I am the slacker, never in the military. Father, brother, sister, uncle, two nephews were naval
aviators. One nephew-in-law is now active duty USMC aviator, my nephew was KIA in Afghanistan, a
Captain, aviator, former Harrier pilot on ground assignment. Another nephew-in-law is a
SpecOps AF JTAC, 8 deployments. The USMC aviator bombed ISIS summer of 2017. And
BIL was a USN radar operator on the Hawkeye, and P2Vs.
I really wanted to be a naval aviator, was nearsighted, easily fixed today, but only perfect vision permitted
for pilots back in my day. After getting a bachelor's and master's in engineering, I went to the Navy recruiter
to go for Naval Flight officer, figured to fly backseat on F14s, glasses OK there,.......was 6 months over their age
limit of 26.
Four years later they decided to accept up to age 30 for NFOs.....still six months
too old. Just was not meant to be for me.
I honor all the service members in my family all the time, but I fly the flag on Veterans Day and
Memorial Day for all, especially my nephew, who I miss very much.
Like Ian said,
Freedom isn't free.
LOVE that little poster RicInYakima. Yeah, for real. Many of them were friends of
mine, too. I remember my father as a young naval aviator, flying the might Phantom
in the 60s, going Mach 2 and over 100,000 ft in the baddest, coolest jet I had ever
seen. And I remember him as a very old man, needing help with many things.
Bill