[Joe 6-pack]

"I spent three plus years at Homestead...the last regular AF base for the F-4D. You got used to the sound of them coning and going. One day, I was out walking and heard a roar that just continued steadily. I looked up to see an F-15 doing a long tail-stand, just hanging vertically in the air, just showing off. Most impressive."

Back in my drinking days, one of the guys I'd drink with was a former Phantom pilot that had flown in Viet Nam and into the 70s. He told me about when the F-15 was first fielded and they were doing force-on-force training. He said he and his wingman were on the runway behind two Eagles. The Eagles took off and they followed. He said by the time they got their Phantoms off the ground and got their landing gear up, the Eagles had done a complete loop over the airfield and were coming up behind them.

It was then, he said, he realized he was an old man in an old airplane.

[jagusafr]

My dad was a fighter jock and his last airframe was the phantom. He and other pilots said the F4 was proof that with enough engine strapped on it, anything can fly. He loved that bird, though - second only to the F101 Voodoo.