Flying the Line, An Air Force Pilot's Journey: Volume Two, Military Airlift Command, 1981-1993

“Generals keep a terrible secret. While they “fly desks” at plush, extensively decorated headquarters back in the States, they yearn to be with us, flying at 33,00 feet over Egypt on the way to a war zone. That is why they must be provided with enhanced perks, pay, and crisp salutes from everyone on base. If they did not get these perks, none of them would trade a war chariot on a mission for the gilded desk.

After retirement, generals are eager to remind everyone they wore stars. Yes, general, you carried the rank, but we were there, at Mogadishu, Saigon, Dakar, Darwin, Mombasa, Islamabad, U-Tapao, Kunsan, Trondheim, Misawa, Jubail, Balad, and Tegucigalpa. While you commanded at headquarters, we possessed the Air Force soul and dealt in its home, on the line, where the mission is accomplished, the essence revealed, and where you may get ti embrace a brother crew in the dark skies over the Nile.”