Reminiscing On Veterans Day -- November 11, 2024

Locator: 48738ARCHIVES.

Wow, another beautiful day in north Texas. Again, on the balcony. I didn't think much about Veterans Day today until I received a few "thank you" notes from readers, friends, and families.

But then I walked to the mail center, forgetting that mail would not be delivered today, and the first thought that flashed across my mind: Decimomannu, Sardinia, Italy. I was deployed there many times with F-15 squadrons from Bitburg Air Base back in the 1980s. The weather today, here in north Texas, feels just like the weather I remember in the Mediterranean this time of year. Interestingly, I can vaguely sense the smell of JP-4 (?) jet fuel being used at DFW a mile or so away.

Back in the 1980s, on the island of Sardinia, walking out to the flight line at Decimomannu I had a Pavlovian response to the smell of JP-4. It was about a mile trek from billeting to the flight line. I vividly remember the day the wing commander picked me up in his Air Force sedan and drove me to the flight line. That was a big deal.

So, to post some photos I went to the Bat Cave and took some photos of photos. I was too lazy to take them down off the wall, etc., etc. On aircraft that I didn't fly, I often supported the air crews in various capacities.

I flew on almost every aircraft in the USAF inventory in the 1980s. Some notable exceptions. Obvious exceptions: single seaters (A-10) and reconnaissance jets like the RC's and the SR-71. Electively I chose not to take a ride in the F-16, but I flew in the F-104,  (German), the F-100 (civilian-operated), F-111 (nuclear-capable). The F-15, as mentioned many times, was my assigned aircraft. I flew on almost every "heavy" USAF a/c: C-130, C-141, KC-135, C-5. the Army's C-12.

Above, with our older daughter, Public Health Service. I'm eager to get a photo of her daughter, our granddaughter currently in AF-ROTC at Stanford University, California.

I was unaware of the nickname for the F-104 until after I had flown in -- hypersonic 250' above the Mediterranean -- allowed by the Germany Air Force -- minimums for the USAF: 500'.