I was a A-7 Plane Captain for the first 6 months of my assignment to NATC Patuxent River, MD in 1973. At the time, Pax River, being a test center, had all types of USN aircraft, including the A-7A/B/C & E. I retired I. 1997 as a AMEC. P. C. Ward
Thanks for your service to this country, Chief!
One of the guys in my squadron went on to be a flight engineer on P-3s at Pax River...I kept in touch with him for a short time after I got out, and he made a career of the Navy.
I went looking for him when the Internet became a thing, and found his number. I was planning on calling him but didn’t get around to it right away.
About ten years ago, I was watching a football game in an Eagles club, and I got a phone call.
It was “Wingnut”! He didn’t know who I was, and I didn’t know who he was, and he asked “Did you just call me?”
I didn’t know, and looked in my call record, and I had accidentally somehow dialed him, of all the thousands of people in my Contacts!
I said “Is that you, Wingnut? He paused and said,”Who IS this? (he apparently hadn’t heard that nickname since he left the squadron!)
When I identified myself, he said that when he answered the call, he heard people screaming and yelling and thought someone was being murdered!
Good old Wingnut! He never did like the nickname assigned to him by Chief Muddy Waters mentioned above (Whose real name was not “Waters” as I thought, it was “Wright”!)
But as you know in the military, you hope you get a good nickname, and if you don’t it is best to accept it and own it rather than bitch about it.
Otherwise, it will REALLY stick to you!