This Hurts...

Maybe I will post later, maybe I won't.

Another good man has entered the clearing at the end of the path.

The Blues have always been my favorites. I have loved them since I was a young boy.

This truly feels like a death in the family...

High Flight 

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. 

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, 

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds - 

and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - 

wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. 

Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along 

and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

"Up, up the long delirious burning blue 

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, 

where never lark, or even eagle, flew; 

and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod 

the high untrespassed sanctity of space, 

put out my hand and touched the face of God."

Update:

Captain Jeff Kuss, USMC, the opposing solo pilot (Number 6 jet) has been identified as the pilot who went down in Tennessee on Thursday.

(Source)

Prayers are offered for his family and his friends, Godspeed Captain Kuss.

Semper Fi