Gary N. Willis is a native of Shreveport, LA. He graduated from the USAF Academy in 1967 and earned an MBA at UCLA. Following pilot training he went to Vietnam as a Forward Air Controller where he joined the Red Markers supporting the Vietnamese Airborne Division and its US Army advisors, the Red Hats. After his Vietnam tour he was an instructor pilot teaching Vietnamese students for three years. He left the service and had a career in the energy industry in Houston, TX. He is married to the former Robin Rankin of Shreveport, and they are parents of two sons. Willis is a director and former president of the Society of the Vietnamese Airborne, a veterans organization honoring the Red Hats and Red Markers,