Camp Tillman with Burners and Ice - 9 hours in the Jet

 "Can't say I've ever been here before, KEGI*."

"You can say that again, JJ, can't say I've ever seen a Hawk battery looking at me quite like this, either.  I think maybe they like us!"

KEGI* Cole and I were in a steep 45 degree right turn now, rounding the sharp corner over the Straits of Hormuz behind the big KC-135 tanker.  

We were looking at the Persian coastline right down there... where those Iranian surface-to-air missile batteries, supplied by the US way back in the 70s during the Shah's time, were apparently tracking us with their radar as we passed.  

Underneath Shag's jet over on the far left wing of the tanker, we could see the brown coastline of Iran near Bandar Abbas.

"This makes me queasy down in the cockles of my heart, KEGI," I joked, referencing a Dennis Leary song we sang in the Rockets.  

The Bagram Bing

I could hear Crawfs holding court.  

I had parked my beat-up white crew-cab Chevy Silverado in the lot by the B-Huts, and I could smell the smoke from the fire as four of us walked home across the grey gravel. It was late evening, and we were all tired after driving home from the squadron over on the east side of Bagram Air Base.  We had just debriefed a 6-hour mission over the cold white mountains of Vinoland in Northeast Afghanistan.  Feb 2008.

The closer we got to the Bing, the better we could hear the laughing.  Crawfs was regaling a big circle of 335th Fighter Squadron "Chiefs" assembled around our blazing Bing Firepit with a lively story about his Mutton Chops.  

Our UK exchange officer and one of funniest guys in the squadron, "Crawfs" Crawford looked like an American fighter pilot.  But with his strong English accent and his bushy mutton chops on each cheek, he thoroughly and frequently irritated the group of senior non-commissioned officers at Bagram, whose job they thought it was to police our Fighter Squadron's facial hair.  

Unlike US regulations, which restricted mustaches from extending beyond the left and right edges of the smile, UK regulations allowed unlimited facial hair, as long as it remained above the horizontal line of the mouth:  Mutton Chops.  

Crawfs was giddily explaining how he, upon being challenged about his big, bushy Mutton Chops at the BX by a grumpy NCO, had produced a folded letter from his tan flightsuit pocket, from the QUEEN no less, expressly giving him Royal permission to wear the hair.  

Duck Hunting With the Dawn Patrol

In my right mirror, I saw two two bright FLASHES and could see Shorty wrenched around back there, looking over his right shoulder at something down our 4 o’clock wing line.  

The fading orange light was moving shadows upward on my canopy as the flares Shorty had instinctively popped were falling to the ground.  

“Boss!  I just saw ...muzzle flashes; right!"

Shorty losing his chill shocked me more than the words he was saying.  

Shorty Bone never lost his chill.

I had rolled the jet and pulled 30 degrees right, still down on the deck, having just retracted gear and flaps.  

We were accelerating low and fast in the gloomy dark air past 380 knots before dawn - over the brownish-gray mud walls and houses just outside the wire north of Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.  

In the backseat, Shorty was unstowing our Sniper targeting pod to look at the dirt.

"Shorty - What The...."

Before I could say it, Shorty was directing our wingman:

"TWO CHECK 30 LEFT"   

1967 Austin Healey 3000 Mark III BJ8

I love this car  

Cape Lookout NC

BINGO FUEL--> EMERGENCY FUEL.

Twice in my flying career I nearly ran my jet out of gas.

Both experiences were as painful as they were permanently instructional, and Lt Col Brugh helped me with both of them.

My second act of gas buffoonery was in a Strike Eagle, flying in Area 12 way out over the ocean in the Whiskey MOAs off of Cape Lookout, North Carolina - near where the 'Big Rock' deep sea tournament guys fish the Gulf Stream.  

I was pulling hard, and we were down low, at the floor, Afterburners blazing and burning a ton of gas for a few seconds after we heard the clear "BINGO FUEL" warning from Bitchin' Betty in the helmet telling us to go home.  

Billy Mengers Taught Me Servant Leadership

As a brand-new 4th Classman at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, I was a long way from home in November 1986.  I was 18 years old, barely 150 pounds, I was getting yelled at by upperclassmen morning, noon, and night, and my life was a profoundly unpleasant experience.

LEAF RUN November 2025

November 2025 West of Martinsville VA just north of the NC/VA line.

Videos Here:

Leadership Development Session with Jenn Giordano and the Nautical Advisory Group - 2025

Tremendous experience with my friend Jenn Giordano (SmartfulWorks) and the Nautical Advisory Group!

We discussed Leadership, The Art of the Debrief, and creating Radical Candor to build an organization.

but most importantly -  

We raised funds and awareness for an amazing local Raleigh support organization:  

Children's Flight of Hope

SuperChamp's Greatest Hits 2025.

Hudson River Cruise July 2025. Bonanza V-35 + Cirrus SR-22

 

Flying the Appalachian Trail & Down the Hudson River - 2-ship: Bonanza V-35 & Cirrus SR-22. Georgia to Maine June 28-July 4 2025

"ATD Best" Award for our PPD Team, Washington DC, May 2025

A proud day receiving this Learning & Development Team Award for our PPD TEAM

 

First jet ride 1988: Austin Texas

My first flight in a jet, July 1988 at Bergstrom AFB, Austin Texas

Cape Hatteras April 2025 - Easter OBX Run to Billy Mitchell Field

Looking Northwest at the Pamlico Sound

More Hatteras Flying Videos and Photos here:

"STOP THAT BALL!"

Mr. Sullivan was a Giant.  To me.

I'm convinced our team won the Goldsboro Boys Club Little League "World Series" in 1979 because Coach Sullivan taught me how to stop a ground ball from going between my legs.

Civil Air Patrol Annual Banquet - Greensboro NC April 2025

Had a great time as guest speaker with the NC Civil Air Patrol in Greensboro.  

I've never met a more selfless group of leaders and young adults.  

Fantastic multi-faceted CAP mission.

I cant hear you!

I looked up high at the giant T-Tail over me as I stepped off the big white bus and waited there on the tarmac by the Red Cross.  

Waiting for the medics to move their convalescent patients out the back door and up the ramp, the reality of transitioning my fighter-pilot mind from prepping to fly a sunrise Dawn Patrol mission over Afghanistan, to loading up, instead, on a Medevac C-17 bound for Germany at 10 in the morning hit me like an anvil.  I turned around quickly to see jets ripping through the cold air, a two-ship of our very own Chief StrikeEagles - getting airborne over the runway next to us and driving the point firmly home for me.  

It was January 21st 2008, I was leaving the war, and I was in shock.

RDU!

Over Jordan Lake west of Raleigh NC. 30 Oct 24

Hurricane Helene Relief - By Air!

The best part of helping our Hurricane Helene victims was the chance to join with so many super volunteers at Statesville, Rutherfordton, and Ashe County airports.  

The volume of supplies sent in short notice before government authorities could arrive was just tremendous, and those who helped deliver it over the week after the traumatic event were truly joyful servants.  Such a fantastic experience!  Prayers for all those impacted by this powerful event.

1966 V-35. 1987 SL550. RDU. September 2024

OSH KOSH 2024

 OSH KOSH 2024 trip with Ben Davis and Bill Gideon

Walk the Walk!

"Teammates are always observing their leader, and as they do - they are constantly drawing their own conclusions about what the leader values based on the actions they see their leader living.  

Leaders, therefore, need to remain ever mindful of these perceptions and take charge of that narrative by taking the steps to actively demonstrate the values they care about for their teams."

                Jordan Kestenbaum

               My good friend at Disney Institute

Leadership? Or Management? You can wear BOTH hats...

Too often, these words are used interchangeably, or they are misunderstood with one regarded as superior to the other.  In truth, they're both different, and they are both essential for a team.  When supervising any group, a person needs to know when to lead, and when to manage, and how to know the difference:

MANAGEMENT: 

Optimization of those operations essential for function of the mission while minimizing disruptive change.

LEADERSHIP:

Inspiring the team to move from one place to another, by motivating essential and sometimes disruptive change required  for the successful execution of the mission.

A great supervisor knows when to wear either hat.  

How much can you empower a well-coordinated Team of Teams and stay successful?

We decentralized until it made us uncomfortable, and it was right there - on the brink of instability- that we found our sweet spot."

    General Stanley McCrystal

 Team of Teams:  New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

Sunrise At SunNFun. Lakeland Florida - April 2024

Joined up with my friend Bill.  Plane camping in Florida.

Sally from Kabul. November 2009 - March 2024

 

We said goodbye to my best friend today.  14.5 years old.  She has caught 10,000 frisbees for me....

An amazing, beautiful, majestic, athletic, empathetic friend.

Here's her story (from a post far below):

Sally's story

 Return to Three Capes Website

Servant Leadership

 

Put yourself at the bottom.  

It's a gift to be there.

Put your Team at the top.

Lift them up.  

Serve your Team.

Leaving Martha's Vineyard - August 2023

Home from Sun n Fun March 2023 (Lakeland FL)

 From Bill Gideon's Cirrus at 7500' over central Florida.  

3.6 hour flight from Lakeland Florida to Raleigh NC
Sun N Fun videos here:

Leadership is a Gift

 

Leadership is a Gift.  It's given by those who follow.

But you have to be worthy of it.

- General Mark Welsh, US Air Force Academy 2011

OSH KOSH!

Great OSH KOSH fly in with Bill Gideon. 

Our V-35 Bonanza at RDU

1966 Beechcraft V-35 Bonanza N7883L

Raleigh-Durham Airport, North Carolina

The STEP

 The Step.

The one thing all aviators share, regardless of which airplane they fly, is the Step.  The Step is anticipates.  The Step transforms.  The Step is confident. And the Step can sometimes be a fearful, courageous move.  The Step is one of those few things that only aviators do.  The Step is the glorious space of time between which an aviator makes the decision to go out and fly - that point when he or she commits to leave the ground in the machine - and the moment the engine begins turning.  This short period is known as the Step, and every Aviator knows just what it means.

LAKE RIDGE AERO-PARK

Afghanistan

With an Afghan elder near a runway northeast of Kandahar. We were working with him to use that runway to support a forward base with supplies so trucks didn’t have to risk driving on the treacherous highway from Kandahar. 

OSH KOSH

2-Ship of Taildraggers to OSH KOSH Wisconsin

With Bill Gideon and Ben Davis July 2021

Flag Day

Photo taken by and courtesy of my friend and former neighbor Beverly Church Wright at Plymouth Massachusetts. Thanks Beverly!

Towering Cumulus!

“OPEN JET.  GOT AN OPEN JET FOR AN OPS CHECK COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30”  

Lt Col Kaiser boomed at the 50th Flying Training 'Strikin Snakes' on the PA across the squadron. 

.

50th Flying Training Squadron "Strikin Snakes" - Inactivated July 2nd 2025 

Columbus AFB Mississippi

Leadership is Industry Agnostic

Leadership is Industry Agnostic. 

Leadership is Change

Leadership is Action not Position

Leadership is Transformational not Transactional

Leadership is Service to The Team

Leadership is Emotion that Drives the Mission

Leadership Builds

Leadership Honors

Leadership is Grateful

Leadership is Visionary

Leadership is Selfless

Leadership Cares.

Lexington NC

Summer Flying Videos:

Ocracoke Island, NC. Let's fly there!