Retired Air Force Major Brian Shul isn’t an IT expert, but his story of survival and recovery captivated the IT audience at a national management conference.

A fighter pilot during Vietnam, Shul flew 212 combat missions. His AT-28 aircraft was shot down near the Cambodian border as the war was ending, and Shul was forced to crash land into the jungle. Rescued by a Special Forces team, Shul was so badly burned that he wasn’t expected to survive. He nearly didn’t.

After two months in a military hospital in Okinawa, he was flown in 1974 to the Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he underwent 15 operations. He was told he’d never again fly. Two years later, after being released from the hospital, Shul passed a flight physical and returned to active duty flying Air Force fighter jet aircraft.

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