A greatful Pops on this day.

[Eagle]

I think by the time Ollie and Issac get of age,,the stick and rudder days will wane. Pretty sure pops will be long gone when they are sworn into the Space Force.

My Son will have his 20 in next year. Brendon spent way too much time in Hot spots and War zones. He is our only and we are blessed he returned to us.  I put 4 yrs in the sandbox.

Who knows if it did any good. Sure seems to have been all for naught.

[Golddalek]

Beautiful photos, I thank him for his service!

Looking like a very proud Dad.

 

My nephew is in the Air Force and a crew chief on the Ospey V-22 copter.

So propellers are still useful...so far.

 

I worked on Phantom 4 RF-4C Reconnaissance aircraft, Hi Alt cameras. Already ancient when I was in the 80s.

[Eagle]

The Phantom ! I still sport a scar on my shoulder from an AIM7 Sparrow bite on ZULU.  3 Day engine changes. Engine bay inspections, 4 Hr brake changes..Yeah lets put the tire inside the brake stack.  Battery behind the rudder pedals. Cart starts. I had one catch fire on start [Victor Alert] Scorched the nuke pretty bad. The two NO LONE ZONE MP's ran away..How far did they think they would get ? It was 300 kilotons. Oh and the Martin Baker ejection seat !  You had to reach under the seat to pin the vernier rockets . It was a beast though. We hit the cable in Zaragoza . It snapped the cable and ripped the RH stab off the aircraft. Were you assigned to SAC with that Mission ? 

[Golddalek]

Yes, Bergstrom Afb, Austin, Tx......Now decommissioned to Austin/Bergstrom International Airport.

Sac Hill, a B-52 runway.....Anything could land at a B-52 base they say...

The Space Shuttle stopped by once on top a 747, ( I think?)  during a transient hop, maybe to Florida? or California.

 

I didn't work on the good stuff, Hi Alt Mapping camera equipment were already ancient when I got in.

I didn't care for it, wished I worked on something more exciting.

My nephew works on cool stuff these days.

 

Had to check that 7 pins, with flags were installed in the ejection seat before working in the cockpit to test cameras.

Kind of scary until you done it over & over.

I only did 4 years active, then 3 yrs reserves for that extra paycheck once month.  

 

I didn't get orders or see any action, kind of  mundane stints....I saw base commanders come & go.

But sounds like you saw action. I did get recalled for Bush Sr. Desert Storm just in case they needed more people,

but like Jury Duty, I never quite make it to a court case. ha, ha.

 

I consider myself lucky because seems like it wasn't always a good thing when friends went overseas, they usually come back changed

different personalities and I don't know them anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eagle]

Sad weekend. 6 Lives lost and two rare airframes. Watched the vids. Target fixation and situational awareness. Looks like he was playing catch-up with the two lead aircraft. Banked left in a climb  but losing rate of climb. The 17 was under his belly . Blind spot. He covered about 200 yrds in 2 seconds.  Close to 200 mph .  Who knows. You can't second guess these accidents. I don't think either crew lived thru the impact. If you look at the shots taken far off,,they had a real fur-ball going on. I spent 6 yrs on the  B-17 [ Fuddy Duddy ] at the National war museum.  The aura when around those birds .............well you can feel it.  Do you have any tin planes ? I'd like to see them .