Jerry LeFors, from the "Greatest Generation," was born in Oklahoma in 1921 and attended grade schools in West Texas. He graduated from high school in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1938 and then continued his education at Cameron Junior College in Lawton, where he graduated in 1940.

While in college he enjoyed playing the drums and had his own dance band in addition to his studies. He also became enamored with flying aircraft and became a Civilian Flight Instructor in Illinois in 1941, following graduation.

Thornton Duard "TD" Barnes was born in Texas on January 25, 1937, grew up on a ranch at Dalhart, Texas, and graduated from Mountain View High School, Oklahoma. He then embarked on a ten-year military career. He served as an army intelligence officer in Korea. Following two years of radar and missile electronics schooling, he taught foreign students the Nike radar and missile system, and deployed with a Hawk missile battalion during the Soviet Iron Curtain threat. He attended Artillery OCS, where an injury ended his military career.