By Christina Wood

Maj. Harry Shumate, USAF (Ret), racked up more than 14,000 hours of flight time in his career as both a military and civilian pilot. And, at the age of 97, he has almost that many stories.

Pull up a chair and Shumate will happily reminisce about his days as a wingman for legendary flying ace Francis Stanley “Gabby” Gabreski in the skies over Korea. He can tell you what it feels like to pump 1,500 bullets into a MiG fighter but be forced to settle for a “probable kill” because of incoming enemy planes.

Shumate, who makes his home in Tennessee, might tell you about the time he was shot down over the Yellow Sea and experienced the back-cracking jolt of the ejection seat. “It's a terrible shock,” he said. “The old-fashioned ejection seats were very crude. It was a cannon, and you were the bullet.”

He can still remember how choppy the waves were and how wonderful it felt to be hoisted on board the amphibian rescue plane. “A big old sergeant reached down and grabbed me by the back of the neck of my flying suit and yanked me up into that airplane, and I was really happy to be there,” he said.

Twist his arm and Shumate might tell you about his role in the historic Bay of Pigs Invasion or the Cuban Missile Crisis. He can talk about the joys of training young pilots and the stresses of being away from family.

If you want to know about his civilian career, be sure to ask him about his 13 years with the Aeronautical Division of the Tennessee Transportation Bureau, flying three governors where they needed to be, inspecting airports from one end of the state to the other and, on one very special occasion, flying Elizabeth Taylor home.

Early Love of Flying

Shumate, who was born in 1927, fell in love with flying as a small child when his father worked at a plant making aircraft engines. At age 13, he joined Civil Air Patrol Squadron 632-6, where he learned about things like the theory of flight, meteorology, and basic flight rules. He then started flying lessons, which he paid for himself, and soloed for the first time at age 16.  

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In 1945, Shumate joined the U.S. Army Air Force and was soon deployed to Germany as part of the Army of Occupation. “During my year over there in Germany, the only thing I got to operate was a jeep,” he said. Before joining the service, he had taken his private pilot’s test. “I flunked it because I picked out an improper field for a forced landing.” The examiner told him that he didn’t look around enough and wasn’t ready for a pilot's license. “It's probably a good thing because I think if I would have had a license when I went into active duty, I probably would have … started showing off and got myself in trouble.”

Shumate (pictured here at the time of his pilot training graduation) earned his private pilot’s license in 1947, the same year the U.S. Air Force was established as a separate branch of the armed forces. He was one of the many pilots who rushed to sign up for the new service, and in 1949, he entered the USAF Aviation Cadet Training program.

He trained on the T6 Texan and the T33 Shooting Star but would go on to fly a variety of planes over the course of his career, from the Piper Navajo and the SA-227 Merlin to the F-86A Sabrejet, P-51 Mustang, and the F-106 Delta Dart.

“My first assignment was at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the 93rd Fighter Squadron, flying brand new F-86As,” he said. “Now, the F-86, at that time, was the hottest airplane in the world. I mean, everybody wanted to get their hands on one of those and I was fortunate enough to be assigned to that kind of an aeroplane.”

Recognizing Commitment

Over the course of his long and eventful military career, Shumate also earned an expert rating as a weapons controller, serving in Iceland and in Jacksonville and Key West, Fla., with aircraft control and warning units. On the civilian side, he earned his commercial instrument flight instructor and instrument instructor certificates.

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For his 95th birthday, he was given the opportunity to fly a single-engine Citabria, an aircraft designed for acrobatics.

“I hadn't been upside down in an airplane since I left the Air Force” in 1968, he said.

Shumate acquitted himself well on his celebratory flight in 2022, performing two barrel rolls, but he admits he struggled a bit on the landing. “That kind of told me that I better not do that anymore,” he said.

However, he had already accomplished more than enough to be recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with the prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award.

Bob Hill, an FAA inspector, presented the award to Shumate in 2023, saying, “The FAA issues the Master Pilot Award to those individuals who have piloted aircraft for 50 or more years, have exhibited exemplary professionalism, aviation safety, and a commitment to their craft,”  he said. “But Harry … is a great American as well.”

He was also honored with a citation from the State of Tennessee, which recognized Shumate, “whose remarkable career in aviation proved invaluable to the United States Armed Forces and made an indelible mark on aviation in Tennessee.”

These days, Shumate might be keeping his feet on the ground, but as a member of the Murfreesboro Experimental Aircraft Association and the Stones River Chapter of MOAA, he’s still keeping busy and creating more stories to tell.

Christina Wood is a military culture writer.