I ‘know’ better…
Open bar, ‘multiple’ bottles of wine at dinner…
Multiple old friends, sea stories, things that went bump in the night, and at least one guy in trouble because she found out ‘tonight’ some of the stories about the stuff we did back in the day that she’d never heard about… I ‘think’ he’ll be lucky to get the couch…
Four generations of airplanes, and four generations (at least) of people…
PBY- WWII/Korea
P-2V- Cold War/Vietnam
P-3- Vietnam/Grenada/Gulf War I and II/Kosevo
P-8- ???
Americans, Brits, Germans, Portugal, Spain, Aussies, French, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese, Iranian, and now Taiwanese have all flown variants of the ASW airplane… Not just chasing submarines, but maritime air patrols, rescue(s), emergency medical transportation, weather surveillance, iceberg patrols, chasing bad guys on the Ho Chi Min trail, chasing Iraqis during the first Gulf War, chasing Bin Laden and others in the second Gulf War, patrols both off the coast and overland in Bosnia And Herzegovina.
Been there, got the crap scared out of us on a routine basis, but usually made it home… Tonight Capt Paul Milius was one of the honorees, and the story of VO-67 and MR-7’s final flight was told by the co-pilot (and survivor of the bailout over Laos), and another of the crew who came to honor him…
Link HERE…
It was a GOOD night, but boy, I’m glad I only do this once a year…
Now I have to go find the car… Sigh…