In 1973 I was a 35-year old, slightly overweight smoker, thinking I really needed to consider a program of physical fitness. It was at a cocktail party where a neighbor mentioned an Air Force program developed by Ken Cooper called Aerobics. Aerobics being the demand for oxygen (heavy breathing) caused by heightened exercise. The thing […]

Mike Stock’s memoir, Chasing the Four Winds, tells of a number of his flying experiences which reminded me of my own, less heroic, but nevertheless memorable flying escapades. One minor example was when Stock was flying for the Saudi Oil Company in Saudi Arabia. One of the aircraft he flew for the company was a […]

I entered the Navy’s Preflight program two years ahead of author Mike Stock. Although, I am totally lacking in the heroic aviation experiences of the author, Mike Stock, described in his book Chasing the four Winds which tell of his Vietnam combat encounters and Test Pilot qualifications. There were, however, a few surprising coincidences. The […]

My Navy friend, Joe Obusek, sent me a list of language expressions and their origin. Although quite familiar with the expressions I had no idea where they originated. The list follows: ****************************** Early aircraft throttles had a ball on the end of it, in order to go full throttle the pilot had to push the throttle […]

For you long-time blog readers, you may remember the story I posted in June 2019 about a flight my crew made to Sigonella, Sicily. Here’s a brief review of that experience. My squadron had been deployed to Rota Spain in 1967. I was proud to be one of our squadron’s junior officers (LT) given responsibility […]