Air Force

President Karzai’s Emergency Exfil On the evening of September 5th, 2002, Ninja 11 and Ninja 12 launched as a two-ship formation of USAF Special Operations MH-53M Pave Low helicopters. The aircraft were launched as an immediate casualty evacuation…

Sworn in 27 Aug. 1968, in Oakland, Calif.

Where are my Moody AFB 70th TFS buddies? Remember those days flying the "Hog". Those hot muggy days in Georgia turnin' and burnin' trying to navigate down close to the ground to only popup and site a bomb into that farmer's big cow! Oops!!!…

Only the Air Force can bring you "Jet-powered" school buses. This is what we call Air Force Ingenuity. This was filmed at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta Ga on 11/13/10. This was Moody's Community Appreciation day Air Show 2010. The Bus had…

Balad Airbase. Flew almost every day into Baghdad and all over the country. Highlights include firefights in Faluja and Hillah. Watching an RPG fly by the cockpit really gets your heart pounding...

Worked at the 548th RTG at Hickam AFB, Honolulu, HI as a Photo Interpreter

Oh the days at Fighter Lead-in at Holloman, AFB. Hard days of flying and great nights of partying. What I'd give to be young again...

I will forget the opportunity I had to visit with the old 70th Tactical Fighter Squadron from WWII; formerly 347th Fighter Group. The 70th provided air defense for Fiji from, February–December 1942. It then went on to fly combat missions…

I guess this is when it all really started. My parents gave me a military service dress uniform that I wore to all the WWII victory celebrations in 1945. At every victory parade, as the flag bearer marched by, I would do my best to pop to attention…

"Sir, Candidate Martyn requests permission to pee, Sir!"

Pforzheim is a beautiful city situated on the northern edge of the Black Forest, between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. Our little Air Station was home base for 3 units comprising 100 USAF personnel. My unit, the 12th Radio Relay Squadron, had evolved…

The Apache transition was amazing. I came into the Army to fly the Apache and now I was doing it. The aircraft is bigger than you think and is a cool as anything you've ever seen. It makes a Ferrari look like a kid's toy. We started learning…

Started here as the first enlisted chief of maintenance for the base communications squadron. This assignment was part of a then-new program to use Chief Master Sergeants in positions previously filled by officers. The job responsibilities…

Great time as Bn S-1 and Commander's pilot. Worked for Tony Crutchfield. Great guy. Flew all over the country and along the P-518 (North/South Korea border). Don't know what all the hype is about. Not much to see in the north. Mostly huts and…

This was my last flight in the Mighty Pave Low (MH-53M). The guys did a great job of getting the fire department out to spray me down. In Pave Low tradition, I was drenched from a huge bucket of water and sea dye. The Pave was good to me. I…

The Mi-24 Hind is the Russian-made equivalent of the AH-64 Apache. Young people don't know that the Soviet Union was the bad guy for a long, long time. Everything we did in the military was in preparation to fight the Russians. The Hind was…

Took some time off to go to Air Assault School. It was a great time. Easy, two-week school that involved exiting a perfectly good aircraft while in flight. Good times...

AH-64A fini flight. Probably the best flight of my life. Good friend, Eric Severino, in the front seat. We flew to Camp Eagle to pick up a part. I look back and just shake my head. I flew the crap out of that helicopter that day. I had the…

Our seminar, just one of several in our class. Hands down, the USAF Senior NCO Academy is the best enlisted leadership school in the Air Force...like a mini-grad school for senior NCOs. Each of my classmates had an endless supply of case studies.…

Our NCO Leadership School class. Also was my first and only experience with the M1 Garand. I managed to get through all the rifle drill without suffering the joy of a swollen Garand thumb. Was able to squeeze this school into my schedule despite…