Two combat tours of duty take BR fighter pilot around the world

• By STEVE WHEELER
• Special sections editor
• Published: Dec 30, 2005

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If you were part of the July 4 celebration on the Mississippi River last summer, you probably saw Maj. Shawn Coco there -- even though he wasn't around long.

Coco piloted his F-15 warplane at 500 mph over Baton Rouge as part of the annual Independence Day celebration downtown.

It was a much easier flight than many the major has had in the past.

Coco is a U.S. Air Force Gulf War veteran who now flies F-15 jets in the Louisiana Air National Guard's 159th Fighter Wing known as the "Bayou Militia."

The 36-year-old Catholic High School graduate has been around the world several times, served two tours of duty in combat in the middle east and still managed to get a mechanical engineering degree from LSU and a master's degree in engineering from the University of Alabama.

The second-oldest of 11 children, Coco learned early to step forward when he wanted something in life.

After graduating from high school in 1987 and working briefly for Gulf States Utilities Co. and other jobs, Coco decided he wanted to do something different.

"I decided I didn't want to sit behind a desk," he said, flashing his boyish grin. "I just walked into the ROTC office at LSU and said, 'I want to be a fighter pilot.'"

Coco joined the Air Force in 1992 and went to Lubbock, Texas, the following year to learn how to fly. By 1995, he was at the controls of an F-15 fighter jet, one of the most lethal war machines in U.S. military history.

Many people get the wrong impression of fighter pilots, Coco said, from the Tom Cruise character in the movie "Top Gun."

In a recent interview near his home base in Belle Chase, the young Baton Rougean cringed at the "Top Gun" comparison.

"We're professionals," he said. "We laugh at that movie all the time. It's a very serious ballgame and we all know it. Everybody wants to do it right. Everybody wants to do it now. Nobody is satisfied with average."

Just getting into the fighter pilot program is difficult, and only about 10 percent who go into pilot training actually become fighter pilots.