Enjoyed that. I did notice that in the flybys, there wasn’t a tin can aft in plane guard. I guess the fleet hadn’t caught up yet. Or maybe I needed to spend more time on outside watch instead of stuck to the radar scope. Or I am just old and behind times.

There are times that I really miss being a Navy flyer. Then, a microsecond later, I remember the Whale’s launch weight of 73K and the myriad other hazards that made her a flying deathtrap (and we only survived by the supreme skill of the maintenance crew…and the pilots, too, I suppose), and I’m happy it’s a part of my history instead of my present.

OK, did anyone else notice all the flight safety violations? Mostly rolled up sleeves. But there were also flight gloves with the fingertips cut off and the big winner, one pilot with no gloves on and his sleeves rolled up.

Sometime back in the 1970’s, we had a lecture from an Admiral who had been a pilot in Vietnam. He had a flash fire in his cockpit (from a leaky O2 system if I remember correctly). Being the cocky young pilot that he was, his flight suit sleeves were slightly pulled up and the cuffs of his flight gloves rolled down. The flash fire gave him severe burns on his wrists. As the burns healed they developed scar tissue. Eventually, the scar tissue got so thick that it began restricting the flow of blood to his hands. His hands turned into unusable mummified claws. All in the name of comfort. That lecture stuck with me to this day.