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U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) recognized the service and sacrifice of Kenneth Griffin in ‘Salute to Veterans,’ a series highlighting the military service of Arkansans.
Griffin’s father served in the Air Force and the family moved around the world to support the mission.
“He would take me out to the airplanes when we were in California and Gaum, sit me in the cockpit and he’d say, ‘son you want to be an Air Force pilot’ so that was ingrained in my head from being a little kid,” Griffin said.
When his dad retired, the family moved to Batesville.
After graduating from Batesville High School he enlisted in the Air Force.
“It was exactly what I expected it to be,” he said about basic training. “They break you down to be the person that they want you to be.”
While on temporary duty assignment in Germany he was tasked with supporting a two-star general recovering in the hospital who introduced him to the mission of aeromedical evacuation and how, using his skills as a medical technician on a “flying ambulance,” he could meet the pilots. After the assignment ended, he received orders to aeromedical evacuation training at Scott Air Force Base.
The general is one of several ‘angels’ who put Griffin on the path to becoming a pilot and gave him the confidence to be successful in the cockpit.
When Griffin’s original service commitment was nearly complete, he didn’t know what he wanted to do next. Through another ‘angel’ he met; Griffin accepted an ROTC scholarship to Southern Illinois University. Once he graduated he began pilot training.
“Back then they called enlisted guys who wanted to be pilots, ‘wannabe’s’. At some point I got to tell the guys that I was a ‘gonnabe’ and I ended up being able to do it through their help steering me the right way.”
One hurdle he experienced in achieving that goal was his vision. Griffin didn’t qualify medically because he didn’t have 20/20 vision. He needed a waiver, but those were rarely given.
Griffin went to an independent eye doctor who signaled that his vision was correctable to 20/20 allowing him to ultimately be granted the waiver. He credits that doctor as another ‘angel’ who helped him along the path to becoming a pilot.
He was not initially interested in flying fighter jets, but was selected to attend the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program at Sheppard Air Force Base. He trained with pilots and instructors from among European allies. At the end of this year-long training, he was assigned to fly an F-15c, the air-to-air version of the F-15 and flew under the call sign “Heater.”
In the early years of his pilot career, he was stationed with fighter groups in several different locations, but always wanted to get back to Arkansas.
When a position opened up at the 188th in Fort Smith, he gladly accepted. It required him to transition to the F-16. Griffin said it was an easy switch but also an opportunity to learn new skills. “You have fighter experience, you just have to learn the specifics of that aircraft and any mission you didn’t do like dropping bombs, I had never dropped a bomb before,” he said.
Although he had already been deployed multiple times and faced stressful situations as a pilot, Griffin remembered 9/11 as the day everything changed. He was on duty at the 188th that morning where he and Wing Commander JR Dallas were planning to practice fighter maneuvers. They were watching television as they prepared for the flight and saw the planes hit the World Trade Center towers.
“I immediately turned to him and said ‘Sir, we’re under attack.’”
Once it became clear what was happening, Griffin said Col. Dallas and everyone on duty set to work figuring out what to do. “Before the sun went down, we had missiles and bullets loaded on our aircraft,” he said. “By that evening we were set and alert in the cockpit.”
As one of four pilots on alert that night, he had to prepare for all situations including the possibility that he would be ordered to shoot down an airliner full of Americans. They all had to sign paperwork agreeing to comply with that order if necessary. “That was tough,” he said. “Did I answer it honestly? I don’t know.”
Later that night he and another pilot were launched on a scramble order after a report of an unidentified aircraft in Oklahoma potentially poisoning the water supply.
“We got launched to get to Tulsa as fast as you can,” Griffin said. “We take off and we’re going above the mach. We’re breaking the sound barrier and the air traffic controller comes on and says you guys can go as fast as you want as high as you want wherever you want because you’re the only aircraft airborne in the United States.”
Fortunately, he didn’t have to take action on a plane that he later learned was a crop duster whose pilot hadn’t heard about the attacks.
For the next several days Griffin remained on alert and had to stay on the base. “We got launched a few times for different stuff,” he recalled. “You just had to be ready for anything.”
In the conflict that followed, the 188th deployed to Iraq in 2002 and again in 2005 to Balad Air Base.
During his 30 years in uniform, Griffin completed eight combat tours and was an expert in flying the F-15c, F-15, F-16 and the A-10.
After retiring, Griffin became active in politics and served in Governor Asa Hutchinson’s administration as military advisor.
“Pick something that you’re proud about doing and you hope somebody asks you so you can tell them what you do. I got to do that. Everyday. I was very proud. I’m a very patriotic person. Devoted love for my country. I got to do that and there is no bigger honor,” he said. “Very, very rewarding. And I loved it every single day I did it.”
Griffin was inducted into the Arkansas Military Veterans’ Hall of Fame in 2023.
“Kenneth Griffin is a pillar of the Arkansas military and veterans community who has lived out his love for our country and state. I’m pleased his memories of service will now be preserved for future generations of to learn and gain inspiration from,” Boozman said.
Boozman submitted Griffin’s entire interview to the Veterans History Project, an initiative of the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center to collect and retain the oral histories of our nation’s veterans.
Do you know a veteran interested in sharing their memories for the ‘Salute to Veterans’ series? Nominate an Arkansas veteran to share their story by calling Boozman’s Fort Smith office at 479-573-0189.
