What type of airplane is that??

Author: Bert Booth

"What type of airplane is that?"
"It's a T-38."
Laughlin AFB, 85-02.
Early November 1984. Graduation is Dec 15, 1984.
T-38 cross country. Lt. Carl C., primary IP, and I fly DLF-ABQ-DMA (D.M. - Davis-Monthan AFB, Tuscon, AZ) (RON) on day 1. Day 2 is D.M. - Norton AFB (LA Basin SoCal) - Williams AFB, AZ. Day 3 is Willy - Canon AFB..Clovis, NM - DLF.
Arizona doesn't do the Daylight Savings Time. So it's something to be aware of when you're operating in the AZ bases especially on weekends when the might close earlier for transient aircraft.
Lt. C. and I are in the men's room, 2 seater, side by side, and I'm going over the upcoming flight from Norton to Willy. Planning to get there 54 minutes before the weekend cutoff (5 PM?). Lots of great thinking happens in 3 places - on a riding mower, in the shower...and on the porcelain throne... "Carl! We've got the time wrong! We're getting there 6 minutes after they close!" LAUNCH THE 5 MINUTE ALERT BIRDS! Lt. C. - "You're quicker than I am on the performance stuff so you do that. I'll get the DD-175 (flight plan filing requirement)." We come hustling out of the john. Oh, we need to do one leg below 18,000'. That's this leg - 17,000' from Norton AFB to William AFB. I think the T-38 had a high speed cruise performance charts for .95 mach(?). That's close enough. Off we go. Blasting eastbound and ATC is broadcasting on UHF and VHF but we can only hear the UHF aircraft transmissions. Someone's asking for lower - "opposite direction traffic. Once you're clear of him I'll get you lower." At MIL power the entire way we settle in at .98 (.99?) mach. It won't go supersonic w/o burner so we're safe. We also need to go a required GS check. Figure it out ourselves and then have ATC verify it. 'Center, RAKE 11. Ground speed check please." "610 kts." "RAKE 11." "What type of aircraft it that??" For the non pilots that's just not a GS you hear on a normal day that low. By that altitude most airliners probably around 400 kts GS.
I called the high speed runs, for decades, "converting dollar bills to noise."
We make it to Willy with about 5-10 minutes to spare.