Richard S. Heyser, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Richard S. Heyser

US Air Force pilot

Date of Birth: 03-Apr-1927

Place of Birth: Apalachicola, Florida, United States

Date of Death: 06-Oct-2008

Profession: military officer, aircraft pilot

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Richard S.
Heyser (3 April 1927 – 6 October 2008), Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired), was a pilot in the United States Air Force whose photographs while flying the Lockheed U-2 revealed Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba, precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. Heyser, a native of Apalachicola, Florida, joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1944, at the age of 17, after watching World War II pilots training at nearby Tyndall Field.
His father was a U.S.
Coast Guard Auxiliary aviator.
Following the war, Heyser graduated from what would become Florida State University.He began USAF pilot training in 1952, flying combat missions during both the Korean War and two combat deployments during the Vietnam War.
In the late 1950s into the 1960s, he flew Lockheed U-2s with the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, first qualifying on the U-2 on 19 February 1957, the 50th pilot to check out on the spy plane.
He retired from the Air Force in 1974 after 30 years of service and returned to Apalachicola.
He died at a nursing home in Port St.
Joe, Florida, near his home in Apalachicola, on 6 October 2008 at age 81.
He had suffered a series of strokes in the years before his death.
He was survived by his wife of fifty-four years, Jacquelyn; three sons; eight grandchildren; and a sister.