Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: airbumba on June 22, 2004, 06:46:10 AM
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Aces High Tribute:
(just writing thoughts down, hope you get it)
As I walk down the dry aging runway, my feet dragging , swirling up a small dust cloud, I wasn’t sure what brought me back here after all these years. Was I feeling sentimental in my thoughts, of all the people and the times we shared, maybe I was reliving the memories that were forged here, but have rusted over the years? Was I selfishly attempting to traverse time by reaching into the past in a vain attempt to remember a younger, wide eyed version of myself? It really didn’t matter what brought me here, I was here, and the past was slowly making its way to the forefront of my thoughts.
With a slow , somewhat calculated stride, I set off walking down the neglected runways. Grass was growing upwards from the cracks widened by the passing years. Nature it seems, had no time for sentimental journeys, she carried onwards without hesitation. I on the other hand, was becoming overwhelmed by the flushing memories. To a young wide eyed flight officer, how long those runways looked, how large the buildings seemed, and how terrifyingly sleek the planes were. Everything was larger than life, but none more so than the pilots. Oh, the pilots. I still remember it like yesterday, how the aces seemed like gods to the younger ranks. They flew in a different sky than us, they were out of reach, hovering over us , in an untouchable manner. When the aces would reach down from their perch and say, “good fight”, it was the ultimate compliment for a lowly flight officer. This was the instant gratification and acknowledgement of the hours spent flying, trying and dying that propelled us forward and perpetuated our striving to attain a place on the higher ground, closer to the gods.
The cracks on the runway and the rust on the hangars, reminded me that the physical attributes of this hallowed place, didn’t stand the test of time as well as my recollections . Walking past the tower, with it’s broken windows and derelict antennae, I can still here the chatter of dozens of pilots on a huge mission, their voices crackling over the vox. Passing a now empty radar pit, I can still see the multi coloured dots flying together across the screen in a memorial flight to a fallen comrade.
The distant whir of wind slipping through a rusted fence, was easily mistaken for the buzz and laughter emanating from the officers club, by my now overactive imagination. The laughter, oh, the laughter! As a smile emerges from my now windswept face, I chuckle with the thought of the laughter. Laughter that can only come from the dry, terse, sometimes coarse sense of humour that only a member of our brotherhood could understand. We were in a league of our own, and every day spent as part of it, made me feel special.
Heading back to my ride, this final walk past the empty hangars stirred memories of how hard we pilots rode those mechanics! It seems nothing was ever good enough for a flyboy, nor should it have been! The constant yearning for better crafts allowed all that is this place, to have existed. Nearing the end of my visit, I noticed something peculiar. The map room was still in pristine condition. It seemed a fitting monument to all the planning that went on in there, a memorial to all those hard working people who planned our large scenarios and special operations.
The time has come for me to return home, to my new home. I still remember that sunny day in June , 2004, when the last truck convoys rolled, and the final plane was being ferried out, how we all looked into the future with a nervous, uncertain gaze. How we arrived at our new base and all the years of new faces and new memories that we made there,…well that’s a story for another time.
As I flyout, looking back at the sun setting over my old home, I will never forget the names and faces that I met there, most of them I will meet again, but for the ones I never will, may you forever fly in the clear blue skies of our memories.
.. old friend.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/459_1087903673_ahmem.jpg)
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thank you for that
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Nice, very nice Bumba, now get your butt over here as soon as you can. :)
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Excellant read Airbumba !! Great story.
With your permission I'd like to save it.
Email me nopoops190@sbcglobal.net
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sniff sniff ....
Now get your 190 back into ah2 Bumba ... my jug is itching for a good fight
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Nice, ;)
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Great Read.
Bumba
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Bumba.
poetry is your gift it would seem. :)
beautifull screen shot.
reminds me of one i took almost 6 months ago of a badly wounded LA-7 and me twisting around each other in the late evening of trinity map (back when we still had a night time)
AH1
Batfink
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woow....
t'es un pro mon cher bumba.....bien ecrit mon ami
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Nice One Bumba
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Thank you for the compliments guys
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It's a nice change writing this instead of the letters to Penthouse, hehe.
It's all gussied up, but basicly I just wanted to say "cya later" to Aces High 1. I did have a blast there, and I met a lot of cool people, some I'll never see again, so i wanted to them as well.
Looking forward to AH2. Ordered new card, if that don't work, it may take a month longer as I'll get my new machine now , instead of the fall, but I will get there. You can kill me then Rosco, hehe.
Cya guys soon
..and thanks again.
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Originally posted by SLO
woow....
t'es un pro mon cher bumba.....bien ecrit mon ami
Merci Slo .
J'ai penser de te demander si tu j'amais voir EVADE encore? Je penser de lui l'autre jour, est ce que'il joux encore?
J'ai vas tu voir au AH2 bientout.
Salut mon ami
..excuse mon francais ecrit, hehe. (aux moin on peut dit, merde! pis person ca voir, hehe).
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Thank you for the compliments guys
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It's a nice change writing this instead of the letters to Penthouse, hehe.
It's all gussied up, but basicly I just wanted to say "cya later" to Aces High 1. I did have a blast there, and I met a lot of cool people, some I'll never see again, so i wanted to them as well.
Looking forward to AH2. Ordered new card, if that don't work, it may take a month longer as I'll get my new machine now , instead of the fall, but I will get there. You can kill me then Rosco, hehe.
Cya guys soon
..and thanks again.
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Originally posted by airbumba
Merci Slo .
J'ai penser de te demander si tu j'amais voir EVADE encore? Je penser de lui l'autre jour, est ce que'il joux encore?
J'ai vas tu voir au AH2 bientout.
Salut mon ami
..excuse mon francais ecrit, hehe. (aux moin on peut dit, merde! pis person ca voir, hehe).
je suis pire que toi quand ca vien pour ecrire.....
Evade et mon frere.....si jamais t'a des probleme avec ton ordi....tu peut m'appaller si tu veut...si t'es encore a montreal
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lovely:D
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That`s just too cool.
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Yep, good stuff right there.
AB