The Friday Flyby - 22 March

Oui, Mesdames et Messieurs, it's time for another "Friday Flyby". Just a couple of notes before we get started. The new logo you see above the awesome Phantom picture is something which I have designed specially for the "Friday Flyby". When you see that logo, you'll know it's an authentic Old AF Sarge Friday Flyby and not some cheap knock-off from a sweat-shop in some dirt poor 3rd World nation.

Now in that logo there are two things I want to point out. Though it is very small, the aircraft depicted is the Lockheed P-2 Neptune, in other words, one of these - 

The reason that particular aircraft is in the logo is simple and goes with the other thing I wanted to point out. Just underneath the Neptune, you may be able to just make out the text "H/T to joeh!". (I don't think you'll be able to make this out on a cell phone, unless you can zoom WAY in.) Anyway "joeh" is our own Cranky old man, who gave me the idea for the "Friday Flyby" theme. The next day I mentioned to (not necessarily your) Uncle Skip that I should include some kind of credit to Joe for the idea. This is it.

And the Neptune? Joe mentioned that his brother had been a Captain in the Navy (back in the day) and "was a navigator in a P something-something following Russian subs for probably 12 hour or more shifts". I kind of assumed (given the time frame) that it was probably the P-2 which Joe was referring to. So it's a tribute to Joe's brother as well, who is no longer with us. So that's the introduction to the new "Friday Flyby" logo along with the back story. Now onto the meat of today's post.

Now the really big news today is this:

It has been one year since I started this blog. At the time, I started out with these thoughts rolling around inside my head:

What the Hell am I thinking? A blog? Isn't that like an every-damn-day kind of thing? I must be out of my mind.

Then there was the reason I was starting. To attempt (in my very small way) to honor the memory of a friend who was no longer with us, a friend who was an amazing writer, Naval Aviator, officer, husband and Dad. (Most of you should know of whom I speak, those who don't should be able to figure it out.) So it's something I wanted to try but because of the reason for wanting to try, I didn't want it to, ya know, suck.

Well, it doesn't, as far as I know, suck. I have some very loyal readers who actually take time out of their busy days to read my sometimes unfocused and chaotic musings, ramblings and "war stories". (That's "sea stories" to my aquatic friends. And you know who you are.)

It's also, dare I say it, fun! Well, it can be. Sometimes these posts seem to write themselves. I get a certain spark or idea and then it just starts to flow. But there are those posts which started well, yet linger still in that half-world of the draft post. Still around but sitting there, waiting. Waiting to perhaps one day be completed and published. Or, perhaps given up on and deleted. (I don't do that much, maybe twice in the entire 12 months I've been doing this. I don't like throwing things away. Ask my wife or take a look at my computer room.)

The writing seems to come fairly easily when that creative spark is there. And it doesn't take much to get the creative "juices" flowing. Sometimes it's provided by my accomplices fellow bloggers. They'll write about something, something which lends itself to copying and expanding upon and I'll do so. Posts like this and this are examples of that.

And totally off topic and completely out of the blue - a little something, hand selected by me, for Virgil Xenophon (old Phantom jock and Friend of the Blog)...

497th Tactical Fighter Squadron 8 December 1965 – 16 September 1974 (F-4C/D Tail Code: FP)
8th Tactical Fighter Wing
Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand
(Well it is the Friday Flyby, innit?)

So it's been one year. How about that? For those who wish to reminisce, here's the link to that very first post, one year ago today. One more thing, I just checked, this is post number 301! (Update: No it isn't. Never mind. I went a little dyslexic when I wrote this. It's actually #287, still seems kind of cool to me, but what do I know?)

My hope is that I get to keep doing this and that y'all keep reading. I'll end this post as I ended that very first post, one year ago this very day...

...to honor The Man Himself...

Here's to You Lex!