Page 109 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

“On graduation from Fighter Weapons School, my known each other for a long time. She had already
first duty station was Bitburg, Germany where I been teaching the fourth grade for three years and
was assigned to the 22nd Fighter Day Squadron. I had signed a contract to teach in Midland. I was on
met and flew with Buzz Aldrin and Ed White, who my way to Nellis, so we started writing to each other.
were future astronauts. Chuck Yeager flew in from a It wasn’t long until we became good friends. I was not
nearby base and joined us at the Officer’s Club. What familiar with how to ask someone to get married. So,
a wonderful time for young 2nd Lieutenants! We in one of my letters I wrote, ‘I guess we could just get
had three squadrons with the same mission. It was in married.’ And she wrote back, ‘Yes, I guess we can.’
the Cold War era, and we stood alert from sunup to We were married on August 16, 1957, and she moved
sundown in the F-86 and checked out in the F-100C to Nevada in November 1957. By then, I was a 1st
later. We flew along the Russian border and could see Lieutenant and an instructor in the Fighter Weapons
their contrails above us. We were flying at 37,000 feet School. I was there three months when one of the
(about the cruising altitude of a commercial jet); the newly assigned Thunderbird pilots was killed in a
Russians were flying a couple thousand feet above us. training flight. I was asked to take his place.
Following that three-year tour, I rotated to the States
in May 1957. “I discussed the assignment and the mission of
the Thunderbirds with Jo. They are also known as
“I met my future wife, Jolene (Jo) Kirkpatrick, in the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron,
Plainview when John Hayes introduced us. He and and their mission is to plan and fly precision aerial
I were in the first grade together at Kress School and maneuvers to exhibit the capabilities of modern,
were good friends. When I met the tall, pretty lady, high-performance aircraft and the high degree of
I said to myself, ‘I think I will marry her one day.’ professional skill required to operate those aircrafts.
We knew many of the same friends and felt we had The team was on a strict schedule prepared by the

IS NEVER FREE.

We salute the members of a proud veteran fraternity that began in 1776.

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