Theodore's World

Fortunate to have received Richard 'The King' Petty's autographs when working in the pits from 1991-1997... He has the most scriptive signature I've ever seen WT! And a most gracious class act as well. Hail to THE STP KING!

I love to hear about celebrities who take the time and effort to show their support for the troops. (I so miss Bob Hope!!)
The photo of the little boy in ACUs got me. Photos like that always do.

Thank you King Richard Petty and other celebrities for supporting our troops.

Capt Jensen got herself an al-Queda bulldozer. That is funny. In Vietnam some of the helicopter gunships had water buffalo kills painted on the side of their Hueys.

Glad to see King Richard and every one of the folks who take the time to say thanks... along with Capt. Caroline Jensen I have a A-10 story
from 4 years ago that needs to be seen again...

Capt. Kim Campbell is an honor graduate of the U S Air Force Academy, Class of 1997. She also holds a degree in International Security Studies from the University of Reading, England and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of London, England.

She’s a fighter pilot, with 120 combat hours in the A-10 Thunderbolt II , a fighter plane with the inelegant and unladylike nickname of Warthog. They call her the Killer Chick. (Her radio call sign is “KC,” which you may interpret as “Kim Campbell “ or “Killer Chick.”) And she is the most famous female fighter pilot since Lt. Col. Martha McSally (see Women in Blue and Women in Blue, Round II), who took on the Department of Defense in court a year or so back. And won. (Stationed in Saudi Arabia, Lt. Col. McSally challenged a regulation that required female service personnel to wear the abaya, the head-to-toe cloak worn by Muslim women, off-base.)
Capt. Campbell didn’t win her laurels in court, though. She won them in the skies over hostile territory, Baghdad, giving air support to ground troops, when her Warthog took a crippling ground fire hit.
She told Staff Sgt. Jason Haag, who is with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Public Affairs office in Iraq (she flew with the 332nd). “I lost all hydraulics instantaneously (an aircraft’s hydraulic system controls many of the plane’s key functions), so I immediately lost control of the jet. It rolled left and pointed toward the ground, which was an uncomfortable feeling over Baghdad. The entire caution panel lit up and the jet wasn’t responding to any of my control inputs.”
She changed her control methods to allow her to fly her plane without hydraulics.
"The jet started climbing away from the ground, which was a good feeling because there was no way I wanted to eject over Baghdad.”
The hits had come in the rear of the aircraft so the Killer Chick was unable to see the damage. Her flight leader, a lieutenant colonel, drew alongside to check out the damage.
"I could not have asked for a better flight lead,” she said. “He was very directive when he needed to be, because all I could concentrate on was flying the jet.”
Once clear of Baghdad, Killer Chick had two options. Either land the badly damaged craft or eject (“which I really didn’t have any interest in doing”).

"The jet was performing exceptionally well and I had no doubt I was going to land that airplane.”
And she did. After that, her big problem was keeping it on the runway and stopping it.
"When you lose all hydraulics, you don’t have speed brakes, you don’t have brakes and you don’t have steering. One of the really cool things that when I did touch down, I heard several comments on the radio — and I don’t know who it was — but I heard things like, — 'Awesome job, great landing,' things like that.”
That was April of last year. It didn’t take long for news of her flying feat to spread throughout the Air Force. An Air Force Times article this April, headlined, “Out of danger into the limelight,” reported her appearance at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC — “aviation’s version of the Sistine Chapel” — where she was praised by Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper before hundreds of Air Force Association delegates. In the months before, across the country, newspapers from her home town in San Jose, California, to her present home station, Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina (where she is a pilot in the 75th Fighter Squadron) have told her story. Not long ago Secretary James Roche told it to a group of defense writers.
The Fighter Chick told an Air Force Times reporter, ”It’s all been a little bit overwhelming. I’d gotten a few letters and e-mails, but when I got back here, saw all the attention, I realized it was a lot bigger news than I’d thought.”
Among her many letters and e-mails, is a note written on a napkin from ground troops thanking her and her fellow Warthog pilots for their support. The Killer Chick says, “When you get a note from somebody saying, ‘If you’d been a few minutes late, I wouldn’t be here now’ — that’s what it’s all about.” Military Ladies ROCK!!!

I'm a bit choked up. Great post WT. Tincan's tribute is touching. Those of us in the old school didn't get to work with the ladies in our professions, I was fortunate, post Vietnam I had a female mechanic that I'd put up against any man anyday. My favorite pilot was a lady who lost her life when another aircraft collided with hers, I had flown with her many times in a Twin Otter when she was hauling freight, the aircraft was simply a part of her when she was flying. I worked with a very smart and feisty little blonde for 9 years in the oil patch, who tried to and often outworked men twice her size, Tincan's last statement says it best. ” Military Ladies ROCK!!!

To think the Air Force wanted to get rid of the A-10 because it didn't fit the fighter jock Tom Cruise Tom Gun image. They were going to replace it with F-16's. Desert Storm showed that the A-10 was worth its weight in gold. Hundreds of soldiers are alive today because no other aircraft could do the job the A-10 does.

Darth that is so neat, thank you so much for sharing about that.

Patriot Jack: If she was from Philly and flew choppers in the Gulf War... our crew flew her remains back to Dover AFB after she hit a communication tower in darkness when we liberated Kuwait... Her husband was also in the military.

Yankeemom isn't he so adorable. I can just imagine his Dad's and heart too beaming when he see's his son so cute like that.

Tom, haha Capt Jensen got herself an al-Queda bulldozer she sure did.

Tincan Sailor, wow I have goosebumps rolling all over me over and over and tears in my eyes. What an awesome story about an Hero. Thank you so much Tincan Sailor for telling that to all of us.

Jack thank you for sharing too . I love to read stories about our troops and Vets.

I have always wished every newspaper would have a whole section for sharing stories about our military. Parents could read them to the young children and tell them how important our military is to why we are free.

Bob it is amazing. I am so grateful to these planes and the fantastic pilots and all their crews.

Darth, thank you, it is not the same lady, this lady pilot was a civilian, her husband was ex military and a commercial airline pilot, this gal just couldn't break that barrier.

She flew massive loads of drill pipe and other heavy loads in the Arctic before the Haul road was built, all on dirt strips in either an Otter or an old DC3, back then we flew to every site that was off the main pads or drove on ice roads after freezeup, she died while guiding a fall hunting party outside of Fairbanks in her off time when another bush pilot slammed into her aircraft from above.

I had one friend who flew Blackhawks in the gulf, he's retired now.

Of all the women I've worked with there were only two I'd just as soon I had never met, they ended up getting fired, the rest were a joy to work with.