What follows isn't designed to take away from the excellent raid this month. It rambles a bit, so bear with me.
To my fellow pilots old, new, and retired -
Years ago I had the opportunity to jump into being a bomber, (mission 3 or 4 I think) like many of you. It was thrilling as we all waited anxiously for a target to be announced, bombings to commence, and the wait for detonation. Detonation Fridays were one big refresh fest.
Highlights for me include the secret BH raid and my last raid as a co-commander: Operation Ketchup.
About the BH raid...
That year many of us reprobates individually decided BH needed to get hit. For those of you who are new the details in all their glory are here: https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t20548-let-s-bomb-blackhorse-secret-squadron-attack-of-doom-group. It's an excellent bit of history.
After BH retired, I had the opportunity to co-command this group with Jesse Jones, an honor that was all mine.
Well, life got busy. My kids got busy. Work went nuts. My wife's work went nuts. I had to bow out of command after a year. At the minimum I could still participate in most missions. This was good. It was difficult to sit out.
Of note: drumsandbeer does a better job at comand than I did. All I did was warm the seat as it were (sorry about the smell).
All that to say, I'll be adding to all of that crazy with seminary and a newish job. April's mission will be my last for a long time. You are a fun bunch of people and I am glad to have created some cheerful mayhem and memories with you.
I'll miss this. I truly will.
Gravel