PBS Series on Vietnam War Impressive, Yet Saddening and Incomplete
Is it possible to watch a television series and to be very impressed while being profoundly disappointed? The answer is yes. The Vietnam War, a ten-episode production on PBS, fits this description quite well. This conclusion leads to the next question—should I spend eighteen hours of my valuable time watching this special? My answer is no. If you wish to learn about the Vietnam War and...
Read MoreIntercollegiate Sports: Then and Now
The game was a very tight one. Two nationally ranked teams were playing. The score was 4 to 4 with 12 seconds to go in the game. Everyone was anticipating an overtime period. The game was college lacrosse. The date was April, 1956. The location was New Haven, Connecticut and the teams were Yale and West Point. The Yale team was moving the ball towards the Army goal when Army defenseman Ben...
Read MoreThe Challenges Of A Fighter Pilot—Story Number One
The 555th (Triple Nickel) Fighter Squadron just deployed from its home base in Aviano, Italy to a base in Afghanistan. The pilots will be flying their F-16s on a six-month combat deployment. A full package of maintenance and support personnel will also deploy from Aviano. The squadron commander has asked me to send him lots of flying stories that he will share with those in his unit. I thought...
Read MoreTwo Flying Stories—Dealing With Emergencies
One of the great challenges of flying fighter aircraft is having responsibility for everyone in your flight. Much of my flying was in formations of two, three or four aircraft. If I was the flight leader and any of the aircraft had an emergency, I had the responsibility to assist. The following is an example. Flying in an air-to-ground exercise over North Carolina, there were three F-100s in my...
Read MoreFlying F-4 Fighter Aircraft In Combat
The date was 22 February, 1969. I was flying on the wing of Wayne Pearson. Wayne’s backseater was Mike Heenan. Ron Hintze was, as usual, in my backseat. Wayne rolled in on the target and established a dive angle of about 45 degree (nose down). A few seconds later, my backseater shouted to me on the intercom, “Holy Smoke, Lead is on Fire”. All I could see was a ball of fire and lots of smoke...
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