About Author
Paul Hooper is the son of two WWII veterans and spent his childhood growing up on USAF air bases in the US and overseas. He attained his dream of being a USAF pilot on 16 April 1974. He retired from the USAF effective 1 February 1993 as a Major and Command Pilot with 5,200 flight hours, having flown the C-130E, T-41C, MC-130E and the CASA 212. He started his career in commercial aviation on 16 March 1993 when he departed Patrick AFB enroute to Lima, Peru where he flew the C-123K and
C-131H in support of DOS/INL Counter Narcotics operations in the Upper Huallaga River Valley in Peru. Thus began his second career as an Accidental Soldier of Fortune. In his twenty-six years of commercial flying after his retirement from the USAF Captain Hooper logged over 11,000 hours in the C-123K, C-131H, Cessna 208 Caravan, CASA 212, King Air 200, L-100, C-130A and C-130H flying on US Government and other contracts in the US, Colombia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Korea. He holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot rating. Captain Hooper made his last flight as a professional pilot landing a Republic of Korea Air Force C-130H on 23 August 2019 – The 65th Anniversary of the first C-130 flight.
C-131H in support of DOS/INL Counter Narcotics operations in the Upper Huallaga River Valley in Peru. Thus began his second career as an Accidental Soldier of Fortune. In his twenty-six years of commercial flying after his retirement from the USAF Captain Hooper logged over 11,000 hours in the C-123K, C-131H, Cessna 208 Caravan, CASA 212, King Air 200, L-100, C-130A and C-130H flying on US Government and other contracts in the US, Colombia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Korea. He holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot rating. Captain Hooper made his last flight as a professional pilot landing a Republic of Korea Air Force C-130H on 23 August 2019 – The 65th Anniversary of the first C-130 flight.
About The Books
The five books of Accidental Soldier of Fortune were written as homage to the thousands of Americans who made the 20th Century the Century of American Exceptionalism. They chronicle the life of a child of the Greatest Generation, the son of two WWII veterans who grew up on USAF bases in the US and overseas during the early days of the Cold War and lived his childhood dream to be a USAF pilot. He continued to serve after retiring from the USAF supporting US government activities in the US, South America, and the Middle East.
