War Stories - The beginning

My current job is that of instructing students in the fine art of flying airplanes. More specifically, flying the T-6 Texan II primary trainer aircraft. Granted, I am not actually flying real airplanes, but I instruct in the T-6 simulator and we cover the basics of manned flight from the ground up. The students often joke about all of their simulator instructors when they think we are not listening. Because of the type of individuals we are; more specifically how old we all are (and we are all very old) they often think that one of two things might happen while we are instructing. The first is that we might fall asleep during the mission. The second, and one that most of us hope won’t happen, is that we may pass away during the sortie. Currently I only have to deal with the first issue but the latter one is a distinct possibility and coming on fast.As most pilots know; we are often telling stories of our heroic exploits while defying gravity. When used with alcohol and at the Officer’s Club on Friday nights it can sometimes lead to romantic interest. Just ask my wife. We term those stories “War Stories.” Being a typical pilot I have accumulated about a million heroic stories over the many years I have flown. I often use these stories to make a point or to get the student’s attention. It is a very good way to teach and I often hear the other instructors doing the same. So while at my job I decided to take these daily instructional stories and start a new series of blogs that I will title “War Stories.” Just remember these are the stories that I remember and they are true to the best of my ability. However, since I am currently suffering from CRS (a disease common among older men - short for Can’t Remember Shit) I am really not totally responsible if there are some parts that might be questionable. So hang on - here goes!

This entry was posted on 10. November 2009 at 21:16 and is filed under War Stories, Airplanes, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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