Post something interesting about yourself

[GmpaJim]

I sat next to General George Patton’s grandson on an airplane. We had a good ol’ chat. It was a long time ago, but I think he was doing some cool stuff on behalf of veterans. Really nice guy.

The other side of the coin…
1969 I was part of an honor guard welcoming German military and diplomats to our Naval Air Station.
They were attending the christening of a guided missile destroyer in Bath, Maine. She was named the Rommel.
In attendance was Mrs. Rommel.
She semi collapsed into a rather cheesy folding chair in front of me and I’m convinced would have gone to the ground if another to my right & I hadn’t caught her. It was a youthful reflex.
I held her hand for a bit while she composed herself which she initiated. Naturally she was immediately surrounded by their aids.

 

[Blues]

^^^^^^

A few years back we met a local at a get together who was a friend of a friend. He was retired from the USMC as a light colonel, as I recall, and he had mentioned that his family had history in the wars of the United States going back to its inception. (He was currently an instructor of outdoor skills at a couple of locales and educational facilities.)

I looked up one of his forebears who was a general for the Union at Gettysburg. The resemblance from a photograph of the time was beyond uncanny...to actually spooky.

This is the ancestor, Gen. John Buford...his spitting image.

 

[TRfromMT]

It’s interesting to hear about encounters with famous people that are personal and not some rope line meet and greet.

In 1996 or early 1997, I had the opportunity to actually have lunch and go on a test flight with Bob Hoover. He was the pilot in the plane chasing Chuck Yeager when he broke the speed of sound. Bob Hoover of the Right Stuff era. That Bob Hoover (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hoover). A small company I worked for at the time as a flight test engineer was working on a project that he was consulting on. He came to our shop, had lunch with us and we took a plane up to get his input on how it handled - the airplane was a Twin Commander 500 (which he had an amazing career as a airshow pilot in).

Anyway, it was an amazing day.

Here is the kicker…. At the time I did not even know who he was, or why it was a monumental day in my career. Completely oblivious, only 6 months out of school just getting started with everything. Didn’t even know why he was important in aviation history until years later.

Oh, and one funny moment…

Where we were eating lunch, the head of the table was tucked into a corner where a stair case wrapped around and was actually just over the end of the head chair. Mr. Hoover was given the seat of honor. He stood up after lunch and hit his head on the bottom side of the metal stair stringer. He hit it really, really hard (left a small cut, if I recall). It clearly hurt like hell, but he recovered. After it was clear he was OK, my boss simply said, “You didn’t hurt the stairs, didya?” Mr. Hoover had a good laugh at that, and said, classically, “Mighta knocked some sense into me.”

 

[GmpaJim]

It’s interesting to hear about encounters with famous people that are personal and not some rope line meet and greet.

In 1996 or early 1997, I had the opportunity to actually have lunch and go on a test flight with Bob Hoover. He was the pilot in the plane chasing Chuck Yeager when he broke the speed of sound. Bob Hoover of the Right Stuff era. That Bob Hoover (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hoover). A small company I worked for at the time as a flight test engineer was working on a project that he was consulting on. He came to our shop, had lunch with us and we took a plane up to get his input on how it handled - the airplane was a Twin Commander 500 (which he had an amazing career as a airshow pilot in).

Anyway, it was an amazing day.

Here is the kicker…. At the time I did not even know who he was, or why it was a monumental day in my career. Completely oblivious, only 6 months out of school just getting started with everything. Didn’t even know why he was important in aviation history until years later.

Oh, and one funny moment…

Where we were eating lunch, the head of the table was tucked into a corner where a stair case wrapped around and was actually just over the end of the head chair. Mr. Hoover was given the seat of honor. He stood up after lunch and hit his head on the bottom side of the metal stair stringer. He hit it really, really hard (left a small cut, if I recall). It clearly hurt like hell, but he recovered. After it was clear he was OK, my boss simply said, “You didn’t hurt the stairs, didya?” Mr. Hoover had a good laugh at that, and said, classically, “Mighta knocked some sense into me.”

Great story!
In the early ‘70s we saw him in a PA air show flying the Twin Commander you mention.
He also flew a P51 in bright yellow for Rockwell International.
He dove it straight for the ground, pulled out of the 450 mph dive at 100’.
The sound that V12 made remains one of my greatest life experiences! People just freaked out!

 

[Mendoman]

I grew up in the house that Woodrow Wilson’s first wife, the First Lady, grew up in. When she passed away during his term she was brought back and buried in a cemetery very close to my house. It was a pre civil war cemetery that eventually had rows and rows of unmarked headstones from the war. There were cannons strategically positioned on the hill where the cemetery was located. There was a clock tower that was really close to the house on top of a hill. It would chime every hour the number of times to represent the hour. Many people that would visit had trouble sleeping through the noise, especially at midnight when it rang 12 times. We were used to it and didn’t really notice it anymore.