Author: sothereiwas

What’s the worst part about being a Blue Angel? Get the unbelievable answer here. And what’s the best part? Lawman says it’s completing a successful tour with the team. We say the corollary is the camaraderie that comes with professionals doing what appears to be impossible and making it look easy, all while holding each other to the highest standard, and of course tormenting each other relentlessly. You will howl […]

Fatty joins the show this week to talk about how he became a Guardsman – and the benefits thereof. He tells how plans went awry when the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission) got rid of his F-15 Squadron while he was in flight school and how he managed to adapt and overcome. When he found himself in Afghanistan over Christmas of ~2010 Fatty found entertainment in providing roofies to […]

In our second hour with Lawman, things get real. This episode is not entirely comprised of our usual light-hearted hijinks and buffoonery – though we throw some in for good measure. Lawman details months of training aboard the USS Nassau, and losing a squadron mate, Buick, during a night training sortie in the lead-up to Gulf War I. Spending months aboard the boat before the war without going ashore was maddening. […]

Lawman sat with us for more than 5 hours to discuss his unique career before becoming a Blue Angel; and how he got to fly almost every plane in the Marine Corps inventory in Afghanistan. We will break this into about five shows and likely intersperse other shows in between. Lawman is a natural storyteller; he had us howling with laughter and choking up in despair. You’ll hear how his upbringing set him up for success in […]

Double-L of the “Hollywood Guard” regales us with stories from Marine bootcamp to doing really dangerous things like fighting fires with an airplane… “More dangerous than combat.” When you are flying and you feel the heat of the fire it causes you to reconsider the intelligence of your life-choices. Getting to Bagram Air Base, Double-L soon learned he was on the bottom of the Commanding General’s shit-list without even trying…. […]

We are joined by Author, Viper & Phantom Driver, and exceptional story-teller, “Jedi” this week. Jedi tells of the adventures of flying the Phantom and the Viper in the Air National Guard. What’s amazing this week is how a chance meeting in a Navy O-Club bar comes full circle almost 40 years later. And Jedi then relates another incident where he was accused of ‘buzzing’ a beach, that comes full […]

Another first for the show! This week “Father” joins Fig and Repete in the first Air Force pilot interview on So There I Was. Father flew the F-15 Eagle acquiring 3800+ hours and was the Squadron Commander in St. Louis, MO when he finished his career. Father had the misfortune of being the witness to an accident so mystifying at the time the Air Force Grounded the entire fleet of […]

This is the second half of our time with “Nasty;” the former Commanding Officer of VF-31, The USS Sacramento, The USS Nimitz and a Strike Group aboard the USS Eisenhower. He tells of the time he ejected from an F-14 over the shark-infested waters of the Pacific. He describes why “Nuke-School” is hard – and the benefits thereof. And he tells us what the “Best Job in the Galaxy, HANDS-DOWN” […]