Just a story my Dad used to tell

[TonyK]

This story takes place in the early 70's and used to be told every time the brothers were together and usually later in the evening after a few beers loosened them up. My father flew B52s out of Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, NC and my uncle was flying out of Burlington, VT for the VTANG in F102s. One night my father was supposed to be doing a cross country low level run starting up in Maine and ending someplace out west. After getting on station over Maine he was informed that the mission was scrubbed and he was done for the night. While planning his return back to NC he received amended orders to fly over to Vermont and loiter around the state so the VTANG F102 pilots who were out on maneuvers could get some practice doing air intercepts and simulated missile runs on a live bomber sized target. They headed on over and set up in a large fat duck holding pattern and rang up the flight leader of the VTANG guys to work out how it was all going to go down. The flight leader rang up my dad and instantly my father knew that he was talking to his brother who was formed up on his wing just a few hundred yards away. My uncle then explained that this was going to be scored and used in their air combat proficiency review set for later that week and it would be great if he could just fly along and make it easy. Being brothers and somewhat competitive they both went off to duel it out in the sky over the mountains that they grew up hunting and fishing in and may the best man win. While the VTANG guys were going out and getting settled in for their first run my father called up the EWO on the comm and informed him that if one of those blankity blanking VTANG guys score as much as one hit on them that he would make his life a living hell until such time as he could figure out a way to get him transferred to Guam and turned him lose on the unsuspecting VTANG guys who were thinking this was going to be a walk in the park........They never scored so much as a single hit on them.

 

I was reminded of this story a few weeks go by my father who retold it at the service for my uncle who had passed. The men may pass but the stories live on.

 

In memory of

Brig Gen USAF Rich Kenney Ret.

[par]

Love reading this stuff on military aviation of the past. Those guys lived through an era in aviation that will not be matched again until we are able to seriously start exploring space. Great story!

Edited April 7, 2017 by par