Lyle F. Bull

Bull died at his Oak Harbor home, at age 80, surrounded by family, on 4 May 2018. His memorial service took place on 12 May 2018 in the Base Chapel, NAS Whidbey Island. Full military honors were given with a navy honor guard providing Taps as well as a 21-gun salute. A missing-man formation flyover was performed by EA-18G Growler squadron VAQ-134 from NAS Whidbey.

After 38 years of service, both reserve and active duty, Bull retired from the navy in 1993. Following his retirement, he and his wife remained in Oak Harbor. Among his community involvements following retirement was spearheading a project that needed a levy passed to get a new football stadium built for Oak Harbor High School. His efforts in getting the levy passed and the facility completed came to fruition in 2007.

Bull next served as a Deputy Director of Naval Training, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air Warfare, deputy commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, and commanding officer of the USS Constellation, from 1982 to 1984.

Bull served in A-6 squadrons throughout the Vietnam War; following the war, in 1974 and as a commander, Bull was assigned as executive officer of VA-196 at NAS Whidbey.

When a lieutenant in 1968, Bull received the Navy Cross for his role as bombardier-navigator in a 1967 bombing mission during the Vietnam War with VA-196. His Navy Cross citation reads:

With the Cold War continuing and the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War building up, Bull had been contacted several times by the navy to rejoin. In January 1965, Bull was selected to be one of six A-3D bombardier/navigators to be trained in the A-6A Intruder at NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Following his training, Bull returned to NAS Whidbey as part of VA-128, the first A-6 training squadron on the Pacific Coast.

Following deployment aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard, Bull had completed his commitment to the Naval Reserve and separated from the navy in 1964, moving with his family to East Moline, Illinois, to be near his and his wife's parents.

The Hanoi mission for which Bull received the citation was one of the key storylines for the Stephen Coonts novel, Flight of the Intruder as well as a film by the same name. Both Coonts and Bull served in A-6 Intruder squadrons at NAS Whidbey during the same time period in the 1960s and 1970s.

Lyle Franklin Bull (April 8, 1938 – May 4, 2018) was a rear admiral and Naval Flight Officer bombardier/navigator in the United States Navy. For extraordinary heroism on a bombing run over Hanoi in 1967, Bull was awarded the Navy Cross, the navy's second highest honor. The Hanoi mission for which Bull received the citation was a key storyline in the novel, Flight of the Intruder as well as a film by the same name.

Lyle Franklin Bull was born on April 8, 1938 in Illinois. He and his future wife, Diana Stone, met while in high school at a softball game sponsored by the Lutheran church the teens attended in Port Byron, Illinois. After they started dating, the couple married in 1956 when Bull was 18 and Stone was 19. Both were attending Iowa State University at the time, with Bull's new wife beginning her junior year and Bull a freshman. Although they originally planned to wait and have children after college, their first child, Ron Bull, was born in 1958, 13 months following their wedding. Three more sons would follow: Vince in 1959, Bruce in 1960, and Dell in 1965.