So There I Was . . .

Marine Harrier pilot stories usually start in a cockpit. This one starts with a Navy recruiter blocking a hallway. Wait, what? Actually, Buggsy walked into the recruiting station to join the Marines. The Marine recruiter was out PT-ing. Consequently, a “fast-talking squid in his Good Humor uniform” signed him up for the Navy instead. It worked out. Buggsy turned wrenches on A-6 Intruders with VA-75, the Sunday Punchers. He launched […]

Episode 214 is packed with everything that makes aviation storytelling great: close calls, call signs, Harrier legends, and plenty of laughs along the way. Fig and RePete kick things off by reflecting on their trip to the AV-8B Harrier Sundown celebration at MCAS Cherry Point, marking the end of an iconic chapter in Marine Corps aviation. The guys share some behind-the-scenes thoughts from the event and discuss future plans to […]

The stories told by Marine Corps aviators who flew during the Vietnam War are the kind that make younger pilots stop mid-sip and listen in absolute awe. In Episode 213, Fig and RePete have the immense honor of sitting down with retired Colonel Bill Wehrung, “Horny” — an 87-year-old Naval Academy graduate, Marine A-4 Skyhawk driver, Vietnam combat veteran, and a living piece of aviation history. From flying before NATOPS […]

It starts with a simple aviation truth: the procedures matter because the aircraft do not care about your confidence. Consequently, Fig & RePete walk through how a bad rejoin, a bad angle, and bad timing can stack up fast. They also talk through why four aviators got out alive, which is the best ending any bad day can ask for.Actually, the episode does not stay in one lane for long. […]

Brain joins us to talk about Marine aviation over the last 35 years. Consequently, the conversation turns into a time machine through flight school disasters, deployment memories, and the strange logic behind becoming a military test pilot.   We start north of Kandahar and immediately settle into the kind of storytelling that only happens after too much coffee and too many flight hours. Furthermore, there are stories about Bulldog, VMU-2, […]

Bonk, Top Gun, Marine MAWTS-1 and Test Pilot Stories kick off with him bobbing in the Pacific after less than 500 flight hours in total flight time! Actually, that’s just the warmup. This week on So There I Was, Fig and RePete sit down with Bonk, a former Test Pilot School graduate, Top Gun instructor, and MAWTS pilot whose career somehow became more insane every decade. One minute he’s failing […]

This week kicks off with Kemo back in the saddle, and it goes sideways immediately! Actually, this one starts fast. No warmup. No easing in. Just straight into stories that make you stop and go, wait… what? Kemo’s back. And if you’ve heard him before, you already know this is going to be ridiculous. If you haven’t—well, buckle up. This is one of those episodes where the stories don’t just […]

Doober comes back to tell of his acquisition of former US Marine Corps H-34 helicopter, YL-37. The helicopter restoration story starts with a mission that sounds simple. It is not. Actually, it quickly turns into a “wait, what?” situation. This episode picks up with Doober and the ongoing saga of bringing YL-37 back from the brink. The aircraft is not just old. It is stubborn. Furthermore, every step forward seems […]

This is part two with Al Cisneros, and this time, it opens in a hurry. No notice. Grab the jet. Haul critical intel. Get it to Saigon—fast. Actually, what starts as a straightforward courier mission quickly takes on weight. The tasking is urgent, the stakes are real, and the realization hits that this flight matters far beyond just flying from point A to point B. Furthermore, that opening story sets […]

This episode drops you straight into one of those situations pilots train for—but hope never happens. A routine mission turns serious fast when the fuel state stops being a number and starts becoming a problem. Not a “tight on gas” problem. A zero fuel over hostile territory problem. And now the math matters. Range, burn rate, options… none of them look good. As the situation unfolds, you’ll hear how quickly […]