Hi William, Yes, I agree that the Ravens were "great men," but I'd add that they mainly were guys who just enjoyed a challenge and loved to fly.
I had another friend who'd had a desk across from mine for a couple years at 25th Air Division headquarters outside Kansas City until I got shipped to Southeast Asia in 1964. He retired shortly after I left. Next thing I knew he was flying in to Can Tho airport with an Air America C-45, and calling me at my radar site on air-ground radio. He used to drop in from time to time and we'd have lunch at the crappy airport lunchroom. AA paid you well to put your ass on the line, and he was saving his money to buy an orange grove in Florida.
Eight years later I took over the remnants of the 505th Tactical Control Group at Udorn, the base in Thailand that included Air America's headquarters. I asked around about my friend and found out that he was in the right seat (co-piloting) a C-130 over Laos on one of his last flights before he retired and headed back to the states. He was hit and killed by what we used to call "the golden bb." Some guy on the ground with a rifle just taking a potshot at the airplane and getting lucky.
Thanks. I'll check out Lee Child. What I really like is courtroom drama, and I just found a first-class and often hilarious series starring a Scottish lawyer: the Best Defence (strange way to spell it) series by William H.S. McIntyre.
No need to be sorry about the picture. It's not my usual kind of thing. What can I say other than "Mea culpa?"
Regards,
Russell