An Affair To Remember

We called her the white rocket, and for many of us, she was our first true love.  She was sleek, sexy, and fast.  When you climbed the ladder into her cockpit, wearing a flight suit, g-suit, parachute, and helmet, and strapped into her, you were tense with apprehension, sweaty with fear, brain buzzing with procedures, excited with anticipation.  We also privately called her a bitch and a whore, because she could kill you, too, and she did kill some friends of mine.  When you rolled her over on her back and pulled her nose down, and shoved her throttles into afterburner, you’d be supersonic in a couple of seconds.  As we said, she flew like a bat out of hell.

AWOL 21 is a story about that love affair.  I posted the first chapter under Bits and PIeces.  As far as I can tell, this is the only story of its kind.  I’ve re-written it so many times, I’m not sure I can do it again.  Some of it might not make sense to someone who isn’t a pilot, but that’s OK.  It didn’t make any sense at the time, either.