(idea) by Lometa Wed Nov 08 2000 at 20:47:17

Sunday, Number One Son and I were treated the Air Show at Davis Monthan AFB. When we got there a stunt pilot was doing Hammerhead Stalls. Dad said that he loved doing those and recalled doing them in a T2 (or was it a T6?) He put his arm around my shoulder and told me small stories about the various aircraft like he used to when I was a little girl.

Like the time a U2 lost an engine near Ramsey AFB, Puerto Rico and the tower asked the pilot where he was expecting to ditch in the ocean. The pilot radioed back he was going to glide in from 300 miles out. His altitude was so high and the wing span on the plane so wide he was able to land safely. Or how they used to use water in the engines on take off when he flew the KC-135 Tanker so that the expansion of the steam gave them enough thrust for take off when weighed down with fuel. Converting JP-4 he calls it. The Thunderbirds were there and dedicated their 6 man Diamond Fly ByReview to Colonel Hoot Gibson. Later one we went over to the Retired Officers Affairs and met up with Hoot a very nice man. Former Commander and leader of the U. S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Jet fighter ace and war hero, he shot down five MiGs in Korea. A totally phenomenal set of eyeballs. Hoot could see a MIG-21 with a three meter cross section at 25 miles.

We met General Keith Connelly (Ret.) and Dad and a retired Army Colonel, a veteran of The Big Red One exchanged anecdotes about Generals. In the early 60's we were stationed in Georgia. Because the United States Air Force wouldn't allow the Army to fly their planes, Dad's job was to fly VIP's back and forth to the forests of North Carolina where the Army practiced their war manuevers. One of the Generals carried a walking staff and lost it somewhere..... he called the mock war to a screeching halt to have the soldiers search the woods for his staff.

Dad would sit in the shade of the wing of his Gooney Bird and read while he waited. One day his very bored eleven year old daughter managed to put a call through the Base Operator who patched it through to his aiplanes radio danlging over his head. I really missed him when he was gone and well Daddy I think the painters are using too pineappley of a yellow for the house. He told me he'd look into it when he got home and to go outback and make sure the garden we 'd planted over the weekend was watered well.

General Connelly shook all our hands and in a booming voice hollered to one of the wives that he was looking for a sheet cake! ...... from her and you know how I like your marble cakes!!!

But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint
Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)

Devotion

I like it!