I think of those series of "memories" every time I see this photo of the F-14 Tomcat making a flyby of the carrier just as another F-14 Tomcat seems to be preparing to launch. I imagine that first Tomcat left a jet exhaust wake that affected the flight performance of the launching Tomcat.
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/Still/1987/Navy/DN-SC-87-06104.JPEG
ID: DN-SC-87-06104
Service Depicted: Navy
An F-14A TOMCAT aircraft flies by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69). In the foreground another F-14A is positioned for LAUNCH.
Camera Operator: PH3 LOSHAW
Date Shot: 1 Feb 1985
I recognize the date 5/1/1967 as when I first flew a fighter jet by myself.
From 5/1/1967 to 12/21/1970 is: 3 years, 33 weeks, 3 days
3-3-3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-14
Maiden flight 21 December 1970
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable geometry wing aircraft. The F-14 was the United States Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform from 1972 to 2006. It later performed precision strike missions once it was integrated with LANTIRN.[2] It was developed after the collapse of the F-111B project, and was the first of the American teen-series fighters which were designed incorporating the experience of air combat in Vietnam against MiGs.
From 3/3/1959 to 7/3/1962 is: 3 years, 122 days
122 / 365 = 0.334
From 3/3/1959 to 7/3/1962 is: 3.334 years
33-34
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000129/
Tom Cruise
Date of Birth: 3 July 1962
Top Gun (1986) .... Maverick
These dates for “Top Gun” reflects the love interest of “Maverick” to my real birthday and then in comparison to the birthdates for the actress that portrayed “Goose’s” wife with the birth date of Phoebe. There are probably little details Phoebe will pick up on too, if she knows now what to look for. For example, I wonder about the brown leather jacket "Charlie" wears that seems to have a U.S. Navy officer's crest on the collar as well as some form of pilots wings. I wonder if Phoebe wore one of my jackets like that.
From 7/9/1957 to 3/3/1959 is: 602 days
From 11/19/1961 to 7/16/1963 is: 604 days
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000534/
Kelly McGillis
Date of Birth: 9 July 1957
Top Gun (1986) .... Charlie
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000212/
Meg Ryan
Date of Birth: 19 November 1961
Top Gun (1986) .... Carole
I recognize the date 1/21/1976 as when I first landed on the planet Mars. I was 16 years old at the time.
From 2/2/1974 to 1/21/1976 is: 718 days
718 / 2 = 359
3-59
http://www.f-16.net/timeline.html
F-16 Timeline
2 Feb 1974
Official first flight of the YF-16 protoype (#72-1567), with test pilot Phil Oestricher at the controls, reaching 400 mph and 30,000 feet.
That serial number '1567' for the first F-16 Falcon fighter jet prototype reminds me of 1 May 1967. I'm not sure when the U.S. Navy began using the F-16, but I think it was designed originally for the U.S. Air Force, so it is curious that this fighter jet has a relationship with a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.
From 2/2/1974 11/11/1989 is: 15 years, 9 months, 9 days
9 / 30 = 0.3 month
From 2/2/1974 11/11/1989 is: 15 years, 9.3 months
1-59-3
http://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn72.html
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)
USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN is the fifth ship in the NIMITZ - class of nuclear powered aircraft carriers.
Commissioned: Nov. 11, 1989
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-16
Maiden flight 1974-02-02
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter aircraft developed by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin for the United States Air Force.
I found a reference on the internet indicating that "Katie" was the girlfriend of "Doug Masters" in the 1986 movie "Iron Eagle." I assume that is because "Katie" is similar to Cates or Katz. The actress who portrayed "Katie" was born 59 days after 5/1/1967, which is the day I recognize I first flew a fighter jet by myself, when I was 8.16 years old. The plot of "Iron Eagle" centers on the star, who is also a young and capable pilot of jet aircraft, which in the case of the movie is the F-16 Fighting Falcon. I have been thinking that I first flew the F-5 Tiger jet, although I was probably flying the F-4 Phantom II not long after and I think that is what I was flying on 6/19/1968. I was probably also flying the A-6 Intruder into the Vietnam War, as well. I don't know if that all was part of some process to harden me for my mission to the comet or if I was doing that all on my own, somehow. We probably pondered in the years afterwards that if I had been killed during the Vietnam War, that conflict would have doomed the planet. There are probably other people that could be trained to navigate through that comet, but at the time, I was the only person we knew of that had a good chance to succeed. My thoughts suggest that I transmitted back telemetry from my flights into the comet, of which I made 4 flights beginning 7/2/1976, but no one on Earth could successfully navigate through the simulator of the comet. I have also been thinking that all is where the star field graphics from the original "Star Trek" comes from. I don't think you would actually see the stars flying by like that. I think that is all part of some kind of software I was creating in the 60's and 70's to train for the flights into the comet. I did come up with another theory a few years ago that perhaps if you did travel at faster-than-light speeds, you would gain so much mass that you would become larger than normal, on a tremendous scale. The reason you would see the stars flying by like in "Star Trek" is because you are so much larger than everything else, for example, perhaps you were a million times larger when traveling at faster-than-light than when not traveling so fast. I haven't thought it out as much as I want to because I start feeling some kind of walls forming around this thought process, but it seems to me if you were a million times larger, you wouldn't necessary be traveling at such a great speed; rather you would simply have a shorter distance to travel. It has something to do with the principle of how the outer edge of an automobile tire is traveling at a different speed than the inner part. Who knows what I am trying to remember. I also remember thinking around that time that if gravity can bend light, then who really knows how large is the universe, because you only assume that the light has traveled a straight line from the emitter to the observer. So I might have been trying to remember something I worked on long ago and decided that it was a pointless theory but yet I have forgotten that it was a pointless theory. As I was thinking about all that a while back, the thoughts began occurring to me that faster-than-light travel is not supposed to be possible because electrons do not travel faster than the speed of light and it is electrons than transfer energy to the atom. So I wondered if there was some way to mimic the way the mitochondria transfer energy to biological cells and I haven't had any more ideas on that topic. So anyway, I think that star field graphic that is familiar to "Star Trek" fans was actually the comet flight simulator I created several decades ago. I don't think you would actually see such a sight under normal circumstances while traveling through the galaxy. I think the question is who would come up with such an idea as that star field in the original "Star Trek" series.
From 5/1/1967 to 6/29/1967 is: 59 days
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002124/
Melora Hardin
Date of Birth: 29 June 1967
Iron Eagle (1986) .... Katie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087363/
Gremlins (1984)
Release Date: 8 June 1984 (USA)
Phoebe Cates ... Kate Beringer
The star of "Iron Eagle" was born 5.93 years after me.
From 3/3/1959 to 2/7/1965 is: 5 years, 341 days
341 / 365 = 0.93
From 3/3/1959 to 2/7/1965 is: 5.93 years
59-3
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001263/
Jason Gedrick
Date of Birth: 7 February 1965
Iron Eagle (1986) .... Doug Masters
From 5/28/1982 to 1/17/1986 (Friday) is: 3 years, 33 weeks, 3 days
33-34 (objective)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091278/
Iron Eagle (1986)
Release Date: 17 January 1986 (USA)
The Air Force base "Doug Master" lived on was in a town named Alta Vista.
From 5/17/1924 to 3/4/1959 is: 15 days, 9 months, 34 years
1-59-34
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/zcl_1_results.jsp
ZIP Code™ Matches in ALTAVISTA, VA
24517
What I first thought when I saw this name was 'T. Hatcher.' I went back to review the movie and the character "Edward Thatcher" was the class valedictorian of "Doug Masters" class. There is also Margaret Thatcher, who was the British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0285243/
Jay Footlik
Iron Eagle (1986) .... Thatcher
From 12/8/1964 (Teri) to 8/25/1968 (Rachael) is: 1356 days
1356 / 2 = 678
From 7/3/1970 ("Joenie") to 5/11/1972 ("Tally") is: 678 days
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809938/
Shawnee Smith
Date of Birth: 3 July 1970
Iron Eagle (1986) .... Joenie
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0352048/
Heather Haase
Date of Birth: 11 May 1972
Iron Eagle (1986) .... Tally
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000159/
Teri Hatcher
Date of Birth: 8 December 1964
"Desperate Housewives" .... Susan Mayer
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1301904/
Rachael Ray
Date of Birth: 25 August 1968
"Rachael Ray" .... Herself
From 3/3/1959 to 7/27/1972 is: 13 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 3 days
1-34-33
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-15_Eagle
Maiden flight 27 July 1972
The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is an all-weather tactical fighter designed to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It was developed for the U.S. Air Force, and first flew in July 1972. The F-15E Strike Eagle derivative is an all-weather strike fighter that entered service in 1989.
http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/eagle.htm
F-15 Eagle Tactical Fighter
First flight: July 27, 1972
I recognize the date 1/21/1976 as when I landed on the planet Mars for the first time.
From 1/21/1976 to 11/18/1978 is: 33 months, 4 weeks
3-3-4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F/A-18_Hornet
Maiden flight 18 November 1978
The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is a modern all-weather carrier-capable strike fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. Designed in the 1970s for service with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, the Hornet is also used by the air forces of several other nations. It has been the aerial demonstration aircraft for the Blue Angels since 1986. Its primary missions are fighter escort, fleet air defense, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), interdiction, close air support and reconnaissance. Its versatility and reliability have proven it to be a valuable carrier asset, though it has been criticized for its lack of range and payload compared to its contemporaries.[1] The Hornet has also been exported to several nations worldwide.
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/fa18/fa18_milestones.htm
F/A-18 Hornet
Milestones
Nov. 18, 1978 - The F-18A Hornet makes its first flight, taking off from Lambert International Airport with McDonnell Aircraft chief test pilot Jack Krings at the controls.
From 3/3/1959 to 5/1/1967 is: 2981 days (8 years, 59 days)
From 3/3/1959 to 8/30/1983 is: 8946 days
2981 / 8946 = 0.333
3-3-3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-8
Launch: August 30, 1983
Landing: September 5, 1983
STS-8 was the eighth Space Shuttle mission, the third for Challenger. It conducted the first night launch and night landing.
The commander of space shuttle flight STS-8 graduated college in 1959 and his first assignment as a pilot in the U.S. Navy was to fly the F-8 Crusader with Fighter Squadron 33. The pilot of STS-8 became a U.S. Navy pilot in May 1967 after he went on active duty in the Navy in September 1965. I was born 3/3/1959, I recognize 5/1/1967 as when I first flew a jet by myself and I started Princeton University on 9/2/1965.
From 1/4/1967 to 3/4/1967 is: 59 days
From 3/3/1967 to 5/1/1967 is: 59 days
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_%28album%29
Released January 4, 1967
The Doors is the debut album by the band The Doors, released in 1967. It features the breakthrough single "Light My Fire"
From 3/3/1959 to 6/19/1968 is: 9 years, 3 months, 16 days
9-3-1-6
From 11/18/1965 (Battle of Ia Drang) to 9/30/1975 is: 9 years, 316 days
9-3-1-6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH-64_Apache
Maiden flight 30 September 1975
The AH-64 Apache is the United States Army's principal attack helicopter, and is the successor to the AH-1 Cobra. The AH-64 is a two-seat attack helicopter powered by two General Electric T700 turboshaft engines. The crew sits in tandem, with the pilot sitting behind and above the copilot-gunner in an armored crew compartment. The AH-64 is armed with a 30mm M230 chain gun and carries a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire and Hydra 70 rockets on four hard points mounted on its stub-wing pylons.
http://www.janes.com/defence/air_forces/news/jawa/jawa001013_1_n.shtml
BOEING AH-64 APACHE
Original Hughes Model 77 entered for US Army advanced attack helicopter (AAH) competition; first flights of two development prototype YAH-64s 30 September and 22 November 1975; details of programme in 1984-85 and earlier Jane's; selected by US Army December 1976; named Apache late 1981.
I was 33 years, 33 weeks, old when this book released.
From 3/3/1959 to 10/20/1992 is: 33 years, 33 weeks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Were_Soldiers_Once_..._And_Young
Released October 20, 1992
We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young is a 1992 book by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and war journalist Joseph L. Galloway about the Vietnam War. It focuses on the role of the First and Second Battalions of the 7th Cavalry Regiment in the Battle of Ia Drang. This battle was the first large-unit battle of the Vietnam War; previous conflicts involved small units and patrols (squad, platoon, and company sized units).
Friday, 3/1/2002
Sunday, 3/3/2002
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277434/
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Release Date: 1 March 2002 (USA)
Plot Outline: The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it.
I have been pondering Greg Kinnear's role as a helicopter pilot in that movie since I first watched the movie. That might have been my actual role in that battle. I might have been flying in the helicopter as co-pilot with Major Crandall.
From 3/3/1959 to 11/14/1965 is: 2448 days
From 6/17/1963 to 11/14/1965 is: 881 days
881 / 2448 = 0.359
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001427/
Greg Kinnear
Date of Birth: 17 June 1963
We Were Soldiers (2002) .... Maj. Bruce 'Snake' Crandall
It seems hard to imagine that I was flying a helicopter for U.S. forces in combat during this battle because I was not even quite 7 years old back on 11/14/1965. But if I have this all figured out correctly, I had won at least 2 gold medals in the Olympics almost 2 years earlier, so I must have had very good reflexes and capabilities. I recognize the date 5/1/1967 as when I first flew a fighter jet by myself and it would seem I could fly helicopters before that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ia_Drang
The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle of the Vietnam War between the United States Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965, at two landing zones (LZ's) northwest of Plei Me in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. The battle derives its name from the Drang River which runs through the valley northwest of Plei Me, in which the engagement took place. "Ia" means "river" in the local Montagnard language.
Representing the American forces were elements of the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry, the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry, and the 1st Battalion 5th Cavalry of the United States Army. The communist forces included the 33rd, 66th, and 320th Regiments of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), as well National Liberation Front (NLF) of the H15 Battalion.
The battle is the subject of the critically acclaimed book We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young by Harold (Hal) Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. In 2002, screenwriter Randall Wallace depicted the first part of the battle in the film We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson.
