Air-Minded: Cold War Nightmare Reawakened

Note: the photos from the original post (April 15, 2011) succumbed to web rot. I have replaced them, and have added the post to the Air-Minded category. Thursday, as part of my Pima Air Museum volunteer training, I took a tour of the affiliated Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson. I’ve now audited each of […]

Air-Minded: Air Museum News

That’s my friend and fellow air museum volunteer Loc Ho, departing this week for his first aeronautical engineering job at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. I’ll miss this sharp young man. When he first started volunteering at Pima Air & Space, Loc Ho was an engineering student at the University of Arizona. He looked me up […]

Stampede String

I wonder how many riders and drivers have crashed due to temporary sun blindness. It was a huge issue flying fighters, especially in a visual engagement, and I often wished for three hands: one for the throttles, one for the stick, and one to put between my eyes and the sun.

Post the First

As in first post of the new year. Hooray! If I have resolutions—and I’m not saying I do—one would be to finish writing the memoir I started last year. Others would be to keep posting to my weblogs, perhaps setting up a separate blog for Air-Minded posts, while continuing to send out Paulgram newsletters. Perhaps I’ll try to climb out […]

Air-Minded: True Story, Fake Video

This is an older post, originally posted in March 2008, updated to correct some details I got wrong the first time around. —Paul A friend sent me a link to this History Channel video, which has been circulating on the internet for several years: He wanted to know if the video was for real … […]

Air-Minded: Ode to Mr. Moto

Ode to Mr. Moto! Six Mitsubishis — with bombs all set to slide — The sailor gave his guns a squirt — and there were only five. Five Jap bombers thirsting still for gore, Our N.A. blipped another burst, and now — there’s only four. Four grim and deadley Nipponese droned o’er the Eastern Sea, […]

Air-Minded: A Visit to the Museum

A few years back a friend told a friend of hers to hook up with me on Facebook. She thought we’d hit it off, since Kevin had been an F-15 maintainer at Kadena Air Base, stationed there at the same time I was. I didn’t know him then, but was happy to add him as a friend, […]