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 strikes off the USS John F. Kennedy on station off Beirut. Furthermore, he kept firing off officer applications the whole cruise. Snail mail killed his Academy and ROTC deadlines. However, a little-known program called BOOST came through. One commissioning later, he finally became the Marine he set out to be.
Then it gets stranger. Buggsy flew Harriers in True Lies. Yes, that True Lies. There’s even a photo of Jamie Lee Curtis with her arms around him. Tough life, but someone had to do it.
This week, Fig and RePete drag Buggsy back to the mic fresh from the Harrier Sundown. Six hundred people at the gala, several 37-year reunions; Not one speech at the ceremony itself, which everyone agreed was perfect. Meanwhile, every jet Buggsy ever flew is now razor blades or a statue at a museum. Ouch!
Of course, there are flying stories. A two-ship picks up so much ice that Buggsy’s canopy fogs solid. He scrapes a peephole and hangs on, welded wing, into Cecil Field. Later, two fishermen on Lake Okeechobee get the lowest, fastest flyby of their lives. They’re probably still telling that story too.
Add in OCS canteen torture, a tampon that survived an entire TBS inspection cycle, and a Basic School company that produced nine Harrier pilots and one Commandant.
So pour something brown and hit play. Episode 215 is the bar story that keeps topping itself.
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