F-18 Hornet

All of a sudden, I’m kind of a hero.

I was just sitting here last night perusing various websites and minding my own business, when Cody came in for a brief visit before bed.

He’s Joanna’s nine-year-old son. Joanna is coffeesister’s cousin, who we’re staying with for a bit before forging on to San Francisco.

Cody asked, “Watcha doin’?”

I quickly closed the window that displayed the lingerie models.

“Just looking at angels” I said, somewhat truthfully. It was what popped into my head at the moment.

“What kind of angels?” he asked.

“Blue angels” I replied, less than truthfully. It was all I could think of.

“I want to see!”

He plopped down next to me, so I called up YouTube and typed in “BLUE ANGELS,” knowing full well I’d get videos of the Navy’s precision flying team in action. Sometimes – not always, but sometimes – I’m a fast thinker.

Cody’s eyes grew to the size of F-18 Hornet intakes after the first minute of the first video I played for him – it turned out he’d never seen them before. He’d never even seen fighter jets in action. He hasn’t even seen Top Gun, due to that pesky R rating.

“Are those professional pilots?” he asked.

I explained to him how they’re US Navy fighter pilots who rotate onto duty as Blue Angels, and that they do a “tour” for several years with the team before going back to being regular fighter pilots. I told him that they’re not only professional, but that they’re the best of the best, undergoing rigorous training and testing that most pilots wash out of. Only a very small percentage get to be Blue Angels.

Then I had to explain to him what regular Navy fighter pilots are and how they land and take-off from aircraft carriers in the middle of the ocean. I showed him videos of that, and then I showed him close-ups of F-18 Hornets and told him how they can fly faster than sound.

Now he wants to be a fighter pilot.

We haven’t told his mom about this. Coffeesister and I are renting a room from her for a bit, and want to stay in her good graces. Thank god she’s too busy most of the time to read this blog.

But aside from how his mom is going to react, I feel as though I’m a bit of a hero just for introducing a nine-year-old boy to The Blue Angels. When I suggested that he should ask his dad, who lives nearby, to take him to a Blue Angels air-show he hit Mach-one on the excitement scale, so we looked at their website to try and get a show schedule for 2010 but they don’t have one posted yet.

Moments later he went to bed with Blue Angels on the brain.

Perhaps someday he will be a Navy fighter pilot. Maybe even a Blue Angel. Probably not, because at nine he has a lot of years ahead of him to sort that stuff out, but what if?

I’d love to still be around, and be at that first exhibition show he participates in. I’d love to have him introduce me to his teammates as the old man who showed him the vintage YouTube videos of the Blue Angels back when they flew Hornets. He’d tell them I was the one who ignited the spark, and maybe I’d even get a ride in the backseat of his very own F-57 Spitwad with invisible shields and warp-speed capability.

One never knows, but one can always hope.. and dream.

RhodesTer on Twitter/Subscribe to this blog

{ 13 comments }