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| Volume XXIII Number 6 | April 26, 2002 |
Less Howell: Aviation Director At Your Service
By Alexandra FrankBIG CYPRESS - When I first meet Mr. Howell at the B.C. hangar on April 12, the first impression I got was of a busy, serious man. By the end of the interview, I had a new view of Mr. Howell: the busy, serious man has a sense of humor and is down to earth.
Mr. Howell is 63 years old and recently passed his physical with an A, he also passed his Flight Safety Recurrence in March. Howell is originally from North Carolina, where he lived until he joined the military when he turned 18.
He served 20 years in the U.S. Army, and spent at least 14 years as a pilot. Howell flew both helicopters and F-16 fighter jets, he spent two tours in Vietnam, where he saw combat. Howell won a few air confrontations and received gold medals and Purple Hearts during his time.
He also received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and the distinguished Iron Cross. He retired from the military in 1976, and started working for Gulfstream, which was located in Savannah at that time. He was a test pilot and flew G-1’s, G-2’s, and G-3’s.
Mr. Howell worked at Gulfstream until 1983, then he worked at a private company, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They had gotten out of the airplane business and had sold their planes in 1982, which meant they did not need any pilots.
Mr. Howell then went to Europe, where he worked for over eight years in the country of Luxembourg in an international operation where he flew all over the world.
He has logged over 17,000 hours of flying, in the Gulfstream he has about 11,000 hours. He became acquainted with the Seminole Tribe when Virgil Wolf contacted him. Howell had gone into semi-retirement because he was tired of working in Europe.
He returned to the United States to have a back operation, which went well. He was back in the consultant business when Virgil Wolf called on him. Wolf asked Howell if he would not mind working with the Seminole Tribe.
Mr. Howell at first did not want to do much work, he just wanted to do consulting work for awhile and go back home. Currently, his wife lives in Redondo Beach, CA. She is the head nurse at orthopedics at UCLA and still has a few years before she retirees.
Mr. Howell does not care to live in California, he wants to see the sun in the morning and Florida is the right spot for that. He re-married his current wife in December of 1999. This is his second marriage, and the relationship is great, he is looking forward to her moving here.
Mr. Howell said that his wife had shown an interest in volunteering her time towards a nursing school. She’s a Registered Nurse and has a BA in Business Administration, she is looking forward to volunteer work.
He meet his wife in Italy in 1995, they dated until 1999, and then took the "big step". He feels he has lucked out in this area in his life.
As for working for the Tribe, he has found it to be interesting, he started working here under the management of Virgil Wolf back in September of last year. He worked under Wolf until November and then he was approached by Tribal Counsel Jim Shore to take the job and Howell agreed to do so.
Mr. Howell’s main objective is to put everything into perspective, whether it be with finances, that all the out-flights are accounted for, or that in-house maintenance procedures are followed instead of having to get outside help for every little thing.
Mr. Howell wants self-containment in the maintenance field, and also in the flying field, rather than bringing people in. So far its working out well. At first, there have been some ooh’s and aah’s, but what they are doing there seems to be working out very well.
The airplane has remained up to date, they were a little bit behind before, but now they have caught up.
Currently, there are 4 other pilots besides Mr. Howell, at least one fire pilot for the Forest Fire Prevention, one dispatcher, Pedro Musaka, and two other mechanics. One is a pilot who also maintains the planes, and the other maintains the helicopter.
The operation has been in effect for about 11 years. It is a nice operation, a very clean operation and hopefully they can serve the people of the Tribe the best way possible. Mr. Howell wants to keep up the four-star services as well, providing a service extended to all Tribal citizens within the guidelines set.
Mr. Howell stated it well, "the reason we are here is because you are here." He does not want to go on the premise that they are still around and untouchable. He has stressed the things that were mentioned before that the equipment they have is Tribally-owned and should be used for Tribal purposes only.
Mr. Howell mentioned that there many opportunities that can be extended, such as programs to teach Tribal citizens, such as teens interested in flying, the basics to obtain a license. They can even teach adults, both men and women, how to fly. In the aviation industry, there are women now flying commercial jets.
Mr. Howell asked the question, "why can’t it be a Tribal citizen?" If a Tribal citizen has an interest in flying, there are seats up front, come out and fly.
They do not have enough of a program to say they have a training school, but it isn’t that far-fetched. They do not have the staff to offer a program like a training school, but if someone were to put a training school on the agenda, they could have a program for Tribal citizens.
If there are high school students who are serious about taking flying lessons and progress to a career in aviation, they can offer a program to get them interested in all aspects of aviation. This is how you build interest in a person about flying. Anything is possible, nothing is farfetched.
Mr. Howell took the time to explain the new guidelines that were recently placed on the Aviation Department. All Tribal citizens who want to schedule a trip have to go through the Tribal Councilman on their respective reservation. Executive Administrator Ken Fields, of the Operations and Compliance office, will finalize the trips.
Mr. Howell stresses a professional atmosphere within his program and wants all his employees to be courteous towards Tribal citizens in all aspects of service from the Aviation Department. If someone is not up to par, Mr. Howell would like to be the first to know about it.
A car buff, Howell also spoke of a program he would like to foster in the near future. The program would be extended towards individuals who have a liking for "muscle cars". The program will be headed under the guidance of Howell and George Grasshopper.
I thanked Mr. Howell for his time and hope that you, the reader, have gained some insight into the Aviation Department and its newest member to the Tribal employee circle. I would like to extend a belated "welcome" to Mr. Howell and I hope he stays a part of the Tribal circle for some time.
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