Glimpses of God’s Grace
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Guy
by
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With our new bingo established, we all topped off our tanks one last time before establishing our assigned CAP (combat air patrol) position. Whip but us in a tactical wall formation: 9-12 thousand foot spacing, line abreast with altitude stacks. In this formation we fenced-in ( set the cockpit up for the fight by enduring the radar control panel was properly set up, the master arm switch was set to” arm,” and the radar warning receiver( fuzz buster) was turned on. We also performed a G-awareness, five to six G turn to warm our bodies up. During this turn we (I know I did.) likely checked our auto acquisition modes with the radar by locking up our other flight members. This also checked the seeker head on the AIM (air intercept missile)-9, sidewinder which automatically looks where the radar looks. Once satisfied that the seeker head slewed to the radar and provided the appropriate growl in our headphones, we uncaged the seeker head to free it from the radar, we checked it visually in the HUD (head up display) and listened for the tone to change. With our jets and our bodies ready for a fight we checked in with a weapons controller onboard AWACS. As the bogies (a bogey is an unknown, when ID’ed as a hostile he becomes a bandit). Based on the AWACS (airborne warning and control system) call we refined our search.
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About the Book
Have you ever met or even heard of a Christian fighter pilot? Now you have—I’m one. Come read about how an ordinary kid in a Navy family grew up to marry the toddler two doors down. Read about my teen years in Italy and how I, as a 130 lb. band geek, received a congressional appointment to the USAF Academy. Follow me through life as a cadet. Find out how we made our own fun with coke bottles, Frisbees, lighter fluid, super glue, a condom, a pillow case, and a lot of water. See pilot training from the perspective of the student and the instructor.
Once I’m all trained up in the F-15, I’ll strap you in with me. (It’ll be a tight fit because there’s only one seat and it’s mine!) Together, we’ll take my mission ready check ride and repeatedly spank Maverick and Goose in their F-14. Then we’ll scramble to fly into the night sky and fly out over the dark Atlantic to intercept Soviet TU-95 Bear bombers patrolling our east coast during the Cold War. Then we’ll join a 4-ship of Eagles to take on an unknown number or type of adversaries. See how our four jets did against six bad guys. During that fight we’ll peel off to go 1 v 2 against F-16s. I push as close as I dare against the barriers that would make this book classified. When you see what God enabled that 130 lb. band geek to achieve; you’ll get it: With God, nothing is impossible. But more importantly, see God’s fingerprints on my life and let me challenge your thinking about His amazing grace.
About the Author
I was born at a very young age into a Navy family; yet after growing up hop-scotching the U.S from coast to coast. and attending high school in Italy; the self-described 130 lb. band geek with braces. inexplicably managed to snag a congressional appointment to the USAF Academy, despite the “shot in the dark” estimation of my uninformed high school guidance counselor and the challenges of corresponding with my Florida Congressman from overseas. Who knew Italy doesn’t have members in the U.S. Congress? Remember; this was before Al Gore invented the Internet and Hillary Clinton used it to hide 30,000 classified email. To prove the Air Force hadn’t been hoodwinked, I surprised even myself by graduating. I then spent the following 25 years in the cockpit first; as a student pilot (That’s where they make you start-go figure), followed by several assignments as an instructor pilot, which eventually culminated in a squadron command. Most surprizingly,I was also an award-winning fighter pilot in the world’s undesputed, premiere air superiority fighter of our time – the F-15 Eagle. If you happen to dispute this claim; take it up with my publisher; they wouldn’t print it if it weren’t true. After serving in the Air Force for half its existence, I survived a massive, near-fatal stroke leaving me paralyzed on the left half of my body. I wrote this, my second book, with one hand from a wheel chair. This really happened; it’s not a shameless ploy for pity book sales. My first wife of almost 37 years and I live in Carrollton, Virginia.