afterwards
they bought property and eventually made Lake City their home..
Never one to sit still, John became a
Lake City EMT volunteer. In 2010 he had upgraded EMT-I when Dr.
Durmond (Lake City’s physician at the time) contacted John inquiring
if John would volunteer at the medical center on Mondays, as Mondays
are usually extra busy. John’s work is similar to that of an RN and
he enjoys it very much. John is also active in the Sheriff’s Reserve
Force, Search and Rescue, and is Board Secretary for Community
Presbyterian Church. In his free time John enjoys hiking, fishing,
hunting, shooting, and four-wheeling.
The man has been just about everywhere
but finds Lake City an extraordinarily special place. John and
Shelby, his wife of 30 years, feel blessed to live here.