Page 41 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2023 - Online Magazine

wonderful time for young 2nd Lieutenants! We had had signed a contract to teach in Midland. I was on
three squadrons with the same mission. It was in my way to Nellis, so we started writing to each other.
the Cold War era, and we stood alert from sunup to It wasn’t long until we became good friends. I was not
sundown in the F-86 and checked out in the F-100C familiar with how to ask someone to get married. So,
later. We flew along the Russian border and could see in one of my letters I wrote, ‘I guess we could just get
their contrails above us. We were flying at 37,000 feet married.’ And she wrote back, ‘Yes, I guess we can.’
(about the cruising altitude of a commercial jet); the We were married on August 16, 1957, and she moved
Russians were flying a couple thousand feet above us. to Nevada in November 1957. By then, I was a 1st
Following that three-year tour, I rotated to the States Lieutenant and an instructor in the Fighter Weapons
in May 1957. School. I was there three months when one of the
newly assigned Thunderbird pilots was killed in a
“I met my future wife, Jolene (Jo) Kirkpatrick, in training flight. I was asked to take his place.
Plainview when John Hayes introduced us. He and
I were in the first grade together at Kress School and “I discussed the assignment and the mission of
were good friends. When I met the tall, pretty lady, the Thunderbirds with Jo. They are also known as
I said to myself, ‘I think I will marry her one day.’ the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron,
We knew many of the same friends and felt we had and their mission is to plan and fly precision aerial
known each other for a long time. She had already maneuvers to exhibit the capabilities of modern,
been teaching the fourth grade for three years and high-performance aircraft and the high degree of

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Lubbock Senior Link 41