Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
It was around 3:30 on a sweltering summer afternoon in 2022. A United Airlines plane had just landed at Shreveport Regional Airport. One of its passengers was a Homer, Louisiana native in town to interview for – what was to him – the job of a lifetime.
He wouldn’t have to go far—the interview was for Director of Airports for the Shreveport Airport Authority.
“I’ve been flying out of this airport since I was three. I flew in here when my grandmother passed away in 1978. I flew when I went to basic training in 1988. I can remember where I was standing, where my friends picked me up. This airport has always held a special place in my heart. It truly has.”
But it had been more than 10 years since Larry laid eyes on Shreveport Regional. As he left the plane, the man who had been living in Colorado 13 years noticed two things.
“It was humid. It was that summer when there was a record of how many days it was over 100. I was coming from 5,700 feet, where in the summer it’s in the 80’s.”
If Larry got the job, there was nothing he could do about the humidity. But he could do something about the second thing he noticed.
“When I got off and walked through, I could tell the airport needed some TLC. And there needed to be something in here that says where you are. That you’re in Shreveport. That you’re in North Louisiana.”
Larry got the job, and two years later, arriving passengers can’t help but notice they are in Shreveport-Bossier. Among the signage, there is a large mural proudly recognizing Barksdale Air Force Base. Our area code (318) is part of the name of the airport’s new gift shop, complete with an eye-catching sign. There are displays throughout the facility welcoming people to “Shreveport.”
“Since I’ve been in the airport management career field, this has been a pinnacle to me. To be here is wonderful. My friends and family have flown out of this airport since it started. When they come here, I want them to have a really good experience.”
Larry Blackwell, Director of Airports for the Shreveport Airport Authority, told me that story, and his story, during lunch at Tacomania, one of Shreveport Regional’s new restaurants. Larry had cheese enchiladas and a Pepsi. I had beef enchiladas and water.
It’s not surprising Larry’s career has flown by. The son of an Air Force radar navigator, Larry grew up around aviation.
“A lot of the crew members were (Dad’s) friends who were at the house all the time, so listening to all the stories was really interesting . . . . Every year there was an air show at the base and my Dad would take us in the planes or simulators.”
And Larry got to enjoy another perk.
“My Dad was with the B-52’s. We lived on base and when he would fly – usually the B 52’s would take off three at a time – he would tell me if he was going to be in the first one, the second one or the third one. I would be in the backyard, and as they came up, I would know which plane he was in.”
Like most military families, Larry and his three siblings grew up in multiple states. But the move from Blytheville, Arkansas, to Plattsburgh, New York – 20 miles from the Canadian border – is one he remembers well.
“As a kid, the biggest change was going to way upstate New York as a southern kid with a southern accent, and in a completely different culture than I was used to. That was a change, then having to turn around from being in upstate New York for four years and going back to the South.”
Larry went to Parkway High School for two years. But after graduating Bossier High School, there weren’t many opportunities in his field of interest.
“I knew I wanted to do something in aviation, but I didn’t know what. At the time I finished high school and was going into college (two years at LSUS), it was the end of the Cold War. The military wasn’t hiring, especially fliers. That wasn’t much of an option.”
So, Larry joined the Louisiana National Guard and went on a six-month deployment during Desert Storm. He came back home still trying to figure things out. Larry even moved to Colorado and became a “ski bum.” But knowing that wasn’t a career, Larry enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which had a branch at Barksdale.
“I signed up for one semester and loved it. When I was in college, I knew I needed a degree, but didn’t know what kind. But when I started taking aviation classes, and airport classes, and aviation safety classes, I made straight A’s. I said this is great.”
Larry earned a degree in Aeronautics and worked on getting his private and commercial pilot licenses. But that effort was not without heartache. On an April day in 2002, his instructor at the time was one of two people in a T-34, a low-wing Navy trainer.
“They were flying, doing a maneuver, and instead of turning into the wind, they turned with the wind. That made the aircraft stall, and they were too low to recover.”
The plane crashed near the Minden airport.
“I don’t know if they determined who was flying, but they were both killed.”
Larry was shaken.
“If it could happen to him, it could certainly happen to me.”
But Larry wasn’t broken. He continued to fly, and eventually came to what he calls a ‘Y’ in the road.”
“Do I want to go the airline route, or do I want to go the airport route.”
Larry interviewed for and got the job as Director of Minden Airport. For much of that time, he pulled double duty, working nights in operations at Shreveport Regional. After a little more than three years, Larry became the airport director in Victoria, Texas. Four years later, he headed north to Colorado, where for 13 years he was Deputy Director of the airport in Montrose.
Larry was happy in the cold. But approaching his mid-50’s with a wife and daughter, he figured to only have enough fuel for one more move. Then the Shreveport job became available. Larry had to go for it.
“I’ve always been proud to be from here. You can ask anybody. I always wear an LSU hat. I do anything to watch an LSU game. I always tell anybody that I’m from here. I’ve always held Sport Regional as the pinnacle of airports, wherever I was.”
Now, I know what you would ask Larry if you were having lunch with him.
“Why can’t we get Southwest?”
Larry’s answer included a lot of complicated reasons, but here’s the bottom line.
“I talked to Southwest last week. I talk to them any time I get in front of them . . . . They know about Shreveport. I won’t say it will never happen, but it’s probably not in the near future.”
Then, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about Larry’s life story that might be helpful to someone?
“Work hard and be persistent. If you are in a field you enjoy, stick with it and learn as much as you can and look for opportunities. That’s what I did. I worked very hard. I can go back to every airport I’ve been and I can tell you distinctly different things that I was involved in which made that place better than when I got there. I think being persistent and having a passion for what you do is very important.”
After spending more than an hour with Larry, I can tell you his passion for Shreveport Regional Airport is as high as a plane flies.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.
The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers.