Respect

A few days ago while I stood in line at the grocery store, a young man impatiently waited behind an older gentleman. The older man had white hair and was dressed rather nice. He looked to be in pretty good shape and stood straight and tall. The young fellow was about 18-20 dressed in over sized clothing with a ball cap that said "thug life."

The older man was writing a check while the cashier was scanning his groceries. The kid said, "Hurry up old man, I ain't got all day!" The old guy finished writing his check with a smile on his face. He turned to the kid and said, "Take it easy or life will pass you by." The young guy exclaimed "Don't be disrepectin me!" The old man gathered his groceries turned back and said, "You haven't done anything to earn my respect and you probably never will."

I finished checking out too and headed to my car in the parking lot. The old gent was loading his groceries into his trunk as I walked by. He closed the trunk and waved to me with a smile. I noticed on the back of his car were stickers..."United States Navy SEAL" and "Veterans of Foreign Wars" He also had license plates that declared him a purple heart recipient. Without ever saying a word to me, he earned my respect.

Days of lore from VF-154

Finding so many old friends from Facebook has me reminiscing about my Navy days. While in Atsugi we all worked hard and played hard. Typical work days were 12 hours, while on duty days you worked and also stood an 8 hour watch. It was particularly tough when gearing up for a maintenance inspection.

Yes maintaining a squadron of F-14's was difficult. On the other hand, we knew that we had the baddest bird in the sky. Nothing could see as far, lock on and kill from so far away. On missile shoot tests we were nearly 100% accurate. The only failures I witnessed were caused by faulty ordinance. Tomcats were finicky and parts supply was short, but we kept them flying and safeguarding Carrier Airwing Five.

In the air, a Tomcat is a thing of beauty with it wings folded back in a delta shape they appeared almost mystical. Aircrew had the best seats in the world. The ground personnel got literal peeks at what pictures the aircrew shared with us. When they did share, it felt like we made that bird DO that! The man hours expended to achieve those flights astounded me.

The time and effort that went into preparing for and hosting an airshow was well worth it. Everybody came to see the Tomcats from VF-154. The ground crew got to see our pilots work their magic as they would dance in unison all over the sky. Some of the maneuvers would make you hold your breath as you hoped and prayed that nothing go tragically wrong.

I consider each and every one who served in VF-154 my brothers and sisters. I'm proud of the blood sweat and tears that went into every sortie. We did great things together. Here's to all of you..a heartfelt salute from the Tinman. Thanks for your time, it IS greatly appreciated!