This week I have my friend Jason to help me write another story for whoever may enjoy this. It will be interesting as he is special needs, but we will see what the result is of our combined storytelling may be.
My friend is more than just a little obsessed with airplanes and history. He mentioned how on Wednesday was the 65 year anniversary of the T-38 Talon’s first flight. In form with my usual storytelling devices I rolled a set of dice to start the story and find out what relating to the T-38 we could write about. The T-38 was designed to be a teinjet supersonic jet trainer. For more information here is a link from where I got the image above to the T-38 on Wikipedia.
Here is an installment of it could have happened this way…
The T-38 we are preparing to be replaced by the T-7A RedHawk, but is it worth reducing this titan of Supersonic flight training to nothing in the name of change? This determination has been heated for some time as there has been a long history with the T-38, and choosing whether to change this we need to make sure we don’t lose the value of the aircraft. Additionally, is it what’s financially best for the military and the United States government?
That’s a good point Mr. Winstanley, but surely the value of the plane is found in the pilots that control them.
Mrs. Thompson, that’s rich coming from someone who believe people don’t kill people, but guns kill people. We need to preserve the heritage of our air force beyond the equipment, but doing away with the equipment often makes our rememberance of the great men and women that flew them disappear into museums.
The floor is silenced as the speaker begins, “You both present good points, but how about looking at one of those record setting days of the T-38 told by the perspective of the woman who set the speed record twice in that craft?”
(From Jackie’s perspective)
Training was a heck of a time. Flight training is always more exciting sounding than it is in practice, but we had a great time in the airforce school of supersonic flight. Flying over Edwards Airforce Base always made me feel the rush to push a plane past its safety limits like my friend Chuck. Once I had set the airspeed record, but what good was it to be overshadowed by a frenchie. Life is meaningless until you hear the blaring alarms going off all around you and you push until you can push no more. I set my first record in a T-38, but now Chuck and I are going to up since he has been training me to try and set a record today.
“Hey Jackie, this is it. You think that you can beat me? I’m not gonna let myself get beat by a little girl.” Chuck snided.
I responded in a childish sing songy, “You’re gonna get beat by a girl!” I knew that I wasn’t just trying to beat him, but set a new record today. I had only turned 51 a few months ago and this I promised myself was going to be my birthday present.
“No way you can beat me. I trained you on this, and you think you can beat me?” Chuck replied, winking at me with a wry smile.
“Yeah Chuck, I got this and I’m going to outfly the master today!” Flying had become everything to me and it was time to make that record happen. I knew Chuck believed in me, but he wanted to motivate me right now to push past my limits.
(From Chucks perspective)
We mounted up into the planes, and I knew everything I said was just going to help her break those barriers and set this new record. I looked down at the chronomiters, and it’s the 24th. Putting on our helmets we caught each others eye and I signalled 2,4. She responded with 2,4, and we settled in to get ready to taxi.
The race was on, and it was not going to be a safe one. We flew up as high as we could get with alarms going off all around. She had a look of determination on her face I had seen many times before, but I think she knew that she would set the new record or die trying. We pitched into the angle necessary for supersonic flight and away we went. As the alarms went off for just a minute the silence felt more deafening than the blaring alarms of the craft. All I could do was watch as she took off pushing the plane as fast as she could and I pushing as hard as I could. I knew she really wanted to hit Mach 2, which we were told was 1,352 MPH. As we approached Mach 2 I lost my nerve having almost died in a previous mach 2 flight, but she pushed on until I was able to clock her flying at 1,429 MPH. She had almost reached 100MPH over Mach 2!
(Back in the house of representatives)
See Mr. Winstanley, this is what we need. More honest, but fearless pilots that can take the Redhawk to levels beyond what we ever could expect, and train others to do the same. The T-38 may be replaced, but as long as we train hard to fight hard it will never replace its spirit!
MundyWrites 
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