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Retired United Airlines pilot celebrated for a lifetime of achievements

Retired Capt. Willie L. Daniels II spent 34 years flying all over the world, amassing more than 22,000 hours of flight time. Now, he's giving back to students.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — The dream of flying started at a young age for retired Capt. Willie L. Daniels II. 

Growing up in southern California, he remembers hearing sonic booms and seeing contrails from planes training at nearby Edwards Air Force Base. He said his father took him and his siblings to local air shows, and that’s where he developed a strong passion for flying.

“That got me really interested in me wanting to be an astronaut,” Daniels said. “My brothers and sisters at the time, they would tease me. They asked, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ and I would say, ‘I want to be an astronaut’ and they would say, ‘You’re not going to be an astronaut, you’re going to be an astro-nut.'”

Credit: Capt. Willie L. Daniels II
Willie L. Daniels II growing up in southern California.

He traded a spaceship for an airplane, and in the 1970s, Daniels’ pursuit to flight brought him to Denver. He attended Metro State College, where, he said, he was one of four Black students in the professional pilot program. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977, and the following year, he applied to United Airlines for a job. But not as a pilot -- as a flight attendant.

“The first question was, ‘Mr. Daniels, why do you want to be a flight attendant?’” Daniels said. “I sat there and thought for a second and said, ‘Well, I’m looking for a long-term relationship with United Airlines and what I would like to do is to use that as a stepping stone to get into the cockpit.'”

Credit: Capt. Willie L. Daniels II
Daniels (highlighted top row, center) was hired by United Airlines in 1977 as a flight attendant.

Daniels’ strategy worked, and he flew as a flight attendant for eight and a half years before being hired on as a pilot with United on Nov. 25, 1986. He started off as a flight engineer on Boeing’s 727 and has flown aircraft like the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and the Boeing 777. He ultimately ended his 42-year career flying the airline’s prestigious Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In total, he amassed more than 22,000 hours of flight time.

Credit: Byron Reed
United Airlines Capt. Willie L. Daniels II.

“It was an enormous sense of pride,” Daniels said. “I was the 34th African American pilot in the history of United Airlines.”

> Watch extended interview: Retired pilot reflects on more than 40 years in aviation

After he retired, Daniels was ready to give back. He founded Shades of Blue in 1999 to introduce the next generation to a variety of career opportunities in the aviation industry. The group later started hosting symposiums where students ages 13 to 21 talked with professionals from companies like United Airlines, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and other aviation-related organizations about possibilities in aviation and aerospace. He said the purpose of the symposiums is to help create a future workforce in an industry that’s seeing a shortage.

Credit: Byron Reed
Daniels speaks to a group of students at his Shades of Blue symposium at Denver's Wings over the Rockies.

“We’re looking at a worldwide shortage of pilots by 2030; about 830,000 pilots, 914,000 flight attendants, 769,000 aircraft mechanics and those are just three of the areas,” Daniels said. “We created a pipeline to get the students in at an early age where we monitor, track them and mentor them all the way through college. When they come out of college with the credentials they need, we run them right away to our HR departments.”

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Shades of Blue said more than 2,000 students have graduated from their training classes since they began in 2011 -- including one astronaut and 10 airline pilots. 

Daniels hopes these programs will help create a future workforce for students following in his footsteps.

“A lot of us older retired pilots are now leaving the industry, and we need new blood to come in,” Daniels said. “Because the world is changing and the world is traveling a lot more and that’s what we need, the manpower to fill that need.”

Over the summer, his efforts were noticed by the White House when Daniels received a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for his volunteer work with Shades of Blue.

Credit: Capt. Willie L. Daniels
Daniels (second from right) receives the President’s Volunteer Service Award for his work with students.

“I had no idea,” Daniels said. “There’s an old saying, ‘Be careful of what you do because you never know who’s watching.'”

It’s a journey Daniels said he’s happy to share with others, especially students looking to take flight by following in his footsteps.

“We’re creating productive members of our society, of our country, and of the world that these kids are in that position to help out,” Daniels said. 

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