He is still around ... at 97

Bipartisan move to give him the MoH.

A lot of war stories seem to take a long time to emerge. Sometimes, they're surpressed like this one seems to be; sometimes, those involved simply don't want to talk about them. I knew a gentleman who was a bomber pilot in WWII, was shot down on Christmas eve of 1944, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp until he was liberated. He never talked about his experiences until he was in his 70s. At that point, he decided that youngsters just growing up should hear about the war their grandfathers had fought and begin talking to school groups.

That story about the Navy pilot had a link to another story at the bottom: Air Force versus Navy pilots landing

When I first started travelling on commercial airliners, a lot of the flights out of Greater Pittsburgh were flown by Allegheny Airlines (later USAir and now part of American Airlines). I was convinced that a lot of their pilots were ex-Navy because they seemed to rotate and get aloft when taking off and descend and land quicker than some other airlines. That suited me fine because the further away from the ground I am when flying, the less worry is on my mind.

Big Al

quote:

I was convinced that a lot of their pilots were ex-Navy because they seemed to rotate and get aloft when taking off and descend and land quicker than some other airlines.

You know, I remember that as well. Not for Allegheny, but on Piedmont. Well, on most of the regional airlines. There was a whole generation of fighter pilots who moved from Phantom jets into 727 cockpits! Ascents and descents were very interesting! I remember one landing in particular where the plane pitched down in what felt almost like roller coaster position! I mentioned it to the pilot as we deplaned. He chuckled.

Cool