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Profile 76: BEGINNING/UPDATE: "XR K" as flown by Steve Pisanos, 334th FS
HA!Sometimes a blind squirrel gets a nut!And that blind squirrel is ME. Being frank, I thought my last WW2 bird was done. Two weeks ago, someone asked me what "new WW2 airplanes I was working on?"...
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Profile 76: FINAL - "XR K" as flown by Steve Pisanos, 4th FG
Finished—the Spitfire Steve Pisanos flew after the Eagle Squadron transferred into the USAAF's 4th Fighter Group. It's hard to believe that was over seventy years ago.Read again. Seventy years ago.Of...
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Profile 75 - UPDATE: "Sweet Marlene" as flown by Rich Hall, 602nd FS
8,000lbs of power. That's the burden this beast could carry. It struck me while listening to Rich describe his service, that this man, a farmer, a dad, a husband, average guy, had the destructive...
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Profile 75 - FINAL: "Sweet Marlene" as flown by Rich Hall, 602nd FS
And here she is— Sweet Marlene, circa 1968.One of the peculiarities of doing Vietnam-era aircraft is the ordnance. It's one thing to do the airplane itself. But the stuff under the wings? That's...
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Profile 77 - FINAL: "647" as flown by Major Forrest Fenn, 309th TFS, 31st TFW
Oh yeah...Just look at it—do you think the aeronautical engineer's art could get much wickeder?! When I think of my left hand on the throttle, pushing forward—I hear Hades' fire roaring like a blow...
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Profile 78 - "Pardo's Push"
You know, they're all interesting. And they're all thought-provoking.And they're all important."They" are The Stories I get to hear. And the more I hear, the more I become convinced that Combat and...
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Profile 78 - FINAL: "Pardo's Push".
Do you remember when President George H. Bush talked about the "Thousand points of light"? The actual quote was something like, "...America moving forward, always forward—for a better America, for an...
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Profile 79 - BEGINNING: "314" as flown by Lt. Col. Farrell Sullivan and Capt....
You never know.Until you're there.But, you can prepare.Ok. This post marks the beginning of "314" - an F-4E Phantom shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam. Just to be clear, when I wrote "over Hanoi..." I...
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Profile 79 - UPDATE - "314" as flown by Lt. Col. Farrell Sullivan and Capt....
It's a question that is so difficult to ask but impossible to leave behind..."What was it like?"It's the question that everyone seems to want to know but for a writer, it's a diabolically difficult one...
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Profile 80 - IN-PROGRESS: "879" as flown by Dick Rutan, MISTY 40, 612 TFS
I'll never forget the start of The Iraq War—March 20, 2003.Not because the moment engendered any kind of patriotism or political rash but because of the reaction I got from others. See, I was...
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Profile 79 - FINAL: "314" as flown by Lt. Col. Farrell Sullivan and Capt....
The following is from Dick Francis' son, Gavin. He responded to my request for insight into what it was like to experience his dad's POW event.It is unedited and presented in its entirety.There are 17...
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Profile 81 - BEGINNING: "879" F-100D Super Sabre of the 531st TFS
Last week, I was asked, "Is drawing airplanes hard work?"Hmmm. Interesting question.Have a look at my pencil sketch above—it's an F-100D of the 531st TFS based at Misawa AB sometime in 1963.The...
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Profile 80 - FINAL "837" as flown by MISTY FAC Dick Rutan + Rutan Voyager
"I was out of my body, looking down... looking down at the war beneath.I saw two armies. One of life, the other, death. And they clashed.I knew they were fighting over me."A thousand regrets for not...
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Profile 82 - BEGINNING: "???" as flown by Raymond Plank, 43rd BG, 64th BS
He stated it three times in expressing the one thought. Each time, he spoke the word in that old-school fashion of putting the emphasis on the last syllable. Like a command. Like a privilege."They...
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Profile 82 - UPDATE: "548" as flown by Raymond Plank, 43rd BG, 64th BS
Have a look. I'd say it's maybe... 40% done. Maybe. I'm kind of grumpy about it. I loathe the "middle" of a difficult project as it's too late to turn back and too much left to do—rather ironic...
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Profile 82 - FINAL: "Cocktail Hour" as flown by Raymond Plank, 43rd BG, 64th BS
She's finished - it's "Cocktail Hour"!Though I can't verify exactly how many times Lt. Raymond Plank flew her, this particular B-24 has become a most interesting symbol of his service.Let me explain.If...
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Profile 83 - BEGINNING: The MiGs of the North; "5018" as flown by Nguyen Hong My
It is one thing to write about an enemy. It is yet another to buy him dinner.And yet another to salute to his honor.Recently, I was able to spend a few weeks in Vietnam. The experience was a...
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Profile 83 - UPDATE: The MiGs of the North; "5018" as flown by Nguyen Hong My
Imagine a penny.I know what probably came to mind—coppery, somewhat dingy and Abraham Lincoln’s profile. And it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the 40-some percent of readers that come from elsewhere...
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Profile 83 - FINAL/UPDATE: The MiGs of the North "5018" as flown by Nguyen...
Here it is —"5018" as flown by Lt. Nguyen Hong My, Vietnamese Peoples Air Force, on 19 January, 1972.¹It's a sinister looking thing don't you think? For me, it seems more like something out of a...
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Profile 84 - FINAL: "573" as flown by Bob Mock and John Stiles
The peasant in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail was correct-rocks really do float. And not just the really small ones but the big ones, too.It's a bizarre process. A complicated recipe of...
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