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Monday, December 8, 2008

Reality of an Aviator's Wife

The Mr. is a WSO (Weapons Specialist Officer aka Navigator) for the F-15E. This is a fighter jet, to better understand, he's like "Goose" in Top Gun, but that was Navy and he's Air Force. He will begin flying in the F-15E when we get to NC this Spring. Right now, he's flown in several different types of smaller jets. Even though he is a Navigator, he does learn to fly all the jets he's in.

Today I'm reminded how dangerous his job is. Not that I need reminding but today it slapped me in the face yet again. Today, there was an F-18 crash in San Diego, it appears the pilot may ejected without issue. What people often forget, is training for fighters or any aircraft is an extremely dangerous job. While we've been here in P'cola, there was a crash at a training wing killing all three on board, the Blue Angels crash during an air show, and the incident with 2 F-15C out in the Gulf near here. Luckily, in the 2nd incident one of the 2 pilots survived.

Every single day before the Mr. goes up for a flight I tell him BE SAFE and BE SMART. I used to tell him good luck, but he says luck has nothing to do it. I tend to disagree, but good thing the Mr. is the luckiest SOB I've ever known.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the pilot and all the people on the ground near the crash site. Fighter pilots and navigators for the Navy and Marines come through P'cola. We know a large of number of guys and girls that are there or headed there soon. Today made me think and pray for all of them.

7 comments:

d.a.r. said...

Gah, I don't know how you deal with that!! I about died for the three weeks my husband was at Airborne school (parachuting out of planes). Even though the infantry isn't all that safe, I'd rather have him on the ground!

Yall stay safe!

Susan said...

Scary! The last report I saw had no injuries reported. One of my coworkers lives on the next street over from the crash site. She says it's been really smoky there.

I have a number of friends who fly F-14s - they love (LOVE) their jobs, but it's frightening to be the one on the ground as you know!

Keep Mr Jetplane safe!

~Mrs. Guru~ said...

Such a scary thing! I would be stressed out all the time.

Katie Says So said...

It would be so hard for me not to be worried!!!

Mrs. Not-so-Domesticated said...

I worry everyday about my brother, he flies blackhawks...he's home now but everyday you hear about crashes, so its hard not to worry. You think that they're safe once they're home, but they're always doing drills and going out on flights. I just have to keep reminding myself that they have the training to keep themselves safe...

Liz said...

My thoughts and prayers are with those families. I just got bad news yesterday......deployment.

Puttin' On The GRITS said...

We have a lot more in common than I thought!

USAF, F-15, you work for a med. device/pharma recruiter and I am a rep...

weird!

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