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Through the Pacific sky: Aerial combat photojournalist’s first flight connects him to grandfather’s legacy - 7/24/2022

FORT MEADE, Md. -- As the canopy closed around Staff Sgt. Duncan Bevan in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle, the cockpit of the aircraft instantly began to heat up. There is no air conditioning in an F-15 and Guam sits just 900 miles north of the equator.


Bevan was not the pilot, but had a camera in hand as the jet prepared for takeoff. He had made sure his settings were fine-tuned so as to best to document a flying formation during the joint-coalition exercise, Cope North 21. He had meticulously wiped down any last smudges that could potentially be seen through the canopy. An excess of light reflected off the tarmac back at him. 

 

“I’ve got these nerves cause we’re putting up $380 million worth of aircraft to take a freaking picture,” he said. “Oh my lord, have mercy.”
 

Bevan was the only photographer assigned to the mission. He would not have a second chance.
 

The flight was Bevan’s first time in a fighter jet, having spent most of his flight time in large transport aircraft as a U.S. Air Force aerial combat photojournalist. His experience in the skies above Guam was the culmination of an unconventional path through life that connected him to a family legacy of fliers.

U.S. Air Force Capt. "Shadow" Whitley, a pilot assigned to the 44th Fighter Squadron, prepares to take off for a mass aerial formation during exercise Cope North 21 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Feb. 9, 2021. Cope North is an annual exercise that serves as a keystone event to enhance U.S. relations with our regional allies and partners by demonstrating our resolve to promote security and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan)

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U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan, an aerial combat photojournalist assigned to the 1st Combat Camera Squadron, departs from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam before photographing a mass aerial formation during exercise Cope North 21 Feb. 9, 2021. Cope North is an annual exercise that serves as a keystone event to enhance U.S. relations with our regional allies and partners by demonstrating our resolve to promote security and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan)

After graduating from high school, Bevan forwent college and began piecing together different elements of work in an attempt to build a financial future. He worked for a vending company at an amusement park and found opportunities to begin climbing the management ladder at Pottery Barn.
 

“I learned the entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.
 

Despite his drive, Bevan felt he was still underperforming to his potential. When spending time with friends who had made other decisions, jealousy welled inside him.

 

“I was very jealous and disappointed in myself that I hadn’t taken a traditional path through life,” he said. “It was painful.”


The realization that he would not be able to progress any further on his current trajectory without a college degree forced him to reevaluate his goals.


“I want to do right by my parents,” he said. “It’s a fundamental part of who I am.”

Bevan is named after his grandfather, who died just before he joined the military. As a pilot, 2nd Lt. Duncan Bevan broke the sound barrier in an F-86 Sabre jet only a few months after Capt. Chuck Yeager famously became the first in 1947. His grandfather was recognized with a wallet-sized card that reads, “Mach Buster’s Club.”
 

When Bevan was 23, he reconnected with a friend who was about to join the Army.
 

“I proceeded to talk this guy’s ear off for an hour and a half on why he’s making the best decision of his life,” he said.
 

After their conversation ended close to midnight, Bevan returned to his car in an empty parking lot. Sparsely placed street lamps flickered overhead. He sat behind the wheel in silence.
 

“I just explained to this guy for an hour why he’s making a fantastic decision with his life and here I am wondering what I need to do,” Bevan thought to himself. “I just told him what I needed to tell myself.”
 

The following year, Bevan approached graduation from the Defense Information School with training as an Air Force photojournalist. When the time came to review the orders for his first duty station, he sat down at a computer and logged on with his mom and dad on the phone in a nervous excitement. When the orders populated on screen they read, Minot, North Dakota.
The cold, remote conditions of Minot hardly make it many people’s first choice.

 

“It was 30 seconds of on the phone silence with my Mom and Dad,” he said.
 

A week before his graduation from DINFOS, Bevan decided to take one last look at his orders, not expecting anything to have changed. Much to his surprise, the line now read, Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina. He was going to the 1st Combat Camera Squadron for which he had applied months before.
 

Combat camera sent Bevan on a cascade of demanding training and travel for the next three and a half years. As he prepared for a role as an aerial combat photojournalist, Bevan familiarized himself with aircraft, tested in an altitude chamber and learned survival, evasion, resistance and escape skills.
 

Days before completing his final flight qualifications, Bevan’s commander pulled him aside and asked, “Can you go to England in three days?”
 

“Yes sir, I can do that,” he replied.
“Alright, its going to be about two months,” the commander said. “You can do that?”

 

“Yeah, I can do that,” Bevan replied again.
 

“It was a perfect indicator for what the next 3.5 years of my life were going to look like: quick turnarounds, high pressure and a good time,” he said.


Bevan deployed twice, each for six months, and traveled to 11 countries with combat camera. He has had nearly 20 temporary duties for exercises, operations and other training. The cycle of travel and extended periods of time away from home put a strain on Bevan’s relationship, ultimately ending in separation.
 

“It didn’t allow me to live in the present, which sucks,” he said. “When you’re doing awesome things… ain’t no time like the present.”

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The card that 2nd Lt. Duncan Bevan was recognized with after breaking the sound barrier in an F-86 Sabre Jet. 

2nd Lt. Duncan Bevan in his flight suit. 

On Feb. 9, 2021, Bevan was in Guam in the backseat of an F-15 preparing for takeoff. The plane’s twin engines roared to life and the aircraft sped down the runway. As the rubber wheels left the pavement, it was silent for a moment as two men, Bevan and the pilot, sped across the airfield several feet above the ground.
 

“Then, instant vertical,” Bevan said. “The moment you actually go into the turn there’s that immediate ultra-sinking into the seat kind of feeling.”


The F-15 climbed into the sky.


“I can’t mess this up, but this is really, really awesome!” he exclaimed. “Everything I’d done at that point… my Dad was grinning ear to ear.”


In his headset, Bevan could hear radio chatter as the pilots coordinated their formation so that he could document it. The temperature rose to over 100 degrees. A B-52 bomber lead from the front while seven different fighter jets trailed. In one
continuous motion, the F-15 rolled upside down over the formation and Bevan aimed his lens down towards the earth. The formation passed over Guam’s few, small cities, the airstrip from which they had taken off and eventually, miles of open, blue ocean.

 

“And this happens fast,” he said. “Guam is like this big,” he referenced by pinching his fingers together.
 

After 20 more minutes of shadowing the formation at 45 degrees, Bevan had finished capturing his images, unknown to their result.
 

“I sweat through every single piece of clothing I was wearing,” he said. “I sweat through my boots, I sweat through my socks, I was dripping sweat down my face, all the fluids in my body were gone.”

 

“Alright, we did it,” the pilot said over the radio. “Want to go have some fun?”

 

“I was thinking to myself, I’m so wiped,” Bevan said. “But you best bet that we’re going to go have some fun!”


The F-15 shot back out over the open Pacific Ocean into uncontrolled airspace. Bevan and the pilot weaved back and forth through white, puffy clouds. An F-16 joined them and practiced maneuvers.
 

“Have you ever been supersonic before?” the pilot asked.
 

“No, I haven’t been supersonic,” Bevan replied.
 

“You want to go supersonic?” the pilot asked.
 

“Hell yeah, I want to go supersonic,” Bevan replied.
 

Bevan grabbed the throttle at the pilot’s instruction and began increasing the aircraft’s speed. He reached a hump underneath the lever, pushed it over, and the afterburners ignited. Bevan watched the Mach gage slowly climb. Its needle passed one, signaling that the plane now traveled faster than the speed of sound. The jet screamed through the sky.
 

“I’m going faster than the speed of sound right now,” he thought to himself. “I’m doing what my namesake did.”
 

Once nearly exhausted of fuel, the F-15 began its return flight home.
 

A year later, Bevan found himself at the wedding of a friend from the first grade.
 

“I was sitting with the folks who did the exact thing that I thought was the right thing to do in life,” he said. “Realizing, they’re not talking about what they do, they’re asking me ‘tell me another story. Tell me another story.’”

 

Today, Staff Sgt. Bevan wears a pair of wings on his uniform on the left side of his chest, similar to those worn by his late grandfather, 1st Lt. Bevan. He is now a faculty member at DINFOS where he has ignited a new passion: teaching. Bevan smiles from ear to ear behind his mustache as he shares stories with his students, still channeling his grandfather’s spirit.

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An 8-ship joint-coalition formation flies over Guam during exercise Cope North 21, near Andersen Air Force Base, Feb. 9, 2021. Cope North is an annual exercise that serves as a keystone event to enhance U.S. relations with our regional allies and partners by demonstrating our resolve to promote security and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan)

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An 8-ship joint-coalition formation flies over Guam during exercise Cope North 21, near Andersen Air Force Base, Feb. 9, 2021. Cope North is an annual exercise that serves as a keystone event to enhance U.S. relations with our regional allies and partners by demonstrating our resolve to promote security and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan)

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