Tuesday, March 4, 2014

I am moving on from James to Ephesians.  Eph. 4:32 "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."

When you teach cadets to land on a carrier, you first teach them to hook wire on a runway on the ground.  Over and over until they get it right.  The most difficult aspect is keeping them from killing you.  Ken still holds the record for the largest midair in the training command.  

When you are flying formation with four aircraft, there is a pattern to follow.  The first man in the slot can't slow down or the second will run into him.  You have to break away, not slow down.  Ken's flight of four cadets forgot.  The first man slowed down, the second ran into him,  then banked to his right hitting the third man who rolled into the fourth.  "Bam, bam, bam, bam," is what Ken said.  "I thought I had just seen four cadets kill themselves.  If it had been me," he said, "I would have died of a heart attack on the spot."

"They all landed.  You can't kill a cadet," he said.  "They don't have enough sense to know you can't land an airplane in the condition their's were in."

Like I said, the most difficult aspect is to keep them from killing you.  Ken was really shaken when he got home that evening.  "I have to go out there tomorrow, stand on the runway with paddles giving them signals and hope they don't run into me or break a wire."

I don't think those four cadets ever knew how lucky they were to have a kind, tenderhearted, forgiving instructor like Ken.

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