Wallace (Wally) Henderson

Wallace (Wally) Henderson, 1929-2021

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." - Leonardo DaVinci

Some thought of Wally Henderson as a Hemingway-esque soldier-of-fortune character larger than life. Others considered him an irascible curmudgeon who redefined the term. He was both.

From an early age Wally longed to soar through the skies, and nothing stood in his way. He was equally determined and ornery. He got his private pilot license, then lied about his age and became a Smokejumper, both at the age of 17. As a Smokejumper he made 29 jumps to fight wildfires in remote areas. Nothing was out of his reach. He became an Air Force radar observer, where his Smokejumper training served him well when he had to bail out of his failing plane at night near Seoul during the Korean War. He flew 72 missions over North Korea before he returned stateside. It takes real gumption and a whole lot of bravery to jump out of planes to fight wildfires, and to fly repeatedly over hostile territory where an enemy is bent on shooting you down. While most people would simply say that Wally was brave to a fault, and he was, he might have been just a tad crazy. Or he might have used one of his favorite phrases to describe himself: "that was a dumb idea." Either way, Lady Luck and God were definitely on his side.

He spent 30 years serving his country in high level military positions, retiring as an Air Force Colonel. He was not one of those people who spent his "leisure time" on a golf course. Nope. He was a gold prospector, a hunter who bagged a 12-point elk on Bluebird Mesa, and a SCUBA diver. Then Wally found ballooning. He took his first balloon ride three years before retiring and was hooked from the first ascension. He was looking for an activity that was unconventional, without deadlines or schedules. In other words, the opposite of his military work life. Barely off the ground on that first flight he knew he'd found another passion. He bought his first balloon a year or so after his first flight and named it TEGWAR for The Exciting Game Without Any Rules. It was the first of seven balloons he owned. Over the years he flew countless notables from military generals to a United States Senator, to the wife of the Secretary of Defense, to Wally's Wonder Women - a group of young, attractive self-proclaimed crew members who wore specially designed t-shirts and shorts, which made Wally the envy of every male balloon pilot in the area.

However, it was one woman in particular, who was a passenger on a balloon flight near Gallup, New Mexico, in December 1991 who made a profound statement Wally never forgot. As the basket ascended above a crowd of balloon watchers at the Red Rock State Park, the feisty septuagenarian shook her head and remarked, "Don't those poor bastards know that life is not a spectator sport?" Indeed. Wally realized that he had never lived his life as a spectator, rather as someone who jumped on the bull and rode it the full eight seconds.

There are few people alive today like Wally Henderson. And the world is a lesser place for it. But for 92 years the world was more interesting because he was in it. Wally, wishing you blue skies and tailwinds. Till we meet again.