Being an airline pilot has a lot of rewards.
Good money, lots of time off and a chance to travel, to name some.
But the most satisfying thing for Lamar Buchanan is standing in the door at the end of flights greeting passengers, he says.
“Especially given where I’ve come from, seeing the faces of older people, especially older blacks, and they look at you in awe because they realize, ‘You’re the pilot?’ Because I don’t fit the typical mold. I’m not an older, white male.”
Even though they don’t know him and will probably never see him again, they often approach him, Buchanan, who is black, said.
“Thank you for letting me see what we’re capable of,” they tell him.
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Flying jets for U.S. Airways Express is a long way where from Buchanan, 33, grew up on Ash Street in Greewood. It was him and his mom, Jackqulin Buchanan, as well as his grandparents. Since his grandfather’s death in 1996, he has been the only male in his family.
His mother was strict with a capital “S,” Buchanan said. His bike rides were limited to Ash Street, and he had to be home when the porch light came on.
“I used to think this woman was crazy because I couldn’t do half the things that the kids that I grew up with could do,” he said. “And my mother made the famous statement that I will never, ever forget: You will be successful whether it kills you.”
The family wasn’t rich by any means: They had either cable or telephone, never both at the same time.
From the time he was able, Lamar Buchanan worked. His first job was at Adams Car Care, now Frank’s Car Care, on Lamar Street; later he worked at Jitney Jungle.
Hazel Jordan, Buchanan’s fourth-grader teacher at Dickerson Elementary, saw something special in him early.
“He was a very smart, very well-disciplined child,” she said.
Her son, Edward Jordan, also took an interest in Buchanan. He was serving in the Air Force at the time and would take the youngster with him to the air base in Jackson.
Last week when Buchanan spoke to a school group in Jackson, Edward Jordan, now an administrator with the state Institutions of Higher Learning, went to hear the speech.
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After graduating from Greenwood High School in 1997, Buchanan initially followed his mother to Mississippi State and was studying mechanical engineering with plans of going into the Air Force to become a mechanic.
But Buchanan decided that wasn’t enough: He wanted to fly planes.
So he transferred to Delta State and began work on his aviation degree.
By his junior year, Buchanan was still doing freshman-level work because he couldn’t afford flight time. It costs an average of $150 an hour to fly, Buchanan said, and the degree required about $75,000 worth of flying.
University officials began talking to him about what he was going to do.
“I said, ‘I have no idea how I’m going to get the money, but I’m going to get it. I was believing in God to get the money,” Buchanan said.
So began the great scholarship hustle.
Buchanan went from business to business explaining what he was doing and posted flyers with his information throughout the Delta. He ended up getting 13 different scholarships, including two from Kimmel Aviation Insurance in Greenwood.
Others gave him their junk for garage sales, and Buchanan put on spaghetti dinners and fish fries. He spoke at a Greenwood City Council meeting to get exposure and was featured in 2003 in the Commonwealth.
“I actually got a $100 bill in the mail from somebody anonymously, and I have no idea to this day who it is. And the letter said, ‘Here’s one hour worth of flying time. I hope you make it count,’” he said.
But it all wasn’t enough to put it him over the edge.
Buchanan explained his plight while taking Nelson Wilson, who was president and CEO of BMW’s Prosthetics of Jackson, flying on Martin Luther King Day in 2003.
“When we landed, he said, ‘Young man, you remind me of myself when I was trying to get started in business. You appear to be able to conquer the world.’”
Buchanan replied he hoped to some day but didn’t know where he’d get the money. Nelson had a solution. He offered Buchanan $25,000 to finish his degree and then a job flying airplanes for his company.
Two days later, Nelson put $25,000 in his flight account.
Although the job didn’t come to fruition, Buchanan graduated in 2005 from Delta State. He said no other African Americans have completed the program since then and that he was the first in a long time.
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Buchanan did an internship with FedEx’s flight department and then got a job as a quality manager on the space shuttle program for Lockheed Martin in New Orleans. He supervised employees who inspected foam application on the shuttle’s fuel tank.
“I was making a lot of money at Lockheed Martin, but that wasn’t the dream,” he said. “The dream was to fly a jet.”
When the airlines went into a hiring boom, Buchanan applied, and U.S. Airways hired him.
He’s based in Charlotte and commutes back and forth from his home in Jackson. Buchanan typically works four days on with three days off.
“It’s a large feeling of responsibility, but yet it’s like being in the most powerful sports car your ever going to drive because of the fact you're in full and total control. It’s all about you,” he said of flying a jet.
He flies mostly on the East Coast and goes as far west as Omaha, Neb. His goal is fly internationally on larger aircraft.
But his main vision is not flying accolades, Buchanan said. Rather, he said he wants to reach children from Greenwood and other surrounding areas.
“A lot of people always want to know what’s going on with the generation now? Why aren’t they as focused? I think it really requires a work ethic,” he said.
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Buchanan’s work ethic was put to the test when he was at Delta State.
He worked at UPS in Greenwood from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. From 11 a.m. to noon, he was getting himself cleaned up and driving to Cleveland. From noon to 3, he attended class, and from 3 to 5, he flew. From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., he worked at Advance Auto Parts. On the weekends, he did “guard bumming,” picking up extra weekends, with the the Air Force National Guard.
“I was going to be an airline pilot one way or the other. And during that time, I just realized that I developed a strong work ethic and a lot of discipline.
“You tell people you were working three jobs, going to school and flying and maintaining your GPA. How did you do that? I can tell you, sheer grit and determination because I decided that was what I was going to do, there was nothing that could stop me, period.”
Buchanan said he would like to see the school system, and community organizations get children and young adults more involved in technology and science.
That means hands-on exposure field trips, which he said made a big impression on him growing up.
He often speaks to youth, most recently to a large group in Jackson at a Jobs for Mississippi Graduates event. His message is about success and achieving dreams.
“I truly believe that anybody can do anything. ... Some of us just have to work at it harder than others. Given your circumstances, who you are, where you’re from doesn’t make any difference. It just depends on what you’re willing to do,” he said.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
