Thursday, June 2, 2016

This Hurts...

Maybe I will post later, maybe I won't.

Another good man has entered the clearing at the end of the path.

The Blues have always been my favorites. I have loved them since I was a young boy.

This truly feels like a death in the family...

High Flight 

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. 

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, 
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - 
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. 
Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along 
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

"Up, up the long delirious burning blue 
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, 
where never lark, or even eagle, flew; 
and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod 
the high untrespassed sanctity of space, 
put out my hand and touched the face of God."

Captain Jeff Kuss, USMC, the opposing solo pilot (Number 6 jet) has been identified as the pilot who went down in Tennessee on Thursday.


Prayers are offered for his family and his friends, Godspeed Captain Kuss.

Semper Fi


  1. It was a bad day all around, my friend.

  2. Yes, it does hurt. We just lost a Brother!

  3. Just another reminder that there is nothing that is "routine" when flying high performance aircraft. A key fifty-cent grommet can fail and depending on alt & airspeed it can go South fast--even when it's clear and a million...It happened to my cousin Lt Gen Talbott once when he was an O-6 in 100Cs and he was fortunate to end up hanging from some peach trees down in Georgia on t.o. from Moody with only minor injuries (and those were the days before zero-zero seats)

  4. None of us know the moment and the hour.

  5. There have been ~297 pilots in the Blue Angels team - 27 have died - not sure the SEALs have that level of danger in their profession.

    I watched Kojsk G-Loc in Beaufort in 2007 and had met him the day before - its a dangerous business. RIP guys.


Can't be nice, go somewhere else...
