[skysurfer808]

Hello Folks,

I've been pretty busy lately, and since August 6th, have managed to log 30 hours of flight time and duel instruction. I've only had one student really try to kill me, and after speaking to the boss man, decided that particular individual really has one chance left to redeem themself. Of course my gut warned me about that particular individual. When someone comes into a flight school and tells the flight instructor what kind of airplane they want to fly, managed to flood the engine trying to start it on their first flight with you, then ignores your instructions and rotates an airplane 20 knots below rotation speed on your next flight, you begin to have a problem. Of course my experiences are nothing compared to some of the people at our field.

On tuesday, I had the good fortune to meet Lt. Col Jim Lawrence, who is sort of a legend around these parts. Colonel Lawrence began his flying career in the Marines, flying F-8 Crusaders with VMFA-451 the Warlords on the East Coast. Unfortunately the East Coast Marines weren't seeing much action during the mid 60s, so Mr. Lawrence switched jets and ended up flying A-4s with VMA-211 the Wake Island Avengers in a place called Vietnam. On his second tour he decided he wanted to make more of a difference, so he transitioned to Marine O-1 Bird Dogs, and flew low and slow directing airstrikes with Willy Pete Rockets. After his Vietnam experiences Colonel Lawrence ended up switching to the Navy and flew A-7 Corsairs for awhile, before switching yet again to the Air National Guard, where he ended up flying A-10s in Desert Storm. I haven't spoken to him about his subsequent actions, but apparantly he managed to keep flying Warthogs into our little fracus with the Serbs. He is now a Corporate Captain with Bankers Trust. When I complimented the good Colonel for the fact that he managed to fly for all 3 services that had fast moving Jets, he smiled and said to me "I just couldn't hold a steady job."

Here is the interesting part. When I met Colonel I asked him if ever knew a fellow Marine Aviator by the name of Jay LaRue (my late stepfather). My departed stepfather flew with HMM-364 the Purple Foxes in Vietnam during the time Colonel Campbell was there during his second Vietnam Tour, and Colonel Campbell mentioned that he worked closely with them during that tour. We went to a computer where I pulled up a photo of my late stepfather, and sure enough, Colonel Campbell recognized him and said " Oh yeah I knew him allright." It was kinda sad because he's gone now, and even as I write this, I get a bit choked up. After I told my stepsister this, she said "it's like he's still watching over us." Colonel Campbell was kind enough to loan me a DVD which was put together depicting his Vietnam experiences. It begins during Advanced Training, where he is flying formation in T-2 Buckeyes with an instructor by the name of John McCain as his flight lead. The DVD then progresses to some shots of TF-9 Cougers, then Skyhawks in Vietnam, then some great shots from the O-1 flying low and slow. There's also quite a bit of footage of the fast movers doing their thing with Napalm, taken from the Bird Dog. It takes a pretty big pair of cojones to take a Cessna to war. To say I'm honored to meet the man is an understatement, I profusely thanked him for the DVD, as it is a piece of history depicting the life of an aviation legend. Still the most interesting thing is fact that he knew my late stepfather. It's not every day you travel across an ocean and continent, and run into an aviation legend who knew and served with a family member of yours.

Apparantly Clint Johnson is also in the area, as a new friend managed to meet the man and got him to autograph a copy of the latest Flight Journal depicting his victory over the Mig 17 with his Skyraider. I'll be on the lookout for folks with interesting histories, apparantly Cherokee County Airport in North Georgia is sort of a veteran pilot's Valhalla, so there may be some interesting encounters there soon. That's where Mr. Johnson keeps his Cessna.

Skysurfer808

[smartd]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

[roowalker]

Nice post!! My first encounter with a legend was at the age of 7.... I had just built my first model,(USS Missouri,Revell) and my grandfather offered to take mr to visit a "sailor" who rented a small house from him.(This was in Maryland a short distance from D.C. in 1955). That way I could show off my handiwork to a REAL NAVY MAN! Turned out the sailor was a REAL CAPTAIN!!! He fawned over my model with all the appropriate words to make a little kid very happy,and showed me a picture of HIS favorite ship,the original USS Enterprise. My Grandfather called the Captain "Wade" which I thought was a funny name at the time. Fast forward,to the age of 12..........Read Morisons book on Midway,and the Hero,possibly the one man responsible for the victory...Clarence WADE McCluskey..............Wish I had at least begged an autograph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Captain Eddie]

Great story, roowalker, told in real Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" fashion!

[DADoser]

VERY cool!

Both original post and Wade story. Thanks for sharing.