I just woke up and found your note, Wayne. 

 WC> Both of you beat the odds?
 WC> Seems to me recalling from "The Right Stuff" some 25
percent of pilots
 WC> are Killed training in peace time :-(

        Not counting the ones lost in basic training, we lost 107 pilots
        " in peace time " out of 1200 Sabre pilots when on duty against
        the Curtain. There is a saying written at the bottom of their
        epitaph:  They did not die in vain.

        The thousands of fighter planes this side of the Curtain are
        believed to have prevented  WW III. I am proud to have been in
        the group.

 WC> fighter jock, wish I knew what that was like.
 
        Do not read too many books on it. Like medical TV shows, real
        live doctors know how far from the truth they are.

 WC> That's the Sabre jet right?     Yep !
 WC> Didn't they change out engines frequently as they
 WC> were pushing turbine technology of the time?
 
        We were lucky to get 100 hours from them. Nowadays, when I was
        still flying, on a B-767 right wing, an engine was taken down
        for looks only, it had over 15,000 hours. Now, I read last week
        that one of them went to 33,000 hours. Progress.
 
 WC> You didn't intercept them, U2's, at their flight ceiling I'm guessing.

        Right you are. At the time, we had in the RCAF, a superior plane
        with a more powerful engine and could fly above all, except the
        U2, but it was coming down to land in Weisbaden.

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