{"id":47,"date":"2011-02-08T12:14:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T12:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html"},"modified":"2011-02-08T12:14:58","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T12:14:58","slug":"a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html","title":{"rendered":"A pilot that soars over the others&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>Recently, I sat in the apartment of Lt. Col. Gene Boyer &#8211; the famed helicopter pilot who, in addition to flying five presidents and many world leaders, was also the guy that flew Nixon away back in 1974 on his famous last day in office. Boyer, who has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genetboyer.com\/\">a new book out<\/a>, is a remarkable storyteller and historian. He&#8217;s calm, relaxed and funny, and to sit with him among his hundreds of treasured political artifacts is humbling to say the least.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbindependent.com\/news\/opinion\/tn-hbi-0210-pipeline-20110207,0,1450933.story\">Here is an article I just wrote about him<\/a> &#8211; and below is the footage of him taking leading Nixon away from the White House&#8230;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u3U4MhKDxcw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I sat in the apartment of Lt. Col. Gene Boyer &#8211; the famed helicopter pilot who, in addition to flying five presidents and many world leaders, was also the guy that flew Nixon away back in 1974 on his famous last day in office. Boyer, who has a new book out, is a remarkable&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A pilot that soars over the others... - The Pop Culture Road Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A pilot that soars over the others... - The Pop Culture Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, I sat in the apartment of Lt. Col. Gene Boyer &#8211; the famed helicopter pilot who, in addition to flying five presidents and many world leaders, was also the guy that flew Nixon away back in 1974 on his famous last day in office. Boyer, who has a new book out, is a remarkable&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Pop Culture Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-08T12:14:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Epting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A pilot that soars over the others... - The Pop Culture Road Trip","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A pilot that soars over the others... - The Pop Culture Road Trip","og_description":"Recently, I sat in the apartment of Lt. Col. Gene Boyer &#8211; the famed helicopter pilot who, in addition to flying five presidents and many world leaders, was also the guy that flew Nixon away back in 1974 on his famous last day in office. Boyer, who has a new book out, is a remarkable&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html","og_site_name":"The Pop Culture Road Trip","article_published_time":"2011-02-08T12:14:58+00:00","author":"Chris Epting","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html","name":"A pilot that soars over the others... - The Pop Culture Road Trip","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-08T12:14:58+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-08T12:14:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/90e02a67ea704d6f277e5c57264de6c7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2011\/02\/a-pilot-that-soars-over-the-others.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A pilot that soars over the others&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/","name":"The Pop Culture Road Trip","description":"Chris Epting&#039;s uplifting and nostalgic stories from America&#039;s entertainment landscape","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/90e02a67ea704d6f277e5c57264de6c7","name":"Chris Epting","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ecf\/ecfc2e5ddaa5892930733367b5ce59bbx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ecf\/ecfc2e5ddaa5892930733367b5ce59bbx96.jpg","caption":"Chris Epting"},"description":"A pop culture history aficionado, Chris has a lifelong penchant for documenting the exact sites where things both great and small occurred. As an author, Epting has found that unearthing and chronicling \"\"hidden\"\" locations offers him a challenge. What began as an inquisitive hobby soon developed into the writing and photographing of 18 books based on his discoveries, including \"\"James Dean Died Here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6The Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks,\"\" \"\"Elvis Presley Passed Here, Even More Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks,\"\" \"\"Roadside Baseball,\"\" and \"\"The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain: The Locations of America's Pop Culture.\"\" As an extension of his efforts to chronicle the unique, Epting joined Hampton Hotels for a sixth exciting year as national spokesperson and consultant for the Hidden Landmarks program in support of the brand's national \"\"Explore the Highway with Hampton Save-A-Landmark\u00c3\u201d\"\" campaign (the program recently won the President's award). Chris is a frequent featured guest on numerous radio and television programs such as National Public Radio's \"\"All Things Considered,\"\" \"\"The Savvy Traveler,\"\" \"\"Access Hollywood\"\" and FOX TV's the \"\"Best Damn Sports Show Period,\"\" plus radio and TV programs around the world. He has contributed articles for such publications as the \"\"Los Angeles Times,\"\" \"\"Westways,\"\" \"\"Travel + Leisure\"\" and \"\"Preservation\"\" magazine, and hosts the weekly syndicated radio show, \"\"The Pop Culture Road Trip.\"\" Chris's latest book, \"\"Hello It's Me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Dispatches from a Pop Culture Junkie\"\" will be released in July, 2010. Chris lives in Huntington Beach, CA with his wife and their two children.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/author\/cepting"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}