In Willie L. Daniels autobiography, “Shades of Blue: Creating Space in the Future,” the retired United Airlines captain chronicles his humble beginnings as a young Black boy with a fascination for space exploration to a renowned award-winning pilot traveling the globe for one of the world’s top airlines.
In the 1960s, in the high desert town of Palmdale, Daniels was one of 10 children raised by Willie Daniels, Sr., a man who worked three jobs to support his family, and Emma Daniels, a school bus driver. Daniels said he knew early on that he wanted to be a pilot.
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“I got the bug to fly back when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My dad would take us to air shows. I would see these guys flying and jumping out and parachuting out of the airplanes. I thought that was fascinating,” he recalled.
Daniels’ retired in 2020, after 42 years of service for United – 34 years as a pilot and eight years as a flight attendant – 22,000 hours of flight time and 11 million miles in the air. “Shades of Blue: Creating Space in the Future” not only tells Daniels’ story, but also serves as a road map for aspiring pilots and astronauts as well as how to be successful in any life goal.
The book opens with a foreword from Daniels’ longtime friend and colleague, NASA Astronaut Charles F. (Charlie) Bolden Jr. Bolden was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and NASA’s 12th administrator. He and Daniels met in the NASA Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center.
“One thing that can be said in describing Willie is that he is persistent, focused, and unrelenting in seeking to achieve the goals he has set in his life,” said Bolden in his foreword.
“He uses wonderful stories, beginning with his early childhood, of trial and error, failure and triumph, even life-threatening events – all of which provided life-shaping experiences for him that he now shares with students,” said Bolden.
In chapter one, “Running Space,” Daniel recounts an early valuable lesson in perseverance while searching for his younger brother’s lost retainer.
“We searched the playground, the cafeteria area around the school, and the classes he had attended. Finally [my mother] had me go to the trash dumpster to look inside the discarded lunch bags. While in the dumpster, I came across a brown bag and opened it. To my surprise, I had found his retainer,” Daniels said.
“This became my first life lesson, ‘If you look and work hard enough, you can find a needle in a haystack if you don’t give up.’”
In chapter 5, Daniels details the long and sometimes difficult road to becoming a pilot, which includes many anecdotes about detours, delays and rejections. He spent seven years as a flight attendant, simultaneously going back and forth to the flight training center, continuing to study how to become a pilot, flying and accruing flight time experience.
On November 25, 1986, Daniels received a call from United Airlines personnel department congratulating him on being hired as a pilot.
Chapter 7 tells the origin story of Daniels’ nonprofit, Shades of Blue. Daniels developed the idea for the organization in 1999, after hearing that the U.S. had expanded the number of foreign national visas because there weren’t enough qualified U.S. citizens to fill vacant position resulting from retiring airline pilots.
Shortly afterwards, Daniels heard a news report that there were three million people in prison or on parole, nearly 70 percent, most of whom were Black or Brown people. Daniels said those two news statistics caused a light to go on in his brain.
“I thought, what we need to do is make Black and Brown people part of the solution versus being part of the problem. That’s when I set into motion to create Shades of Blue,” Daniels said.
“We created a curriculum and a mechanism to track students from a middle school through college, help them get their pilots license and navigate the airline’s hiring process.”
The aviation training program builds a foundation for young people interested in aviation and aerospace careers. Since its inception, thousands of students have taken courses through Shades of Blue, many now are employed in high-paying aviation careers, including 18 pilots flying for major airlines. NASA Artemis II astronaut Victor Glover, who is quoted in the book, is one of the organization’s most notable members.
In the last chapter entitled “Make reservations now,” Daniels urges readers to prepare for the future.
“My heart’s desire is that my story inspires you to reach for your highest dreams and whatever goals you choose,” said Daniels.
For more information on the “Shades of Blue: Creating Space in the Future” book tour and Shades of Blue aviation, visit ourshadesofblue.org.
