Quietly Acknowledging Gratitude…

I grew up as an Air Force “Brat;” a child of the Air Force. I don’t know when or what it was that I was captured with the “spirit” of flying for the Air Force but it was early on. I remember at 10 or 11 playing on airplanes in the “Boneyard,” just a block away from our house. There was no fence in those days around the Boneyard and we were free to come and go as we wished – climbing in and out and over all kinds of airplanes. A kid’s dream, for sure! And I suppose it was about this time that I began watching airplanes…

At that time it didn’t matter “what” kind of airplane, I just wanted to fly. While stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ I watched B-47s, then B-36s, B-52s and Kc-135s at Ramey AFB, PR. When we got to Chambley AFB, France I saw F-84Fs, F-104s, F-100s and B-66s. It was somewhere around there that the “Fighter Bug” bit me, and I narrowed my scope of interest even further.

Between my 3rd and 4th year of college I took an Air Force flight physical which was devastating. I discovered I had a “color deficiency!” I was disqualified from flying. But I could see colors! Just not those damned numbers in the books with pink and green dots…

In the summer of 1969 the Air Force adopted the color vision standards used by the FAA which I passed. The FAA used a “color threshold” test which 50 was passing. I scored 50! So, off I went to pilot training – my fighter within my grasp. But out was not meant to be…

I graduated relatively high in the flying part of pilot training and relatively low on the academic side – so I missed a fighter. But not to worry I thought, if I took a C-141A and built up “bags” of time, I could perhaps, slide into fighters. Nope, that didn’t work either. About that time the Air Force introduced the “Weapons System Identifier” program. Swell! What that meant was, if you were assigned to a “Heavy aircraft (bombers, cargo, tankers, etc.), that is where you would stay – in “heavies.”

In 1971, upon reaching my first C-141A duty station, McGuire AFB, NJ, I immediately volunteered for Southeast Asia (SEA). I put down F-105s, F-4s, A1Es, A7s, etc. on my Dream Sheet, and received an HC-130 in Aerospace Rescue. And upon return from SEA I requested F-105s, F-4s, A-7s, etc and took a T-38A to Vance AFB, OK. I was to remain in T -38As for the remainder of my career, 13 years.

In my last 13 years I had two Permanent Change of Station (PCS) assignments; the first to Randolph in T-38 HQ/ATC Flight Safety, the second to Air Force Flight Safety for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in Australia and then back to Randolph AFB, TX, again in T-38s. Before taking the Randolph assignments I once again asked for Fighters but to no avail. I finally “broke the code!” Wasn’t meant to be…

For years I harbored a deep resentment about not being able to fly Fighters, but in looking back today, I am so grateful for being able to fly the T-38 for as long as I did. And I truly enjoyed being an Instructor Pilot in the Jet. Not many folks get to do what I did, and enjoy it as much as I did!

So today I am very humbled for having served as a T-38 IP, and perhaps, making a positive difference in a few people’s lives…

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