WASHINGTON -- Bobby C. Wilks, the first African-American Coast Guard aviator and the first African-American to reach the rank of Coast Guard captain, died Monday, July 13, in Emeritus at Lake Ridge, an assisted living community in Woodbridge, Va., of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 78.
Mr. Wilks, who also was the first African-American to command a Coast Guard air station, pulled off a number of daring sea rescues around the world. He received the Air Medal for the initiative, foresight and aeronautical skill he exhibited on the night of Dec. 9, 1971, while piloting his helicopter over the Pacific. Battling gale-force winds and heavy seas, he was able to rendezvous with a Russian vessel 116 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and rescue the ship's critically ill master.
"He was right at the limit of where you can take a helicopter," recalled Dallas Schmidt, a friend and fellow Coast Guard helicopter pilot at the time.
Mr. Wilks was Schmidt's "air daddy," his flight instructor. "Even though he was a commander and I was just an ensign, you never had the feeling that he was pulling rank on you," Schmidt recalled. "He was just a nice, nice man."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-wilks_obitjul26,0,2996265.story
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