Dean Talley (Part 2 of 3): Remembrances From Fellow Tanker Pilots

Dean at the beach

There is no better way for you to know Dean than to read some remembrances shared by a couple of his long-time friends and fellow pilots.  I begin with the full remembrance given by my friend Jerome Laval at Dean’s memorial service on April 14, 2018. I share this with you with the permission of Jerome Laval (also on this Facebook post).

So long Dean…
Nancy, Stephen, Michelle, Laura: my sincere condolences and thank you for gathering all of us to celebrate Dean’s life. And what a great life he had. Ravi, thank you very much for the hangar. Very appropriate. Much appreciated. Knowing Dean, being around him and laughing with him were a privilege. I’m wearing a Hawaiian shirt to honor Dean and his lifestyle. I think he would approve and smile. 

I met Dean 20 years ago at a tanker base somewhere in the West when I was flying a C-130 for TBM. “Coming from France? Well that’s interesting… “ He said with a big smile. For few years we crossed paths and fought fires on the Fed side. In 2005 and 2006 he spent a lot of time in Chico where I was based with Walt Darran. So we got to know and appreciate each other. I also met Nancy and Christine. As you know this career is really tough on the family life. Wives or husbands and children should get more recognition for putting up with this lifestyle and all the sacrifices made so we can fly and drop retardant on fires all over the state or the country. Dean was a free spirit. As far as Aerial firefighting, he flew everything (O-2, OV-10, S-2, P-2, DC-4, P-3, Bae-146, S-2T…). He was a legendary tanker pilot. Very professional, passionate and excellent in his craft of fighting fires with aircraft.  We can all attest to that statement. A great sense of humor and always putting things in perspective. We laughed a lot at the base, coming up with ideas from “Thinking outside the box”… Way outside the box. Did you know Captain Dean O. Talley was a Fire Pirate? AAARRR !!! 

He was also a philosopher who followed the “Hu Khayr” philosophy. One can answer many issues or important questions saying; “Hu Khayr!”. Who cares; It was a joke because actually he cared a lot. He was a board member of Associated Aerial Firefighters and active member of the California Fire Pilots Association. He cared for this mission, his fellow pilots, mechanics and this industry. In 2015, we got based together again in Santa Rosa and it was really a pleasure to work with him. After a long day of aerial firefighting, we would meet with Bob Valette at “the beach”, our spot behind the tanker base, tell funny stories and laughed. We protected the Turtle Frogs…Yes they exist. Dean laughed a lot and enjoyed life to the fullest. Besides flying, Dean was interested in discovering other countries, different cultures and traveling the world. We all know that he was also a talented writer and I was looking for reading his third book but … 

I still can’t believe Dean isn’t with us anymore. I really can’t. So long my friend. I miss you. We miss you.
Thank you for being the great person you were. I still can’t believe I’m writing this and saying it out loud…. So long Dean.
Load and hold my friend, load and hold…. 

Jerome Chico, CA. 4/14/2018

The second remembrance is a story from Jim Barnes, also shared at Dean’s memorial service. I only just recently got to know Jim. He has been very helpful to me in writing about Dean. I like this story because it speaks to his skill at working in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground (see this Facebook post for the full remembrance):

The story that epitomizes the kind of tanker pilot Dean Talley was for me occurred at the Mount Vision fire near Pt. Reyes about 12 miles from my house. The vision fire was a fast moving north east wind driven fire and was closing on a hillside community. 

Then, Fire Captain Tim Thompson of Marin County Fire took a strike team down a long, narrow road surrounded by dense vegetation and forest canopy in an attempt to rescue and evacuate the citizens that lived there. As he arrived things went terribly wrong. 

Suddenly, the firefighters and citizens found themselves surrounded by crowning fire.  

Captain Thompson said that he decided to circle the wagons in an attempt to survive an over burn. Just as suddenly a DC-4 appeared overhead and salvoed 2,000 gallons of fire retardant right on their position. Once again Dean had saved the day. 

But that wasn’t unusual for Dean. He had a long history of performing monumental saves. Many times, I have heard air attack officers and lead plane pilots say things like, “We were in a tense situation and we were afraid we were going to lose homes then Dean showed up in his P-3 and saved our ass."

Finally, I want to share with you some remembrances of Dean from my friend Gordon Koenig. Gordon flew with Dean as a co-pilot in Aero Union tanker 18 in 1996 out of Chico, California.

Dean was always a gentleman. He never had a cross word for anyone in the industry or the Forest Service. All of us ran into a myriad of people who were frustrating to work with. Dean never wavered from his calm, polite, and professional demeanor. He always took the high road, something hardly any of us did when things got tense.

Dean was a delight to fly with. He was an absolute bird in the cockpit and flew those big heavy tankers like they were Piper Cubs. He was graceful and extremely focused and very funny. His favorite line after we came off the drop was, ‘Okay, we’re going to Cuba!’ He had spent time around there as a young pilot flying the PBY flying boats. Dean never got excited and his attitude about flying fires was that nothing should be a surprise. He gave us all a good name. I am very sorry he is gone.

_______

I know that Dean is flying in favorable tail winds, perhaps over California. He is missed. My continued prayers and condolences for his wife Nancy, his children and the rest of his family; for  all who worked with Dean over the years; for his friends and all who love him.

Notes: 

This is part 2 of a three-part series on Dean Talley. Part 1 focuses on Dean the family man and tanker pilot. In part 3, I provide a very brief overview of some of the aircraft that Dean flew and where you can go for more information.

Links to the photos of the air tankers in this article are obtained from an airtanker database maintained by Ruud Leeuw. Each entry in Ruud’s data base has basic information on the air tanker and where possible, a link outside his website to a page with a copyrighted photo. It is the outside link that you see here.