Squig is fine.  Vet doesn't know what the problem was, but said whatever it was, it wasn't anything bad.  That's all I cared about.  Just wanted to be sure.  Today he's back to his old self.  Which means I am, too.

I called Scott the other day to find out the difference between F9 Panthers, and F9 Cougars.  I knew Ken (and his friend Pete) flew the Panther in Korea--it's debut was 1947 and the was one of the first combat jets.  Ken had been chosen to go to the first ever Naval class of jet training, so he was prepped to fly it.  Corsairs for his first 25 or so missions, F9--Panthers after that.

The Panther had straight wings, and the upgrade Cougar had swept wings which (as I understand) allowed it to fly much faster and break the sound barrier.  Ken had told me that the Panther rotated around the fuselage, and the faster Cougar rotated around the wing tip.

You all aren't interested in all of that I know, but I was--because Ken's best friend Pete Olsen killed himself by rotating a Cougar into the ground while practicing low rolls off the beach in Corpus with the Blues--flying solo.

Ken always thought Pete thought for a split second he was back in Korea in the Panther, rotating around the fuselage--and when the plane rotated around the wingtip, it hit the ground upside down.  There were so many of Ken's close friends that got killed in those early days of jet aviation. Ken always said that he figured he'd end up in an airplane in a hole in the ground (prematurely).  Every close friend he had was killed in an airplane.

I told you a few weeks ago that the book I'm working on right now covers a span of years during Korea, and when I wrote about Pete, I went to the Blue's site and there was no record of Pete.  Scott is rectifying that error through a Navy Captain he knows.