Thursday, September 10, 2020
Where to start? I met Kelly in 1968, on his first night at Phu Cat, in the dimly lit shack that was the Officers Club. We sat there talking and as he hoisted his first one he rolled his eyes in his way and said, "Man, this is the last outpost isn't it? After that, we flew Misty together. Here he is with the Misty group around the time of the North Vietnamese bombing halt in November of 1968. He's right in the center of the action. That's our boy. So Kelly finishes his Misty tour and heads back to Bien Hoa. I had a few friends down there and dropped in to see them. More times with Kelly. July 1969, I report to the pilot training squadron at Craig AFB, feeling pretty low as a combat fighter pilot assigned to T-37's. From behind me, "Rosie, where you been? We're going to have some fun here." And we did. We partied a lot together and spent many days out at the local 1900 foot strip flying our airplanes. He took formation shots of me in the Stearman with our boss in his right seat. That was quite an afternoon. Here's a shot of Kelly with his Stinson at Sky Harbor Airport, Selma, Alabama in 1971. I once told Kelly he was like an older brother to me. Probably a mistake as the first thing he said was, "I'm just going to have to demand a little more respect then, youngster." In November of 1971, Kelly comes up behind me at the airport and says, "Rosie, what has two engines, one too many pilots and is faster than sh…?" He was off to F-4's in Vietnam. I followed him about three months later. We met at Udorn once or twice as he diverted in there several times from Ubon. He was flying Wolf Fac and I Laredo. Right back where we were four years earlier. He didn't last long in that program though as he was too valuable as a flight and mission commander for the "heavy" missions to Hanoi. After the second tour, we stayed in touch through an occasional card or letter or even call, but did not see each other, face to face for nearly thirty years. At a re-union in Colorado Springs, he comes up behind me and his first words in thirty years were, "You may be the younger, but you're certainly not the smaller brother. I can still fit in my party suit." Game on. Around 2015, I asked Kelly to try and get me on the Race Team at Reno. He said, "Petie-bod is leaving. MAAAYBE I can get you on. He did and that lead to three years of "here, let me show you how it's done when that happens." That's him in the color shot in the briefing room at Reno. Those were great times. I drove his truck and he followed along on his bike, weather permitting. Then he left the team. "Hey, you finally get me on this and then you quit. "Yeah, quit whining. Funny how I tricked you into that isn't it?" We had talked just this spring about him coming out from time to time and being back on the team Kelly. You're going to be missed big time, so gear up and get out of here. Rest of us will be along in due course. I love you, brother.
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