Timothy John Phillips was born in Westland, Michigan and grew up as the second of five children. At four, his family relocated to Redford, Michigan where Tim attended George Fisher Elementary, John D. Pierce Jr. High School, and Lee M. Thurston High School. His first memories and dreams were about flying airplanes.
As a young athlete, Tim played organized baseball and ran varsity track. He ran low hurdles, ran mid-range sprints and pole vaulted. As a musician he was a lead jazz trumpeter in school and at Interlochen Fine Arts Academy. He also played in marching band, pep band, and solo & ensemble competitions.
Tim also served his church as an altar servant and by printing the weekly church bulletin on an offset press. He voluntarily learned CPR through the Michigan Heart Association and became a Level 2 CPR instructor within the year. He also earned his Level 1 Lifesaving Certificate.
As a high school senior, Tim competed for and won an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy through Michigan's Senator Donald Riegle. In 1981, Tim graduated with honors as salutatorian (2nd of 409 students) from Lee M. Thurston High School in Redford, Michigan. He reported for Basic Cadet Training in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and spent the next four years striving to fulfill his dream of being a military aviator.
As an Air Force Academy cadet, Tim was on the Dean's list (for academic achievement), the Commandant's list (for military achievement), and/or the Superintendent's list (for being on the other two lists simultaneously) for all but one semester. As a freshman, he competed for and won placement in both the Cadet Drum and Bugle Corps as a bugler and in the Cadet Airmanship Program where he earned both his soaring wings and his military freefall parachuting wings. He was also chosen to participate in and later to teach Reconnaissance Commando Training.
In May 1985, Tim graduated from the Academy with a B.S. Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Physics. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and received his first choice of pilot training bases, Reese AFB in Lubbock, Texas. While enrolled in the one-year flight training program, Tim soloed in both the Lockheed T-37 "Tweet" and the Northrup T-38 Talon.
Upon graduation from Undergraduate Pilot Training in 1986, Tim received his first choice of aircraft and assignment--a C-141 Starlifter to McGuire AFB, New Jersey. He completed his upgrade training at Altus AFB in Altus, Oklahoma.
In January 1987, Tim married Laura E. Perry of Sulphur Springs, Texas and they relocated to their first home in Moorestown, New Jersey where Tim continued his military flying career in strategic airlift. In December 1987, Tim and his wife welcomed their first son, Timothy II into the world, and in April 1989, their second son, John Nicholas.
Early in his flying career, Tim was hand-picked to fly critical White House support operations and was proficient in airland, air drop and aerial refueling missions. His work involved flying worldwide in support of U.S. Operations stateside and abroad. In less than three years, he set foot in almost 50 countries and missed only the continents of Antarctica and Australia. In 1989, he became a C-141 Aircraft Commander as a First Lieutenant, ahead of his peers. Tim also tested for and received his civilian pilot's license to fly multi-engine airplanes in instrument conditions without restriction.
About the same time, he wanted to increase the amount of time he spent with his young family, so he accepted an opportunity to become an Instructor Pilot in the Air Force's supersonic trainer, the T-38A Talon. By the end of the year, they were off to Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. During this tour, now Captain Tim Phillips served as an Assistant Flight Commander, a Flight Safety Officer, and Squadron Training Officer. Later, he was to become one of only two pilots certified to fly with the audio-visual equipment required to produce In-Flight Training Programs for the base.
Yearning to return to his home state of Michigan, Tim accepted a rated supplement tour, (a.k.a. "desk job") with the hope of being able to land a flying job with a local Michigan Air National Guard unit. From 1992 until 1995, Tim served as the Recruiting Service's Chief of Advertising and Promotions for the state. As a prerequisite for this work, Tim was selected to attend the prestigious Defense Information School (DINFOS) for intense training in public affairs and marketing.
During his subsequent tour of duty as Advertising and Promotions Officer for the State of Michigan, he was solely responsible for generating almost $3 million of free media exposure for the Air Force, and for his efforts received national recognition from recruiting headquarters. He was chosen to train his peers through out the country and elements of his marketing strategies were adopted by the Air Force for their programs nationwide. Tim's exceptional work in promotions and marketing eventually led him to Air Force Recruiting Headquarters where he managed the Air Force's national budget for officer programs.
In September 1993, Tim and his wife were blessed with another star in his eye, Melissa Joyce. As much as Tim loved his Air Force career, he knew that his primary calling was one of being a father. Tim's desire to spend more time as a dad was so intense that he spent many evenings and weekends searching out other endeavors that may one time allow him the time and money to work from home full-time...a concept that made his wife fearful and anxious. No less, he could not stand the thought that a subsequent overseas assignment might take him away from his young ones, and he swore he would find a way to avoid that whole issue.
In early 1994, Tim to advised his commander that he could not be accepting further promotions within the service. As if he did not hear, Tim was ordered to attend Squadron Officers' School at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Tim dutifully attended--though under duress--and returned as a Distinguished Graduate from that school.
Later that year, Tim met the struggle of his life. His marriage was not viable and his wife wanted to move out of state with his children. Saddled with pending orders to Korea that did not permit him to have a family with him, Tim filed for divorce then agreed to allow his wife to move back to Texas. He spent early 1995 alone and re-dedicated himself to improving his mind, body, spirit and soon-to-be decimated estate.
Tim's routine outside of work involved going to the gym, talking to his priest, and reading. A church friend and weight-lifting buddy asked him to meet with a friend of his, Robin Kups, to see if I could help here in some way by sharing with her my experiences. She, too, had just been through a terrible divorce from an alcoholic husband. Unknown to him, Robin had agreed to meet with him for the same reason--to make some good come from the negative that she had experienced.
Robin was a full-time paralegal at the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office. She headed a staff of paralegals and she was exceptional at her work. In the months to come, Tim and Robin became best of friends, sharing light, hope, perspectives, laughs and sobs with each other. Neither wanted another relationship, and both knew that Tim was to leave for overseas duties in the late Summer. However, they each found themselves willing to drive an hour just to spend a few minutes together during their busy days. The two found a romance and friendship that was rare even in storybooks and--in the appropriate fairy tale manner--eloped and were married in December of 1995.
After receiving his honorable discharge from the Air Force in November 1997, Tim made a bee line for the Air National Guard in Battle Creek where he was planning to accept a full time job flying A-10 attack aircraft. However, to his surprise and dismay, the unit's new commander had a different "favorite flyer" that was hired instead. Without a cockpit, Tim scrambled to land on his feet and was immediately hired by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Johnson & Johnson company, as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Tim took his assigned territory from the bottom 10% to the top 20% in the country in less than six months. In less than a year, he was chosen as a trainer and spent time teaching his peers sales techniques for his manager. Successful in, but not impressed with, the pharmaceutical industry, Tim took a tip from another weight room buddy to check into marketing mortgages as a loan originator. He did so, and after less than a year led the company's sales staff in gross yield for loans closed.
In July 1999, Tim and Robin were blessed with Marina Vail. By then, Tim was working full-time from his home office--a fulfillment of a life dream to finally be the full-time dad. The flexibility in his new schedule allowed him to chase other dreams like re-establishing his workout schedule, allowing Robin to pursue her life's ambition with a degree in the Culinary Arts, and being able to once again take to the skies in pursuit of other flying licenses.
Though less than a year in the mortgage business, Tim began writing freelance columns for various newspapers and publications, and speaking to small groups of Realtors at every opportunity. He took clippings of his work to local newspapers for publishing consideration for many months without success or even an acknowledgement of his work. Finally, after six months of trying, Tim was given an opportunity to publish for the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers, a network of papers that covered 15 local communities in Detroit's western suburbs. This new opportunity as a newspaper columnist was a major blessing in Tim's life and mortgage business as it allowed him to share his ideas with almost 250,000 readers weekly.
In the fall of 2005, Tim's persistent efforts to return to the cockpit paid off in that he was hired to fly corporate jets out of Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan and out of Detroit Metro Airport (DTW). In August 2006, he left that company to fly as a "Pilot for Hire" performing freelance contract work for corporate flyers using his dba entity www.USJetPilot.com. He is currently checked out as a Captain in the BeechJet 400A, a private 8-passenger jet and has averaged over 40 hours of flying per month since the beginning of 2006. [Click Here for flight currency and hours.]
In September 2006, Tim earned an additional pilot type rating in the Boeing 737 and in November 2006 was hired as an instructor pilot for Flight Safety, Incorporated. On the fast-track, he was selected to serve as a Check Airman (Training Center Evaluator) in January 2007 and received his certification to do so in February 2007.
April of 2007 brought Tim a commercial flying opportunity allowing him to once again fly "heavy metal". He was hired by JetBlue Airways to fly the Airbus A320, flying about 25 hours per week throughout North America and the Caribbean. His new, predictable schedule now allows him more time with his family and for developing his other family businesses.
