History

I would like to tell you a little about myself. I was born December 1, 1945 in Cookville, Tennessee and I’ve loved airplanes for as long as I can remember. The family decided I loved airplanes because on the night I was conceived my parents lived in a little enlisted apartment which was located near the end of one of the runways at Warner Robbins Army Air Base. On the night in question there was supposed to be B-17's taking off over the apartment. Whatever the reason was it has certainly been a passion from the beginning. During the war my Dad was crew chief on B-17's and B-29's, and my Mom worked at repairing aircraft instruments. After the war my parents moved to Portales, New Mexico which was 19 miles from Cannon Air Force Base (formerly Clovis Army Air Base) and I got to grow up watching F-86's and F-100's flying over daily and hearing sonic booms. To this day I love the sound of loud jet engines and the smell of jet fuel is one of my favorites I always wanted to market an aerosol spray with the scent of jet fuel and call it Eau De JP 4 to spray around my model room when I’m building models. Just kidding, well maybe..

When I was a Cub Scout in the 4th grade we went on a field trip to Cannon AFB where I sat in the cockpit of an F-86. I got to wear the helmet and I remember the assisting pilot closed the canopy on me. For a few brief moments I was in my own heaven. I remember the smell of the cockpit, those wonderful smells of metal, electrical wiring , fuel, hydraulic fluid, sweat , fabric and other exotic fragrances. Sitting there I felt like Alan Ladd in the McConnell Story, and Robert Mitchum in The Hunters . This was my first conscious thought of “I love this stuff”.

I was also a big comic book guy and I believe my appreciation for flight demonstration teams began with The Black Hawks series of comic books. I thought the team flying the F-90's all painted the same were cool. Plus all the Black Hawks wore the same blue suits and generally kicked butt on bad guys. When I first saw the Blue Angels flying their F-11 Tigers and later the Thunderbirds in their F-100D’s I thought how they reminded me of the Black Hawks.

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