The Warbirds Read Free Page A

I’ve trained. Use the Phantom to prove how good you are and work into the F-16.”
    Upgrade training in the Phantom had come shortly after that, then an assignment to Alexandria South Air Base where he and Thunder, a big, affable black man, were teamed on the same crew. An immediate rapport sprang up between the two.
    Jack complained to Thunder, whose attention was free since the last of the crews left the squadron to fly. “All I want to do is fly. Why do we get hammered for what we do on our own time?”
    “There’s more to the Air Force than just flying and chasing around, man. Hey—Fairly just drove up. Catch him quick.”
    Locke darted out. Lieutenant Colonel Mike Fairly, squadron commander of the 379th Tactical Flying Squadron, listened to Jack’s story on the drive over and had also decided that was the reason behind the phone call, but it escaped him why the Old Man should be bent out of shape because some fighter jocks were whooping it up at a party. Everyone knew Shaw had raised hell in his time. But Fairly knew from personal experience what a discrete phone call from some general in a higher headquarters could do to a wing commander’s disposition.
    Fairly knocked on Shaw’s door. Colonel Shaw waved Fairly to a chair and handed him the incident report with a curt, “Read that.” Before the younger man had readhalf of the report, he could hardly control his grin. The Security Police had received a noise complaint from the BOQ (Bachelor Officers’ Quarters) at 0207 hours that morning. A team consisting of Technical Sergeant Robert Kincaid and Sergeant Irene Bush (the last name being underlined) had responded to the call and upon entering the BOQ, heard loud music and the sounds of a party. They found the door to Lieutenant Locke’s room fully opened (again, underlined) and the room occupied by approximately fifteen people. The people were shouting and clapping for a couple dancing on a table in the middle of the room. The woman was totally nude and the man was wearing a pair of shorts. The woman was taken into custody by Sergeant Irene Bush (again underlined).
    The two individuals were subsequently identified as Lieutenant Jackson D. Locke and a civilian, Miss Abigail Pearson. Miss Pearson’s father was called and picked up his daughter from the Law Enforcement Desk at 0513 hours. An initial investigation revealed that Miss Pearson had been attending a party given by Lieutenant Locke in honor of her eighteenth birthday.
    The squadron commander gave an expressive shrug of his shoulders as if to say, “Fighter pilots will be fighter pilots,” when he handed the report back to the colonel.
    “Obviously, Colonel Fairly, you are more amused than worried about this incident. Perhaps you’ll feel differently knowing a member of your squadron has been cavorting in the buff with the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, the Honorable Frederick Pearson, and that the same Honorable Frederick Pearson was on my base this morning retrieving his daughter from our Security Police. A business that I knew nothing about. Still amused?”
    “Colonel, if you want, I’ll start checking on all the fornicators in my squadron and brief you every morning.”
    The color in Colonel Shaw’s face started to rise. “Good God, no! With that bunch you sit on, it would take all morning. Besides, I lost my yen for pornography about fifteen years ago. But we are going to have to do something. Tell me about Locke.”
    “Pretty much your standard-issue fighter pilot,” Fairly answered. “Twenty-four years old, came into the serviceright out of college AFROTC. He’s a bachelor and makes an impression with the ladies. Also with some of the young married lovelies, but he cools that. And, he’s the best pilot in my squadron. All he needs is seasoning.”
    “Is he such a big skirt-chaser that it’s going to influence his judgment?”
    “He’s OK, he only needs maturing. Like I said, he’s had some pretty obvious