Bruce Lewis Frye was born in 1940 in Hot Springs, Arkansas to Harry Bruce Frye and Clotile Walker Frye. Bruce's parents met when his mother attended Louisiana Tech, became a teacher and lived with Bruce's Aunt Sally and Uncle Max Lewis. After the end of WWII his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona where Bruce graduated from West Phoenix High School, attended Phoenix Junior College studying he studied aviation and learned to fly single engine planes and gliders. When Bruce's father died Bruce moved back to Magnolia, Arkansas to fly and instruct for Murphy Corporation and Monsanto, attending Southern State College in Magnolia. In 1962, Bruce joined the Navy. He went to Meridian Naval Air Station for basic training then to Pensacola for carrier training and aerial gunnery, graduating in the top of his class. He then went to Kingsville, Texas for advanced jets and flew F-9Fs and F-11Fs. When he graduated in 1963, he went to the west coast to fly the F-4 Phantom, a fighter that had just been introduced in 1962. In 1964 Bruce was assigned to the VF-213 squadron on the USS Kitty Hawk at San Diego. They weighed anchor and sailed for Vietnam in 1965. The carrier was stationed at Point Dixie in the South China Sea where its aircraft could be launched for strike missions into Vietnam. In July of 1966 Bruce was transferred to Fighter Squadron 33 in the Mediterranean. His squadron was also sent to fight off the Israelis when they were attacking the Liberty. Bruce left the service to fly for Pan American World Airways and later joined the Navy Reserves in Dallas, Texas. In 1973, while in San Diego, he met his wife Lois and they married in 1976. In 1979, Bruce returned to his squadron in Dallas and was promoted to captain then served a tour at the Pentagon in 1985. In 1986 he became commander of Naval Air Station Atlanta. He retired from the Navy in 1988 and flew for Delta Airlines retiring in 2000.