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Gullible is my middle name

I often joke that when I pinned on my gold bars as a second lieutenant in 1968, the Air Force got a 24-year-old who was really looked 16. I looked young. I was short, like a teenager, and I still had a baby face. People assumed that because I had a master’s degree, I must have been worldly and sophisticated. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I believed almost anything if it was…

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It stretched me...

Flight training and survival training stretched me beyond what I thought I was capable of. At the time, I believed I was learning to navigate an aircraft and survive if everything went wrong. Looking back over eight decades, I realize I was learning something far more important. I was learning how to live. Every instructor seemed to expect more than I thought I could give. They demanded…

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My "Greater Santini"

Every fighter squadron has its legends.Some earn their reputations because they are fearless in combat. Others because they are gifted pilots. A few become larger than life, the men everyone notices the moment they walk into the room.For me, that man was Keith Connolly. From the day I met him, he possessed the confidence and presence that seemed to define the fighter pilot mystique. He was an…

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Opening the Bicentennial Box

This week, we opened a small wooden box that we kept for more than fifty years. We called it the Bicentennial Box because it held keepsakes from America’s 200th birthday in 1976. The plan was to keep it sealed until 2076, so our grandchildren—or maybe even great- grandchildren—could open it on the nation’s 300th birthday. But as America marks its 250th anniversary this year, our family’s…

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Why I wear a Veterans Shirt

I wear a shirt to the Y every day which identifies me as a Vietnam Vet who flew the F-4. I have my reasons which I will share, but I wondered why do vets wear shirts that proclaim their service. So I asked my old friend AI and this is what I learned: : Pride in Service: For many people, serving in the military is one of the most important experiences of their lives. Wearing a veteran shirt is a…

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Survival and Rescue

The recent rescue of the colonel weapons systems officer who ejected over Iran felt very personal to me. I spent six years as a weapons systems officer in the back seat of the F-4 Phantom II, flying combat missions in Southeast Asia and logging about 1,000 hours in that role. Thinking about this, I realized that many people might not know what a weapons systems officer does or how we were trained…

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The Initiation

There comes a moment in a man’s life when everything changes. For me, that moment arrived at Luke Air Force Base in October 1972. After nearly 10 months as a nav student in the Air Force, I was now a graduate-rated navigator, ready for the next step: my initiation into the world of the fighter pilot. Initiation is the correct word. On the runway, the Aircraft Commander Instructor Pilot (IP)…

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Two Mentors

I was luck to have two men that guided my Air Force career, many don’t even have one. The first was Major Theodore “Ted” Shorack. He was lost on 9 June 1966 over North Vietnamwhile on a rescue mission of an F-105 pilot. But I first met him as an ROTC student at Hobart College in the Finger Lakes area of New York. Major Theodore James Shorack, Jr. was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, March 6,…

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Christmas Past touches us still

Christmas is truly a time for reflection. This year, we took a nostalgic journey by revisiting all our old holiday videos. I started filming Christmas morning in 1977, the year our daughter was born in Alaska. At first, I used Super 8mm Kodak silent films. Then, in 1983, we transitioned to videotape, allowing us to finally hear the laughter and joy of our family celebrations. One memorable…

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The Strangest Thanksgiving Ever!

Everyone has a mental image of Thanksgiving that is right out of a Norman Rockwell painting: the family around the table, Dad carving the turkey, the children beautifully dressed and smiling. Well not all Thanksgivings are like that. I have spent Thanksgiving in Thailand eating gummy fondue and bagels heated on a hotplate, Thanksgiving in Alaska on alert, and Thanksgiving with folks who were mad…

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Mr. and Mrs. Halloween

If you’ve known me for a while, you know Halloween is my favorite holiday.  My Halloween memories began when I was about five years old. I can still vividly picture my dad carrying what seemed like a gigantic pumpkin. We sat together at the table while he carved it into a Jack-o’-Lantern. The soft, golden light of a late fall afternoon streamed through the kitchen windows, creating an atmosphere…

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Back in the Pit

Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone… Joni Michell “Big Yellow Taxi” 1970 Last weekend, I had the chance to revisit a place where I spent six years—over 1,000 hours—in the backseat of the F-4 Phantom II, also known as “The Pit.” I attended the annual open house hosted by David Garbe, who has reconstructed the cockpit of the F4D 720. This aircraft was…

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Becoming a "Lifer"

Many veterans and active-duty military members are well-acquainted with the term “lifer,” although it often carries a negative connotation. When I embarked on my active duty journey nearly 60 years ago, we could easily classify the military into three distinct groups: The older “lifers” who had served in World War II. The middle-aged “lifers” who were shaped by the Korea conflict. The younger…

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Remembrances of Deacon

2025 is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. It was not the war that killed Deacon; it was the years after the war. I had known Lt. Ed (Deacon) for two years before we became roommates. We flew combat missions in the backseat of the F-4 out of Udorn, Thailand. Deacon and I had gone to Navigation Training together and worked as a team during the Trek at Survival School. I was not…

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Complacency Can Kill

When you fly for a living, as I did for nearly 15 years, you learn to always remain vigilant while in the air. However, vigilance is not the fundamental principle of flying. Flying isn’t solely about skill levels, air traffic control, or aircraft maintenance. The key rule is to avoid complacency. Complacency is a trap, and I fell into that trap even before I began flying. My first assignment was…

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Snap Shots of Christmas

Writing our annual holiday letter this year was a challenge. At age 80, not many things have happened in our lives. In the past, we often had exciting or interesting news. In 2021, I had a large section of my colon removed as it was leaking; this provided a great deal of material for our letter. The pandemic, of course, allowed us to discuss how we were coping. Then things settled down for us,…

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Citizen Soldiers are the bedrock of the Nation

I come from a long line of American veterans who served our nation. My earliest ancestor was a captain in the Virginia Colonial military, and the family line of service has carried in every war with my father serving in the Army in World War II and Korea and me in the Vietnam Air War. We are good examples of citizen soldiers. The concept of the citizen soldier became deeply rooted in American…

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