Coming Back from the Dead

Via Jonathan

I remember the moment quite vividly,  I was a student at Lead-In Fighter Training and in an Intel Class.  The moment was that blinding flash of enlightenment and realization that flying a fighter, something I’d wanted to do all my life, just might not be all guns and glory.

The instructor, a rather cute Lt, was briefing us on the armament carried by various Soviet aircraft.  She’d rattle on about the Mig-21 Fishbeds carrying Atolls and having a 23mm cannon whereas the Su-11 Fishpot only carried missiles.  My mind (I was unmarried at the time) was, lets just say, more interested in the Lt than in what she had to say.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah…Why do I care if they’ve got missiles AND guns or just missiles?  

That’s when the moment happened.

Hey, Dummy!  Wouldn’t it be nice to know what the bad guys are trying to kill you with?  or even worse shooting you down?

You see, while I didn’t want to die, the thought of becoming a POW terrified terrifies me.  Coming of age at Webb, I knew several guys in Dad’s flight who went over to SEA and did not come back, and several that did come back, just not on their initial DEROS.  Listening to their stories and reading their books led me to think the former was the lesser of two bads.