San Diego

Back in the Saddle Again

I'm in the States, at least temporarily. Now that I'm back on the flight roster, it's time for the Ferry Flight Follies: Picking up a decrepit old hangar queen from another unit that's receiving shiny new airplanes and nursing it across the Pacific to Okinawa.

The route here involved countless hours cramped in Economy class on United Airlines via Naha, Nagoya and San Francisco; on the way back we'll be taking our time, flying an iron-sick old C-130 back to Japan through Honolulu and either Wake Island or the Marshall Islands. Plenty of time for me to dust off the plane's long-unused sextant and my celestial navigation techniques. To say nothing of loafing on the beach at Waikiki with a steady supply of mai-tais, if the plane is good enough to break down in Honolulu. Nothing a roll of nickels in an engine intake can't fix.

One has to love the life of a military aircrewman: Busily seeing the world as Marines do best, through the bottom of as many beer-glasses as we can contain (or afford, depending on one's tolerance and tastes in booze).