Tom describes a near fatal training accident which he narrowly avoided. It is a note to himself, on the last page of his address book. This was in the collection held by his daughter and forwarded to me. She had attached a Post-it note saying, “Check out “Close Calls” I think it was censored by my mother.
On Dec. the 16th while here at Lemoore Basic I just about didn’t get to celebrate my 20th birthday.
While coming in for landing, was just leveling off when a plane landed just over me. Had I continued my landing I would have run into the other plane and smeared us both over the runway. I gunned the engine and just cleared the other plane. Had it not been for the fact that I had my flaps most all the way down I would not have been able to clear the other ship. Lesson learned: Look out for the dumb who are going to land on top of you.
T.E.C