All heart and no brain

Author: Bob Tyler

It was a normal early summer day in South Georgia. I was nervous while waiting on the Moody ramp for a Stand-Eval checker to start my T-38 two-ship formation check ride. Some of my 68H classmates had already been tested with mixed reviews of the experience. I watched Captain Jack Paterno from the checker’s group saunter across the flight line. “You ready,” he asked as if he expected I might have had any reply other than, “Yes, Sir!” The walkaround, start, taxi, takeoff and formation rejoins were fine. I felt my training by my instructor, Captain Jack Hurst, had prepared me for everything I needed to know and do. I forget which training bucket area we were in but it was somewhere southeast of Moody…I think. I was tucked under lead in the middle of a loop when all my plans, to serve out my five year commitment and try to get on with an airline, changed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a sight I’ll never forget. There they were…two Navy or Marine A-7s from nearby JAX or Cecil field were in our bucket. To this day I don’t know what I was thinking but I knew what I had to do. I broke out of formation in the middle of my checkride and attacked the bandits. Of course, I had no ACM training, no barrel-roll attack strategy, no yo-yo maneuvers to employ. All I had was student pilot bravado and apparently the support of the Stan-Eval guy because there was dead silence from the back seat EXCEPT one little whispered phase that I’ll never forget…”SHIT HOT.” Needless to say I was eaten alive by the A-7s as I floundered around the skies seemingly without a clue what I should be doing to chase the intruders away. I never got close enough to broadcast “FOX 1” or “FOX 2”. Skip forward to the flight debrief. Captain Paterno said, “Nice ride” or something like that, I forget but what I didn’t forget was he said my grade was a 99.4. He said it would have been better but he had to deduct for my preflight; he said I had carelessly completed my preflight walk-around with my gloves cuffed. I couldn’t wait to share the ordeal with my roommate, 2LT Damon Loop, who was destined to return to Moody as a T-38 IP.

Why did I say the ride changed my life? When it came time to select my assignment after flight school, I only put down one choice: a T-38 instructor to Williams to satisfy my goal of logging lots of time to hopefully get an airline flying job. Fortunately, I was graduating number one in my class so I thought one choice was enough. It wasn’t. I was informed I had been given one of the first front seat F-4 assignments instead of my request. I was told that ATC instructors needed to be disciplined and that I had demonstrated a tendency that lacked discipline. And now, the rest of the story: Jack Paterno, an USAF Academy grad went on to fly for TWA and later corporate aviation. He died a few years ago. Jack Hurst was assigned an F4 and sadly was killed in a crash out west. Damon Loop got his requested T-38 IP to Moody. After flying for Eastern and being the Commodore at a local Jacksonville yacht club, he flew west a couple years ago. I ended up with a few airlines but only after being Top Gun for the F-4 wing at Homestead and a Tiger FAC out of Korat during the Vietnam years. Here’s a takeaway from this T-38 story: at the time, you never know how your whole life’s plan can change in a single moment. Thanks for the opportunity to share another Talon adventure.