Bizav Warriors: Gary Cooke
Some in the business aviation community leave behind their families and jobs to serve in active war zones.

Some in the business aviation community leave behind their families and jobs to serve in active war zones. In the continuing AIN series intended to recognize those in our community who defend the way of life we continue to enjoy back home, senior editor David A. Lombardo spoke with Citation X captain and Fortune 100 company aviation safety director Gary Cooke about his service as flight commander of a C-5 Reserve unit, an instructor pilot, flight safety officer and CRM monitor. This is Cooke’s story. If you or someone you know in business aviation is absent and in harm’s way on our behalf, we’d like to hear from you.

I come from a family of aviators. My father was a pilot, and my grandfather, also a pilot, is in the Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame. I have loved aviation for as long as I can remember,” Gary Cooke told AIN.