You'll see. The guys who want fighters are different.

Author: Bert Booth
Laughlin AFB 85-02, May 1984

T-37 solo contact phase. John "Clam" McNeil and I just landed from our solos. Paul C. (future SIE) is sitting listening to us.

"Doing loops I was pulling hard enough that my vision started fading."

Me too. (both smiling)

"Pull a bit more and the field of view would get smaller while the color disappeared."

Yup. Eventually the sky would be the light gray and the ground would be the dark gray. (now we're starting to laugh)

"Yes, and pull even harder and eventually it goes all shades of dark gray... and then eventually black."

Yes! BUT YOU CAN STILL HEAR!!

YOU TOO!!!! LOL (I'm still laughing about this)

Paul C.: "He's right."

John and I, puzzled: "Who?"

Paul: "My IP. I asked him about guys who want fighters and he said you'd be able to tell. I asked how can you tell and he said 'you'll see, they're different.' He's right. You guys are doing loops while you can't see?!?!?!"

"No... every once in a while you ease up a bit to make sure you're not banking... and then go back to pulling a bit harder." LOL.

Paul C.: "You guys are nuts!"

John and I are laughing and high fiving. Having fun.

Before anyone gets their panties in a wad—Michelle 'Mace' Curran, former Thunderbird #5 and #6, talked about how she got her call sign.

RTU was summer in Luke in older F-16s with smaller engines (Block 25s... IDK). Get to Japan and it's November, cold, and they have big mouth F-16s (Block 52s? Beats me, I flew A-10s).

First FAM ride is a local tour/checkout, some aerobatics. FAM #2 is BFM. IP is defensive, I'm (Mace) offensive.

"1's ready."

"2's ready."

"Fights on!"

Mace: "I'm just out of RTU. I don't know much about BFM. I just do the stock textbook steps—unload a bit, MAX, count to 3, and roll and put my lift vector on #1 and pull. 5 Gs, 6 Gs... still in lag. 7 Gs... lag... 8 Gs... lag... 9 Gs... My plane won't point. I'm stuck in lag chasing him around the circle. Okay, now I'm getting tired... vision's going... fading... gray... I'm STILL stuck in lag and my plane won't point. Something's wrong here. I can't see but I can still hear (exactly! See, John and I were just being Tigers, not idiots!) and the flight lead calls knock it off. I don't know what's going on and why my plane wouldn't point.

Debrief... HUD review... and that's how I got my call sign.

Summer, less sporty F-16 at Luke versus big mouth, clean, cold winter in Japan? I was supersonic by the end of my 3 second count. I was racing around the circle supersonic. That's why it wouldn't turn.

MACE - Mach At Corner Entry.

With apologies to 'Mace' but I think that's probably a 90% true recollection of what she said.