By Fred Iwenjora

Born to a World war veteran, he is a Nigerian Civil war veteran, his son is a Gulf war veteran while his grandson dreams to be a veteran of the US Navy. The world of Captain August Okpe, author The Last Flight.

He was one of the first sixteen award winning Nigerian pilots enlisted and trained into the Nigeria Air Force where he was its first air accident and investigation chief. During the unfortunate 30 months of the Nigerian Civil war, then Squadron Leader August Okpe,   a major participant   was Chief Pilot of the Biafra Air Force   and won the Distinguished Cross Medal for gallantry and excellent service.

At the end of the war, he was tried in a tribunal which noted his exploits, imprisoned and later sacked from the services of the Nigeria Air force. But he quickly converted to civil flying with many years of meritorious service to Nigerian Airways in his kitty. In that case, Captain Okpe must have seen and cheated death many times.

In this chat, the author of the all time best- selling book   The Last Flight, a recollection of his early years in the Air force and the Biafra air attacks during the Nigerian civil war considered by many to be a concise history of the Nigeria Air Force tells lovely tales of his years in the air in both war and peace times with full “gratitude to God for all His mercies and preservation”.

Born to a World war veteran, he is a Nigerian Civil war veteran, his son is a Gulf war veteran while his grandson dreams to be a veteran of the US Navy.
The world of Captain August Okpe, author The Last Flight

Aside that,   Okpe   reveals amongst other things – that his late dad was a world war veteran while his son is a Gulf War veteran just like his grandson is dreaming of the submarines in the US Navy.

A family of warriors you might say; Born for war, veterans of military service.   Please read on.

What informed your choice of flying as a career? Did you go all out to become a fighter pilot with your eyes wide open or was it circumstantial?

There is no doubt that any system that moves or propels could be dangerous. Even as a kid pushing a three or four wheeled truck I knew that one could crash and hurt oneself. So it is very well assumed that flying is dangerous. I have always known this. But then you cannot fail for not trying can you? I was interested in flying and also I was interested in the military. Remember the popular sales gimmick..buy one get one free..l reasoned that if I joined the Air force which is the military, I would also fly as well as travel and see the world.

I got three for the price of one. So in answer to your question, I went into the air force and into the military to become a fighter pilot with my eyes wide open. It was not circumstantial at all as I knew that any kind of flying whether military or civil carried its load of risks with military having its magnitude. May be for me it was the more dangerous the better (laughter).

Do you also think that it is same feeling that informed your late father and son to serve in the military or even your grandson to be dreaming to make a career in the military?

My father had always told me tales from the Second World War. Quite often he sounded to me like a war monger and I did not know why. I will not say he influenced my interest in the military by his actions but he told the stories with so much relish that I believed that there is a lot to be said about chivalry and gallantry. On its own, the military is a class in itself. Never mind that some people erroneously feel that the military is a dump ground for the less academically endowed. Of course we know that is far from the truth.

I was happy to become a gentleman, a scholar and a soldier,   better said an officer and a gentleman. I don’t think anyone coerced me into joining the military or liking it. Somehow it is inherent in me, a part of my nature. I have always loved uniforms and regimentation. Being in uniform is regimentation and vice versa. It shows discipline and order. When you are in uniform, you look smarter so what is wrong in that? I think to be a military man is in my blood. Again, I would not also say that because I told tales of the Nigeria/ Biafra war to my children, that made my son join the United States Marines.

It was entirely his own volition, without compulsion or undue influence from me or any other person for that matter. I won’t forget my own war with Saddam Hussein as my son battled him during the gulf war. Or the war my wife waged at me for allegedly using my loud mouth to lure him (my son) into the military. She had cried uncontrollably that my son was about to lose his life after I had escaped with the skin of my teeth during my own escapades with the air force in the Nigeria/ Biafra war. In the same vein, I can’t say that my grandson who is dreaming of being a submarine specialist in the US Navy is being influenced in any way. I think it is in the blood.

So you agree that there is a hereditary instinct pulling the Okpes towards the military, war, …the battle field so to speak or is it a mere coincidence?

May be . I think it is instinctive and natural endowment for us. My son had completed at Staten Island College in the US before joining the military. We may have subliminally absorbed or imbibed the military feeling. So I agree with you, it is hereditary.

A soldier knows it is a matter of life and death, at what point did you realize this?

If you look at the glamour of the uniform, you may be deceived about the real issues. You never know what is behind it all. Even new recruits are shocked to learn that they are going to go through unbelievable obstacle courses like going through mud, scaling inaccessible walls, going through mine fields even though simulated mock explosions are shocking enough for some to drop out of training.

They have had enough. And as you know in the military there is a certain percentage allowance for casualties unlike in the civil organization where there is zero tolerance for that. The aim of your trainers who are the managers of violence is to limit casualties. And when it comes to flying and you are being checked for aptitude, they put you in a small aircraft and cruise it in maddening flight watching to see if you would pass out or wet your pants after the flight.

Some aspirants never show up again. So you see being in the air force is like being in the military with a flying bias. It is not really nice at the onset for many. Then when you are already in the system and in a real theatre of war and you are firing or also being fired at, all bates are off.

Then anxiety seems the game of a soldier…?

Yes, there is great anxiety as a soldier. This brings out the humour in all soldiers because they are perpetually waiting for a war. Sometimes this war may never come in their life time but some other times, they face it squarely. He also knows that some people must sacrifice with their lives. That is why they usually crack jokes to pass away the time. Many may be seen playing games as snooker, scrabbles, tennis etc. The business inclined will play monopoly when they think of money in the imaginary sense. Being in the military is like being in jail waiting to serve out time

While reading your best -selling book The Last Flight, one got the impression that if not being a pilot, you would have made good with being a writer, a journalist or an author. Is this a correct impression?

But I am a writer. I am an author. I never thought in that direction of humanities at all as I was a real science student at the Government College Umuahia. Maybe I was good at writing good love letters to my girlfriend (laughter). But beyond that, I think I am versatile. Many people are but they may never know. It is like people who are talented in talking, becoming politicians or going into motivational speaking.

But they may also have some other things calling their attention rather than those vocations mentioned. Thank God I eventually wrote well as commendations for The Last Flight keep coming. I think what makes it seem well written is that I knew the subject I was writing about so well. The Last Flight is about what I did and with other people in my professional capacity from my first training at the flying school in Canada till the Civil war so it is almost about writing about oneself which should be ones favorite subject. If Fred Iwenjora for instance wants to write about himself, it is expected that he knows himself too well.

But I also know that several people cannot even tell their own stories no matter how much they know or how much facts accrue to them. It is unlike writing a fable and a novel of fiction which is difficult as one has to be inventive, creative and resourceful as to come up with very interesting lies so to speak. Remember Marco Polo was a good writer and story teller but because of this, people still say he was a good liar. Many good writers are. They add up with embellishments and coloration.

Can one reliably say that Government College Umuahia of that time was melting pot for the best students in Nigeria, creating the atmosphere for excellence and you are one of its shining examples? Better put, how much did the education at that time prepare you for the life you eventually lived?

I agree with your statement in toto. In those days, brilliance and luck gave people admission into Government College Umuahia. The result of the entrance examination usually came in a khaki envelope with a sign OHMS( On Her Majesty’s Service). School headmasters opened these letters publicly without recourse to your parents. That meant that Government College Umuahia then was a hallowed ground for chosen men who were voted to most likely succeed in the final analysis.

Even though some also have fallen by the way side, the school has played a role in molding several successful Nigerians. Check out Nigeria and see those who passed through the college by yourself. Graduates from the school have all doors open into higher institutions and indeed any other office for that matter for those who wish to work before moving further on. The problem for such employers was how long the students may work before taking off.

What I meant to say is that students are trained to be at their best at Government College Umuahia.  It was at the school that I first saw a tape recorder in 1956. It was used in teaching oral English. There was no such thing even in the larger society of Africa. We had everything like in the university. Our labs were over equipped and the academic orientation was incredible.

There was this accelerated scheme which upgraded gifted students for their brilliance and made them take school certificate exams earlier than should. I was one of those students who did my exams in four years rather than in five years. Most of us were serious science students who did maths, additional maths and all. My mates always knew me as adventurous and were not surprised when they heard I had ended up in the military.

When I say we were rascally, they say I was daring. Most of them are now professors while I just have one little appellation; Captain.  Still my colleagues feel that my Captain is like having ten professors in one person.  Again, the top of Nigeria core military then were Government College graduates.

After Government College Umuahia…?

I went to work for Dunlop while waiting for the Air force course I had applied for while still in school. Because I was a science student, I was posted to the lab where rubber materials were tested for quality and resistance. When I got my first salary, I thought they had made a mistake because it was four times compared to what my salary grade should be. I reasoned that it was because I had far better grades than my mates who were posted to other less challenging departments.

Then …?

Dunlop was just a passing phase for me but it was interesting. I had only spent six months when the Air Force thing came and I left. People were saying I was mad for leaving a well paying job to go take a big risk that might even kill me in an uncertain future.  I told them I wanted to be in the Air force and no amount of money could change that.

Nigeria Federal Government had published that they wished to start an Air Force and I applied to be part. I became one of the first sixteen to be enlisted and trained. Only about ten of us are alive today while others have died in crashes most of which are military aviation related accidents. Few died out of natural causes. As you know Military aviation wages a very cruel war of attrition on pilots.

What did you set out to do in your book The Last Flight? How long did the book take you to complete?

I can’t even say how long it took me to do The Last Flight. It is a pilot’s recall of the air force and the Biafra air attacks, simple and short. I kept on with my research for years. A book considered by many as the most authentic history of Nigerian Air force 1964-1970 could not have been a spontaneous issue where the writer comes up with the idea of a double cross, intrigue or suspense and begins to write all those lies you know.

It is not a fable or a novel which is the writer’s creation and creative invention. This one is more serious that you do not want at the end of the day someone calling to say the information on a certain page is referring to him and that as far as he was concerned, his name and the date of the event are not true but all lies. It could be very embarrassing. So it takes a bit of time to do such a book which tries to converge history into a piece of writing.  I also set aside proceeds from the sale of The Last Flight for War Veterans Foundation.

You were Chief Pilot of the Biafran Air Force and carried out several risky and life threatening air maneuvers, how did your family especially your wife and children cope with such times?

In fact my wife and little children did not even know what danger I was in during the war. She was too young to really understand the situation at hand. But her mum was the one wondering and praying for me. Whenever she saw an official air force operation vehicle come to my quarter with a piece of paper, she sure knew it was a mission and an assignment. She knew it was duty calling and her tummy immediately started running until my return when BBC would announce a successful raid.

Since many of your colleagues had either died in crashes during military service or even at peace time flying, do you see yourself as particularly lucky?

I feel lucky but I have a lot of scars to show for it. I am very proud of my war scars because I did not get them from armed robbery attacks. I had once crashed a helicopter. There is a chapter in The Last Flight detailing the events of the crash. There were other several close shaves when my air craft was perforated by enemy attack and I was lucky to have safely landed it. But I am grateful to God for still keeping me after taking several small fires which are deadlier that the big gun fire. They can perforate aluminum pans and reach the pilot.

You also wrote that your father predicted your survival…

Ooh my father was a very uncanny prognosticator. He said I would survive but I never believed him. I felt he was trying to console himself by saying I would survive while I would not. I survived and believed him. Again, he had told me of how one of my late colleagues was being dogged by some spiritual entity which won’t be done with him until he had taken him. It did take him in the first air crash in Nigeria history.

Now do you ever regret not being an AVM?

I do not regret any thing. So what should I regret? I feel very satisfied with life as I have seen and lived it so far. I was 73 in August 2016. Some of my colleagues went ahead to become Military Governors or Ministers or something like that and when you mention their names, people readily recognize. I may not be able to say why I was not recalled into the air force after the war.

May be I did fight very strongly on the Biafra struggle but it was a necessary thing at the time. But if it became a reason I was not recalled, I wouldn’t know so I won’t be regretting what I never had. And if you continue to regret what you ought to have, will you be happy? So the only time my name is heard is when tales of the Nigeria Biafra war are being discussed or that the public address system in the aircraft announces that the Commander of the flight is Captain August Okpe and not as Governor of one state or the other.

I also did not want to be connected with being Military Governor because I did not go into the military to become governor. Those who became governors get that appellation, recognition and title. I have never worried about this and that is the truth. No one loses what he does not have.

Again, you were silent about the Nigeria Airways years, you never told of how you joined Nigeria Airways and how you walked away when there were no more planes to fly?

Well, it was not part of the plot of the book but I will tell you here. After the war, I was tried by a military tribunal and they took those they wanted to reabsorb and dismissed others including me. It was understandable. I believed like many other Nigerians that since it was a call to duty and a war amongst brothers, there were no known war crimes, the warriors had to dust their brows and walk away so I went to further my education in the US and UK where I updated my training and converted to civil flying and later joined the Nigeria Airways, becoming its Deputy Chief Pilot before it died. I continue to salute the magnanimity of President Olusegun Obasanjo who graciously reinstated all of us Civil war veterans with a presidential pardon and retired us honorably with all the rights and privileges attached to it. The rest is history now.

What in your opinion killed the Nigerian airline?

If you ask me this question I will also ask you how did NEPA die. Or what killed NITEL.  Why shouldn’t Nigeria Airways go? Most African and European governments got it all wrong when they thought they could run airline business. Most of the Europeans have since privatized . No Government can run a market economy which means that government should not be in any business of making money. It should only be in the regulations, providing oversight and other services.

You can’t be running an airline in competition with other commercial airlines who give incentives to travel agencies when no government should be seen as giving or taking concessions from private individuals. In doing that it compromises itself and may go as far as giving or taking bribe. As you well know, commercial investments give concessions, inducements and you must not be seen to be competing for profits.

Government is only to regulate and take taxes. I feel that it was government involvement that killed Nigerian Airways. In years gone, workers of Varig were co owners of the airline and In that case, they worked hard to keep it rolling. Here, if you work harder you would be asked if it was your father’s business. If you own it and you see someone wasting tissue paper for instance, you could remind him to check waste because you are involved. It is your common wealth.

Can that eagle ever fly again?

First, everyone agrees that there is need to have a Nigerian national carrier but a carrier that is not owned and run by government like before. This national carrier should be owned by public subscription and run by those who know the business. That way it would make money and reduce capital flight. Do you imagine how much Nigerians pay out to foreign airlines yearly for travels at exorbitant costs? A Nigeria Airways will compete favourably with other airlines that are a little bit arrogant. If run by those who know, it would not only make money but also be efficient, safe an expeditious.

What is life like in retirement especially after you lost your wife?

Well, just like that. I have grown up children. I had married at 26 and my son is 27 years old my junior. Some of us grew up with elderly fathers. My father looked so much as my grandfather but my children saw me more like an uncle. Still there is deep love, respect and affection. I have been coping. I live a disciplined and decent life. Having been in the military provided a huge base for discipline.

I hardly drink except socially at parties. I still play tennis twice weekly and I swim and do not present with a pot belly with my boyish attitude. My mind is young and my thinking is young and of course this reflects on my body. If the brain tells the body that it is old then it acts like that and the brain starts to shut down. But if it is young then it reasons like that.

Do you still fly?

Yes…As a passenger.