Homecoming

Tonite's the night our Intrepid Flyboy returns to The High Plains of New Mexico.  Rest assured there WILL be beer-drinkin' and cigar-smokin' as I indicated a couple o' few days ago.  We'll probably break out the single-malt, too.

Sooo... I thought I'd put up a re-run from more than a few years back in Buck's honor:

Flightline, Cannon AFB, NM. Left to Right: Major (now Lt Col) Heatherington, pilot , 1Lt (now Capt. Major) Ivan (Buck) Pennington, and Your Humble Scribe (still a retired MSgt). Number One Son isn't a pilot, he was honored as Cannon AFB's Junior Officer of the Year Quarter (see the comments) back in 2003, and an F-16 incentive flight was part of the award package. This was his second incentive flight, the first was in an F-111 while he was stationed at RAF Lakenheath, UK.

Two flights in a front-line combat aircraft. Jeez, I'm jealous! I spent 22 years in the USAF and the only aircraft I flew in were the C-47, C-130, and the C-141. What's that you say? C-47? Yep, C-47. We had a few left in the inventory during my early days. I'm old, ya know.

There's something of a back-story associated with this event but we won't tell tales out of school.  (insert big-ass grin here)

Update:  The above is a "before" shot to complement the "after" of Col. Heatherington and Buck after their flight.