Air Force veteran Tom Pugh took to hostile skies in top-secret aircraft.

On a wall in the home of Tom and Deanna Pugh, there once hung a seemingly pedestrian photograph.

Taken from above, the image showed a swimming pool. Nearby was a lawn chair and a small round table, on which rested a crumpled pack of Pall Mall cigarettes.

Nothing remarkable.

Except that Tom Pugh, the man who shot the picture, did so while piloting one of the world’s most clandestine aircrafts 15 miles above the earth at speeds eclipsing 2,100 miles per hour.

The picture was a mere snapshot of a career that saw Pugh evade anti-aircraft fire in the heavens above Hanoi after recovering from almost certain disaster. Or, on another occasion, piercing the sound barrier with a skull-ringing thud and signaling to prisoners of war below that a planned escape was nigh.

Then, as Pugh himself had done so often from enemy radar, the photo disappeared. Deanna hasn’t been able to find it since.

“Tom won’t admit it exists,” said Jack Kastien, Pugh’s best friend of more than 55 years and his spokesman since a stroke two years ago robbed the former pilot of the ability to speak. “But I’ve seen it. You can literally read the label on the cigarettes from 80,000 feet. The resolution is stunning.”

Indeed, Pugh, upon mention of the photo, only smiles modestly before turning his gaze ever so slightly toward the window of his Marshall Road home, where he and Deanna have lived since 1997.

Windows into his own life have been smudged at best, even for those closest to him.

Through more than half a century in aviation, much of it with the U.S. Air Force, Pugh was privy to secrets most aviation buffs can only imagine.

He test-piloted the SR-71 Blackbird, once the Air Force’s most surreptitious stealth plane, and was one of only 93 men to ever fly the aircraft, logging 750 hours in its cockpit.

He flew 121 combat missions over Vietnam and, having reached altitudes exceeding 85,000 feet and speeds of more than Mach 3.5, holds several world records.

On Monday, friends, colleagues and Pugh’s fellow Rotarians will gather at Wing Point Country club to honor his life and career. Bainbridge Island Rotary will host two programs, one at noon, the other at 6 p.m. Admission is free; meals for those interested will cost $12.

Kastien will recount stories of Pugh’s daring work during the Vietnam War.

For the community, the event will offer a rare glimpse into a life shrouded in military secrecy.

For Pugh and those close to him, it will be a chance to reflect.

Pugh, who recently celebrated his 71st birthday, was born at Fort Lewis near Tacoma. He attended Highline High School, where he met both his future wife Deanna and his friend Kastien.

During the late 1940s, he spent his summers tooling around Bainbridge Island on a flatbed truck and in the fields, picking strawberries beneath the sunny skies that would soon become a canvas for his aeronautical artistry.

After graduating from Central Washington University in 1958, he quickly ascended through the Air Force ranks, piloting B-52s and B-47s among other planes, before moving on to the SR-71.

In the latter aircraft, Pugh used skill and gall to fly his way out of trouble and into the record books. More importantly, during the Vietnam War his plane provided the White House with otherwise unattainable images of enemy ground below.

During one mission over Hanoi, an electrical problem with the fuel pump in Pugh’s plane caused one engine to flame out. Shortly after, the other engine failed as well. The plane hurtled downward to 41,000 feet, well within striking range of anti-aircraft fire.

“Most people would have ejected,” Kastien said. “You would need three arms to recover from that situation.”

Pugh, with two arms, recovered. Miraculously, no shots were fired.

“The only thing we can think of,” said Kastien, “is that they didn’t believe he was actually that close to the ground.”

After retiring from the Air Force in 1984, Pugh became a flight test man­ager for the Lock­heed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, Calif., working with the SR-71 and U-2 programs.

His career took him to all corners of the globe, including Spain, Morocco, Guam, Japan and Thailand.

“He went everywhere,” said a stone-faced Deanna, before breaking into laughter as she addressed her husband. “But I didn’t get to go. I may have to get mad at you all over again.”

One day in the 1960s, she said, Tom got word he was going to Glasgow. The couple would be moving. Deanna was elated. That is, until she realized this particular Glasgow wasn’t in Scotland, as she had envisioned.

“Glasgow, Mon­tana,” she said, reliving her disbelief. “The men there say, ‘there’s a beautiful woman behind every tree. The problem is there aren’t any trees.’”

The couple eventually moved back to island where Tom once earned his summer spending money. They now have four grown daughters, Cathy, Sherrie, Laurie and Diane.

Tom is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Air Force Association, Rotary International and a number of other professional and civic organizations.

But flight is at his core.

Asked if he missed seeing the curvature of earth from 80,000 feet, Pugh smiled and nodded in reply.

Still, his flying days aren’t completely finished. A few months ago, Pugh and Kastien, himself a retired commercial pilot, flew a small plane to McMinnville, Ore., to attend another event being held in Pugh’s honor.

Pugh took the controls for most of the flight.

“He did a better job than I do,” Kastien said, adding that Pugh excels at most things he does.

“Tom would never tell you that,” he said. “He’s too modest. But I don’t have to be modest on his behalf.

“He’s lived a remarkable life.”

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A salute to Tom

Bainbridge Rotary will salute club member and island veteran Tom Pugh in two programs at 12 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. Monday at Wing Point Golf and Country Club. Admission to the program, which is open to the public, is free, with meals priced at $12. Information: 855-4440