An Air America Pilot’s Flight Back to His ‘Spook’ Years

ll pilots, regardless of service—in this Vietnam War veteran’s experience—have one common trait: They can’t keep from telling outlandish war stories. Inevitably using their hands to simulate air-to-air combat, pilots dramatically relate breathless stories, typically beginning: “There I was at 5,000 feet, dangling from my mic cord, MiGs swooshing left of me, missiles streaking right of me, and 20 mm shells exploding everywhere!” It’s a compulsion running in their blood, embedded in their “pilot DNA,” separating them from us mundane, ground-pounding,