Was in Walmart yesterday and seen this older man wearing a baseball cap with USS Midway (picture of the Carrier and it number (CV41) and on the bill, one set of scrambled eggs denoting either a Commander or Captain. Turns out he was a Navy Fighter and Bomber Pilot. He flew F-4 and F-8 off of the Midway during Vietnam. He showed us a photo of both jets with his name on the side. He went to Flight Training School and done so well, he was recommended to Top Gun School. He graduated at the top of his class their, before reporting to the Midway. He done numerous "missions" over Vietnam, including some "sorties". During one mission, where he dropped 6 bombs over NVA, and after returning to the Carrier, his Captain told him he had received word that he had killed many NVA. During another mission, where, for some reason, he still had five out of six bombs left on his aircraft, he unloaded all five off of the coast, into the water, and local South Vietnam fisherman loved all of the dead fish that surfaced from it. We had never met someone like this before. It was truly an honor speaking to him! He told us that he misses the old days and thinks about them often.
This Navy pilot/Commander was as interesting to talk to as the men we talked to while living in Jacksonville, Florida. One man, at a Denny's, helped off-load troops at Normandy Beach during WWII. Told us how he had to maneuver around American solders dead/floating in the water, in order to off-load the men he was carrying. Another gentleman, that I notice had two sets of "scrambled eggs" on his ball cap bill, which noted that he had been an Admiral, was, at one time, in-charge of the Mayport Naval Station, then transferred to the Pentagon, where he retired. Looked his name up on Wikipedia, and sure enough, there he was! Another gentleman, shopping at Petco, was in his barracks in Pearl Harbor playing cards, when the entire side of the barracks was blown out during the Japanese attack. We were at a Cosco and met the Captain of the original USS America Carrier, before it was decommissioned.