Years ago I had a customer that was a Marine in Viet Nam. Once his patrol was pinned down in a rice patty and the enemy was in a tree line firing into the patty. They were pinned for long time and as night approached he knew that they would not make it. He called command and control requested air support. He was told that Air Force would send support. He responded, hell no! I want Marine pilots for support. CC asked why he wanted Marine support. He said because the Air Force would drop bombs from 10,000 feet but the Marine pilots would be down on the deck to drop theirs. Twenty minutes later Marine F-4's came in and he said, I swear I could have reached up and touched them? That ended the attack and we made it safely back to base.
Once on a commercial flight I heard a conversation with an older lady and this young guy who looked about twenty. Making small talk she asked him what did he do. He said I fly single engine planes. As we landed the pilot hit the runway fairly hard. The young guy says, wow I would have been written up for that landing. I looked at him and said, Air Force? He said, yes sir. F-16s? Yes sir. I said, this pilot is obviously ex-Navy. He just laughed.
Once on a commercial flight I heard a conversation with an older lady and this young guy who looked about twenty. Making small talk she asked him what did he do. He said I fly single engine planes. As we landed the pilot hit the runway fairly hard. The young guy says, wow I would have been written up for that landing. I looked at him and said, Air Force? He said, yes sir. F-16s? Yes sir. I said, this pilot is obviously ex-Navy. He just laughed.
