Author: sothereiwas

Semper Gumby wasn’t just a joke. It was John “Sticks” Hall’s real motto. This episode is 88% dedicated to the man who lived it. Pete and Fig open with a hard truth. This summer dealt the “So There I Was” crew three losses in a row. Sticks always said it comes in threes. He wasn’t wrong. Semper Gumby: The Man Behind the Callsign Jeff Manternak, Sticks’ brother-in-law, delivered the eulogy […]

5 Feet — that’s the altitude Roadrunner held on a self-appointed decoy mission in Vietnam, and it’s the heart of Episode 227. It’s also the reason he walked away with a Bronze Star. This week, RePete and Fig welcome Chuck Howard, callsign Roadrunner. He flew with the 175th Assault Helicopter Company, earning two Bronze Stars and 25 Air Medals for valor. Roadrunner’s path started on a Jersey City hammock, watching […]

Farewell Sticks is the hardest episode we’ve ever had to record. On August 20th, we lost our friend, producer, and co-host John “Sticks” Hall in a small plane crash near Bristol, Maine. His son Tyler was flying with him and survived with minor injuries. We’re not speculating on cause. Actually, we’re not speculating on anything about that day. What we can tell you: it was a Diamond DA20, Sticks bought […]

He Who Dies with the Most Laugh Wrinkles Wins isn’t just a punchline. It’s the actual motto behind this episode. Chill-Rob McD grew up on Staten Island. Officer training, he jokes, was spent “validating the left side of the bell curve.” Now he joins the show to talk C-141s, close calls, and the book he wrote about surviving both. Chill-Rob almost washed out of OTS at Lackland. Marching did him […]

Race to the Shear Switch is exactly what it sounds like. You either cut the cable, or the cable decides your night for you. On Episode 224, retired Coast Guard helicopter pilot Larry Hall makes that call for real. Actually, this episode opens rough. Co-host Fig joins fresh off a highway wreck, rear-ended by a Peterbilt into another rig. However, he’s already cracking jokes about mistaking himself for Captain Kirk […]

This week’s Coast Guard aviation stories come courtesy of a special guest co-host: Deuce, a newly retired Coast Guard aviator (and, briefly, the service’s senior space attorney). Sticks and Bago hold down the fort while Deuce walks through the Coast Guard’s oddball, everything-service mission set — including how commercial space launches are about to become a Coast Guard headache. From there it’s classic So There I Was territory: sleeping inside […]

Fig Eye Injury Update: The Latest This week brings a much-needed Fig eye injury update. Last week, Fig was in a serious car accident. RePete doesn’t dive into the details of the crash itself here. Instead, he shares an honest, hopeful picture of where things stand today. Fig lost the lens in his left eye and most of his iris. His eye is currently filled with blood, which must drain […]

RePete opens the show and a call with Sticks about buying an airplane. Apparently, Sticks needed an airplane-shaped hole in his finances! Before that, two quick health check-ins: Fig is nursing an eye injury (prescription: beach time, not flight time). Meanwhile, Bago is recovering from a pathologic knee fracture, mistaken for arthritis for weeks. Good news — the lesion’s benign, and he’ll be back producing the show soon. Then things […]

Just a short update to tell you about a very bad crash that Fig survived yesterday – 16 July – but not without some serious injuries and challenges ahead!

This week on So There I Was, we’ve got three stories that cover the full range of aviation life — from Harrier Sundown memories in North Carolina, to an Army helicopter tale that takes a sharp turn – a listener-submitted story that proves the best ones are often the ones we never saw coming. Putty gets us started with a Harrier story that reminds us why these episodes matter: the […]