Today we had a very special field trip - one of my coworkers is a retired F16 fighter pilot and we got to take a tour of Lackland AFB and check things out. We saw simulators (some of us experienced the simulators), walked around the airfield with the F16s and had lots of fun. It was very cool indeed to tour the base where my Daddy went through basic training. Here are the pictures:
Carlos getting suited up for the parachute training simulator
Nuff said.
Pretty good photography here if I do say so myself - we were always in a hurry since you obviously can't go wandering around a military installation without an escort, especially on an airfield
Chris showing us the business end of a heat-seeking missile
This is just for you, Daddy! It was painted on the side of the aircraft we were looking at and I got a little verklempt :)
So several flights landed right by us as we were out checking out the planes and this guy took the cake. I didn't get a good picture of it but he started hamming it up the minute he realized we were taking photographs of him. Love it!
It was a wonderful day and every single person we met in uniform was as polite and gracious as could be - they were also quite excited when they found out we were from USAA. And our fearless leader for the day, currently a Lieutenant Colonel who trains fighter pilots, was a Texas A&M graduate!
(I could swear the kid at the security check as we came on base wasn't old enough to have a driver's license, much less tote an M16, but I think that just means I'm a grown-up now). Besides, I have seen pictures and that is pretty much exactly what my own Daddy looked like when he was an Airman. *Sigh*
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