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A couple of days ago, Donald Sensing, after commenting about the burning airplane in Canada, linked to this page of aviation quotes, which then linked to this eulogy of Col. Donald Conroy by his son, Pat Conroy.
Col. Conroy was a Marine aviator who was also known as “The Great Santini.” Pat Conroy, of course, is the author of the book of that title, which was a sort-of-fictionalized story about his dad, and which was made into a movie starring Robert Duvall. If you haven’t seen this movie, that’s your assignment for the weekend: rent it and watch it. After you’ve seen it, you’ll understand that bit in Austin Powers 2 where Dr. Evil is bouncing the big globe off young #2’s head.
Anyway. Back to the eulogy. It’s a good read.
Let me give you my father the warrior in full battle array. The Great Santini is catapulted off the deck of the aircraft carrier, Sicily. His Black Sheep squadron is the first to reach the Korean Theater and American ground troops had been getting torn up by North Korean regulars.
Let me do it in his voice: “We didn’t even have a map of Korea. Not zip. We just headed toward the sound of artillery firing along the Naktong River. They told us to keep the North Koreans on their side of the Naktong. Air power hadn’t been a factor until we got there that day. I radioed to Bill Lundin I was his wingman. ‘There they are. Let’s go get’em.’ So we did.”
I was interviewing Dad so I asked, “how do you know you got them?”
“Easy,” The Great Santini said. “They were running – it’s a good sign when you see the enemy running.”
There was another good sign.
“What was that, Dad?”
“They were on fire.”
As they say, RTWT.
