MEMORIES . . . . *grin*

A USAF pilot friend mentioned today how much he liked being by the water when he took a break when he was stationed near Norfolk, VA.

Thanks . . . it was like that for a Navy friend of mine — being stationed at Norfolk NAS . . . getting ready to go out on the Coral Sea in Oct of ’85. He was the ops officer for squadron of Navy and Marine F-18s on the Coral Sea when they were to the Med in fall of '85 and were part of the ops in the Gulf of Sidra and taking out the Libyan radar sites . . . he was an F-18 test aviator I met when I was at Nellis for a Tactical Intelligence Course and then 12 days off when I went to MS and FL to visit family members . . .

And then back to Nellis when the F-15 guys I had just started working with in Feb of '83 went to Red Flag . . . my Navy friend was just fishing some evals of the F-18 on the back range and then he went down to (?) Silver Lake (?) and then back to Big Sur . . . and we kept in touch, but not between November of '83 and March of '85. and when they were doing a shakedown cruise for the Coral Sea in March of '85, I took a 19yo airman from Guam with me to Korea and then to Japan.

Elmendorf AFB

A friend from Intel School was in the Talking Dogs Sq at San AB and under the mountain . . . and he took me on a tour. One morning in Alaska before we deployed to ROK, happened to see our Wing CC in the parking lot of Wing HQ and had just heard that he would be in Korea with us at Kwahg Ju AB.

Had this extreme urge to say, "Sir! Please don't go!"

And then when my intel school friend was showing me around Osan, we came to a chapel and I went in and prayed for our colonel wing CC, and for all of the pilots . . . and for all of us . . . and the wing cc was a very nice, GREAT guy who had flown F-4s in SE Asia . . . and he was up at Osan with the bigwigs, and then came down to be with us at Kwang Ju AB on the Yellow Sea . . . . in the SW corner of South Korea.

Kwang Ju AB, ROK

We had six F-15s with us.

I briefed our wing cc and three other pilots for the first sortie, the first day of the exercise, though we had had three days of orientation first. When I was under the mt, II met a Navy 0-5 who was working on keeping track of the Carrier Gp in the Yellow Sea. And also that same evening, I bumped into two of the CH-3 Jolly Green Giant guys I had flown with at KSC, Patrick, CCAFS, etc.

My friend from intel school and I were supposed to meet at the O Club when he was finished working. So I was waiting in the lobby and two Help Rescue pilots walked in to the club. [I asked my friend I had just seen in Newport News, "Did you know a guy named John when you were at Patrick?" (He said he didn't remember.]

Anyway, John was there and with him was a really tall help Rescue guy. So they asked me to have dinner with them, and my intel school friend was not really happy about it, but we did.

Fast forward to 9 years later and on the Fredericksburg Emmaus wknd -- the first time I was an SD on a women's wknd, I met a team member's husband. He was a helo rescue pilot. Then . . . she asked me to pray that they would get pregnant . . . (I don't know why, but a lot of women do that . . . ask me to pray, out of the blue). So the next time I saw them, was early Jan of '88 . . . they were stationed at Andrews . . . and then the next time I saw them their baby, Grace, had been born, and they were at what became the joint base on the top of the G of Mex . . .

It was spring of '97. As my friend who had been on the Emmaus team and I settled down to talk when her husband was just on the way to bed, he went into their bedroom and then came out again a few minutes later. He said, "I think I had a date with you."

Nine years before they met HE had been the help rescue pilot with John in the Osan O Club!

LOL

Because I had met the Navy 0-5 in the mt., I was able to find out some things my F15 guys didn't want to know. Then the last time I was at San, my intel school friend and I went out to a Chinese restaurant somewhere, who knows where in the maze of alleys right out of one of the gates.

And just as we were going into the restaurant, out walked Manny . . . so I was able to find out more from him . . . and it was sooooooo good to see them both.

F-15 Ejections

My ex was commissioned at OTS on our son's 5th birthday, 19 Sep '79, then I left for OTS on 24 Apr '80, then was commissioned on Amelia Earhardt's bday, 24 July 80, then 2 Aug - 21 Nov 80; and meanwhile my ex and the kids moved from Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS; to Patrick in June '80.

We were at PAFB together from 21 Novy 80 thru fall of '82 when he left for the billboard radar site on a mt top in Turkey and then at an Officer Training Course. . .

We saw him in Alaska foe three weeks in Aug of '83 . . . Then Christmas of '83 . . . then March of '84 . . . he came home from Sq Officer School . . . He arrived on the day we lost the first a/c on Elmendorf. A T-33 crashed on a flameout during landing. Patrick Vice Wing CC Francis' (?) son Chris, and his instructor pilot crashed and burned. 

Then an F-15 started a flat spin and George punched out and was okay; then Col Paxton died in spring of '85 then thre pilots and one of their brothers were climbing Denali and Mark was making camp, not roped to anyone; three weeks later his only child, a daughter was born; then Daniel died putting on an impromptu show at an FOB in AK; then one of my best friends was killed giving an incentive ride to a missile or radar sgt. 

That was 2 days after my divorce was final and he and I had been at an EW exercise out of Tyndall right before that. . his tactical call sign was "Biker" . . . then a guy named Chris punched out and was okay . . . tough, all that