Lou Garvin - Corporate Pilot

Lou Garvin, Jr. was born into a military family from Charles Town, West Virginia, Dec.17th. 1946. (The date of the first powered flight of an aircraft by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, NC).  He came by his profession naturally as Lou Garvin, Sr., is a retired USAF Colonel who was the first Air Force pilot to fly the U-2.  Being a military brat, he grew up at different duty stations that extended across the United States as well as England.  When it was time to go off to college, he chose to return to the home state and graduated from West Virginia University and was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the USAF.

Lou attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Craig Air Force Base, Selma, AL, graduated in May, 1970 and was assigned to fly KC-135 for aerial refueling and nuclear alert.  He had several overseas assignments that took him to Europe and South East Asia during the Vietnam War.  He completed 34 combat missions and was awarded the Air Medal.

After separation from the USAF in 1973, he trained in Lear jets and was hired by Gen. Paul Tibbets (pilot of the Enola Gay over Hiroshima) to fly for Executive Jet Aviation, the first fractional business jet operator.  The first Arab oil embargo interrupted his employment with a one year furlough.  He returned to West Virginia University and completed his master’s degree in Safety Management.  Executive Jet rescued him from the perils of a real job and he agreed to ferry as part of a group three Lear Jets to Amman, Jordan.  Once there he helped with the start up of the Jordanian’s charter air service, Arab Wings.  In two months, King Hussein’s chief pilot hired Lou to fly for the Jordanian Airline on B-707’s throughout Europe, the Middle East, and South East Asia on scheduled airline service.  In Dec. of 1976 it was time however to return home and seek his true dream in life-that of flying for a major carrier in the USA.  Perhaps one that had international service.  He would soon learn that the chief pilot upstairs had different plans.

In June of 1977 having exhausted all avenues of joining a “major carrier”, Lou accepted a job with a little company in Dallas that flew interstate to 6 destinations with 6 airplanes, Southwest Airlines.  And so began a carrier of 29 years that reached beyond his wildest imagination.  He upgraded to Captain in less than two years and watched as the little interstate carrier grew to 475 airplanes flying to over 60 destinations in the USA.  Along the way, he married the most beautiful flight attendant at SWA and had two wonderful children, Rachel and David.  Rachel now 23, is a flight instructor with Delta Air Academy and David is an aspiring basketball player, guitarist, and freshmen in high school.  Lou retired from Southwest in 2006 due to the mandatory FAA age 60 rule and joined The Intrepid Equity Group.  When not flying a jet for Intrepid, you’ll find Lou in his own twin-engine Beech Baron which he operates out of their fly-in community in Dallas. Total flight time 26,000+ hours.