In the 1940 census, Virgil 35 and Zella 34 were living at 605 S. Madison Street where they had been since at least 1935. Their only child, Danny, was five years old and Virgil was listed as a merchant, referring to the market that they owned.
In 1946, when Danny was 12, he got his first airplane ride at the old Marion Airport east of Marion where the soccer fields are now located and his father got his pilot’s license. This was Danny’s first venture into piloting an airplane and over the course of his life would go from a 90 mile per hour airplane to supersonic jets doing 1200 MPH.
Cox graduated from Marion High School in the class of 1952 and went on to attend SIU at Carbondale. While attending Marion High School, Danny worked as a soda jerk at Speed’s confectionary on the square that belonged to his uncle Ralph Smothers. While working there, Cox befriended another Marion man by the name of Maurice “Mo” Abney and they began occasionally carpooling from Marion to Carbondale during his freshman year. During his first year of college, Danny sold classified ads for Oldham Paisley’s newspaper.
After Danny graduated from SIU in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in geography and four years of Air Force ROTC under his belt, he headed for Moore Air Base in Texas for primary training as a second lieutenant. He then, was assigned to Greenville AFB in Mississippi to train as a fighter pilot. After experiencing personality conflicts with his assigned instructor, Danny thought he might wash out, but as luck had it, his old friend Mo Abney, who was also an instructor, took him under his wing.
“He rescued me,” Cox said, “He told me he was taking me on to teach me how to “really” fly, and that we were no longer friends. He was a tough instructor, and I was his student. It worked.” Cox explained that Abney’s career sadly was cut short by a debilitating head injury received in a car accident while he was later stationed in Germany. An invalid for more than 30 years, he died about 15 years ago.
While in basic pilot training, Cox flew the T-33 and received his pilot wings. His next assignment was training on advanced fighter interceptors, specifically the F-86L Sabre. It was in this training that he broke the sound barrier for the first time which, for that jet, required a vertical dive at full throttle.
In January 1959, Cox was assigned to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines where he flew an F-86D Sabre and then transitioned later into the F-102 Delta Dagger in the 509th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. During this two and a half year assignment he was assigned on temporary duty with the Royal Australian Air Force flying out of Guinan, Samar, Philippine Islands and with the Nationalist Chinese Air Force base in Taiwan.
The next permanent change of station was to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona where his next fighter was the high performance F-101B Voodoo. This airplane held the world speed record for the time at 1200 MPH (Mach 1.75). It could climb from takeoff at sea level to 35,000 feet in one minute and 32 seconds. During this 3 ½ year assignment, he did maintenance test flights on the F-101 and flew high speed, ultra-low (25 feet) across the desert to help locate holes in the radar nest. Danny also flew in air shows demonstrating the power of the Voodoo.
Another unique distinction that Danny had is that he encountered the deadly “pitch up” that was a design flaw in the Voodoo. He lost 30,000 feet of altitude in a violent tumble before he recovered. This was the ninth “pitch up” the Air Force had had since they bought the airplane and only three pilots ahead of Danny had survived it.
An additional duty while in Tucson was Public Relations for his squadron the 15th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. This entailed radio and television interviews as well as being the lead pilot in a locally produced television special called “Voodoo Rendezvous.” He was known throughout the Air Force as “The sonic boom salesman.” This experience would prove vital in his future employment.
The next assignment was to the 87th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Lockbourne AFB in Columbus, Ohio. There he continued to fly the F-101B as a line pilot, doing maintenance testing and flying in air shows. Additionally he spoke to civilian groups in surrounding communities that were often hit by frequent sonic booms, trying to convince them that booms were better than bombs.
While living in Ohio, Cox married Theo “Tedi” Walker in 1965. Theo, the widow of one of the first fighter pilots to lose his life in Vietnam, was the mother of three children, Lisa, Kendra and Darcie. “I got a real package deal when we got married,” said Cox in 2003, who is now the grandfather of eight.
After qualifying to fly with the elite Air Force Thunderbirds, the Air Force denied his request for a transfer that would enable him to do so. As a result, Cox resigned, believing he could easily get a job with the airlines, so he moved to California and submitted his impressive credentials.
After ten years of service, 2,400 hours of high performance fighter time and breaking the sound barrier over 1,000 times without an accident, he was not hired due to an airline height requirement of 5 ft. 8 inches. Cox’s comment was, “What a coincidence, five-eight is my goal.”
Joining a major real estate company he was soon promoted to the company’s No. 1 sales office. Things went well until sales plummeted. Faced with the loss of his job, Cox scrambled for answers and began calling people he had read stories about in magazines and papers who had succeeded in their fields. He wined and dined these people until he felt he had a handle on what it would take.
With this information, Cox built two record breaking, industry leading sales teams that resulted in an 800% increase in production over a five year period.
In 1977, he decided to start sharing this knowledge and experience on a broader level through books and high performance seminars. His first book, Leadership When the Heat’s On, sold more than 200,000 copies.
Cox formed his company “Acceleration Unlimited” and called himself the accelerationist. His books and seminars are based on a combination of his personal experiences and those of people who influenced him.
Danny is now a full time business speaker and author. His client list includes many Fortune 500 companies. He was inducted into the National Speakers Association’s Hall of Fame and is a member of the elite 20 member Speakers Roundtable. His best-selling books are Leadership When the Heat’s On, Seize the Day and There Are No Limits. They appear in 28 different languages.
Cox makes frequent visits back to the area to be near his home town and alma mater. In 1992, while visiting Marion on a book signing tour at the Illinois Centre Mall he was awarded a special achievement award by Mayor Robert Butler.
Danny is also a descendant of a very early colonial family who fought under George Washington’s command and he was accepted into both the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War.
He is a life member of the SIU Alumni Association and an article was written about him in a 2003 Southern Alumni magazine. In the article, Cox was quoted as saying, “I just had one speech class at SIU and I got a ‘C’. If I’d known I was going to be doing this for a living, I’d have paid more attention.”
Danny maintains a website at http://www.dannycox.com/