Boomer

Story Credit: Bobo

"Boomer" was our Class Commander in UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training). Probably thought of as our "Den Mother." In this capacity, he was responsible for all the administrative things that came our way. He was also responsible for kicking our asses when we needed it. That didn't happen often with our class—we had a pretty good group of guys.

Boomer was also a T-37 IP. As it turned out, I flew with him frequently. As a matter of fact, he "soloed" me in Tweets. (And that's another story! LOL!)

A lot of guys didn't care to fly with Boomer as he was somewhat of a "screamer." But for some reason or another, his antics didn't bother me—in fact, I thought they were kind of comical.

One day, while coming back to base, he got so pissed off at me that he dropped his oxygen mask. Then he turned his head and stared out the right side of the canopy. "Well, hell," I thought to myself, and I dropped my mask and began looking out the left side. Then something occurred to me, and I began laughing.

He was still kinda pissed at me, but he couldn't help himself. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Oh," I said, "I was just thinking about some bird we're about to hit. Can you imagine what a bird's last thoughts might be? 'Here I am about to get smeared by a jet, and the two assholes flying the thing are both looking out their side windows—great!'"

He thought about it a sec, then reattached his mask, trying to conceal his laughter.

I wasn't intimidated by him—I actually kinda liked him. We were both 1st Lieutenants, although he outranked me by a year. And after that incident, we got along fine. Except for the day he got pissed at me again for something or another and knocked off the glare shield with his fist!

"Oh crap," I responded. "Glad I didn't do that!"

For all my "smart-ass" remarks throughout Tweets, he did get back at me. As was the tradition at the time, as we were about to complete the T-37 phase, he invited us (the students he primarily flew with) and our wives over to dinner. And after dinner, he put on a few Bill Cosby albums. Four of them, to be exact! He must have had everything that Cosby had produced up to that date—and we sat through them all! Boomer didn't drink, so there was absolutely no beer in the house... pure torture! They were funny, but 4 hours of Cosby?