Cassi Creek: another
morning with a chance to sleep in was nice.
But I seem to be keyed to waking up about 0530 -0630 independently of
opportunity to sleep.
About 0.1
inch of snow fell overnight. It seems to
have vanished now (1140). That’s
good. Even that little bit of snow can
cause people to do crazy things in cars and trucks. Add the snow to the self-images that make
every other driver here believe that they are qualified to drive NASCAR, and
that the local roads can be used in lieu of a dedicated, enclosed race
track. It is easy to see how tenuous and
dicey the roads may become.
Stephen
Stills sprang to mind today. I was
somehow reminded of FAC pilots I knew.
They were amazing fliers who provided on-site target definition,
spotting and marking the actual targets, then doing real time BDA. They flew tiny, unarmed aircraft low and
slow, facing enemy fire and the hazards inherent in flying at such altitudes
while keeping track of the ground, the enemy, our forces, and the fast-movers
who had the ordinance. We’d see them pop
up over the trees, vanish below them, and worry until we saw them pop up
again. They carried no weapons except a
personal weapon and marking rockets.
Here’s what
became of some of the pilots who served in RVN.
The aircraft pictured in this video is a WWII era
fighter. But the flight levels provide
some idea of the demands the FAC pilots faced daily
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfkR0U2VnSs
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