EDITOR’S NOTE — Veteran Voices is an annual week-long series introducing WYDaily readers to some of our local veterans. Each story represents a different person in the Historic Triangle communities and shares their stories of service.
WILLIAMSBURG— Jim Icenhour grew up as a military brat, often moving from place to place while his father was in the service.
“We moved all over. I attended 10 different schools in 12 years. I actually participated in two of his overseas tours. The first, I don’t remember because I was two years old, but we went to Japan in 1949 and Okinawa in 1956-58 when I was 12 years old,” Icenhour recalls.
Icenhour’s father was flying F-86s and F-100s during the Korean War. Living in a house off base, Icenhour would frequently watch the planes practice over the gunnery range. It was then that he realized how fascinating it was and, in his mind, the decision was made: he was going to grow up to be a fighter pilot.
After graduating from high school, Icenhour headed off to Colorado to join the U.S. Air Force Academy. He received a pilot training assignment upon graduation and went to Del Rio, Texas, to earn his wings in a year-long training course.
His first job out of pilot school? Piloting the same airplane that his father flew.
“It was really neat. It was a good, solid airplane. It was single single-seat, it had four internal 40mm cannons and we carried four wing stations and two drop tanks,” Icenhour said.
Icenhour’s first combat experience took him to Vietnam, where he flew 195 combat missions. He said it was that first flight in Vietnam where he realized how serious his mission was.
“When you go into the military, and even as a fighter pilot, you are sort of like an infantry guy. You are being trained to kill people and destroy things. It’s as basic as it gets. You probably don’t think about it much when you’re going through training, but when you get into actual combat, that made a huge impact on me,” Icenhour says.
While in Vietnam, Icenhour’s plane took enemy fire twice.
“I didn’t get hit the first time until February after going into Vietnam the prior May. I didn’t even know I’d been hit until I looked out and saw fuel coming off the wing. But the other one, just a few weeks before I came home, the airplane got absolutely shredded by mostly small arms, AK-47s,” Icenhour said.
In 1974, Icenhour transitioned to piloting the F-4 as an instructor at MacDill Air Force Base and Luke Air Force Base. Between 1979 and 1982, he served as a Forward Air Controller at Osan Air Base in Korea and as a staff officer at Tactical Air Command headquarters at Langley Air Force Base.
Icenhour says that his years in the Air Force taught him the importance of focus and making tough decisions.
“The one trait that I learned in the Air Force is the ability to focus on the task at hand and not be distracted, and that is really difficult when things are not going right and you have to continue functioning the way you have to. The ability to make decisions based on training and experiences, sometimes, that can be a snap decision. I’ve had many instances where those ideas have helped me the most,” Icenhour says.
Icenhour retired from the Air Force in 1987, but his days in the sky didn’t end there. He began a second career as an airline pilot, flying for both Pan Am and Delta Air Lines. In 1989, Icenhour won the Air Line Pilots Association Superior Airmanship Award and from 1993 until retiring in 2005, he was an elected representative for the Air Line Pilots Association at Delta Air Lines.
Now, most people know Icenhour as a member of the James City County Board of Supervisors, where he serves the constituents of the Jamestown district.
Whether it be serving his country or serving his county, Icenhour says it’s all part of who he is.
“My military background is the basic building block that gives me the decision-making skills. You learn how to make decisions under intense stress and you learn how to evaluate things. That, combined with actually representing people when I was in the Air Line Pilots Association, it just became natural for me to get into this.”