James 1:17 "Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Ken was my perfect gift.  He was given to me and I didn't even know it.  People keep asking me about all this so I am going to tell you some of it.  He was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps.  Single seat.  He was back from the war in Korea, tested and wizened.  He was 26 years old--not a kid anymore.  In his first 27 missions, he had been hit 7 times, totaled two airplanes and received two Distinguished Flying Crosses.  And many, many air metals.

On returning to the States, he was offered the solo position with the Blue Angels and in typical Ken style he said, "What do you do besides travel, live out of a suit case and entertain people?"  He turned it down saying, "I want to do something useful.  So they assigned him to the final stage of flight training. There were 10 stages.  The tenth stage was landing on a carrier.  And you had to do it ten times before you were eligible for your wings.  A lot of the candidates passed nine stages but couldn't make ten landings on a carrier.  In their defense, it is one, if not the, hardest things fighter pilots do.  The deck is pitching up and down, rolling right and left and that doesn't even count what you will be required to do when you get your wings.  In real life, you will be hooking wire in the black of night, in the middle of the ocean--in a storm, on a rolling pitching deck.

Ken was an expert at those kinds of landings.  He was an LSO.  Landing signal officer.  The guy with the orange suit and paddles that stood on the deck and waved them aboard.  (Before they began to use mirrors.)  He had to be able to hook wire himself with every type of air craft that was coming aboard.  He flew them all.  He was carrier qualified--to say the least.  I'll have to finish this tomorrow.  I'm out of space.