When I was 19, I joined the army and....

[727Sky]

The feeling of power with two Cobra's, two Loaches and three to four Slicks indescribable, simply you just had to be there.

At times you were like a god with life or death dished out with but the touch of a trigger or a button. Other times you were a sitting Duck with many hunters trying to punch holes in your butt !

Either way it is what it was and for those who survived the memories of the good and the bad will go to the grave with us.

There used to be a poem or a song (?) that said,  "I flew on grease splattered wings and reached out to touch the face of god"... But I could not find it... 

Salute 

Oh, I've slipped the surly bonds of earth
And hovered out of ground effect on semi-rigid blades;
Earthward I've auto'ed and met the rising brush of
Non-paved terrain;
And done a thousand things you would never care to
Skidded and dropped and flared
Low in the heat-soaked roar.
Confined there, I've chased the earthbound traffic
And lost the race to insignificant headwinds;
Forward and up a little in ground effect
I've topped the General's hedge with drooping turns
Where never Skyhawk or even Phantom flew.
Shaking and pulling collective, I've lumbered
The low untrespassed halls of victor airways,
Put out my hand and touched a tree.

High Flight with the F-104 star fighter... I think this bird almost killed as many Germans as the war did !! (bad joke but it ate them alive err killed them dead)