When I first arrived in England as a young 20 year old USAF Airman I was happy. I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire (now closed), I was an imagery interpretor in the intelligence section of the 77th tactical fighter squadron, A famous fighting squadron formed in WWI. The squadron’s emblem is a red circle holding a 5 card poker hand; 4 Sevens with the Ace of Spades in the center. Sometimes I would read the hand written after-action reports from the WWII guys flying P38s thet were stored in the safe. Our guys would shut down one engine to get the Germans to come up and fight. Thinking they had crippled prey above, the germans came up, but when they showed, the americans would fire up the silent engine and destroy them all.
Famous Historic 77th Tactical Fighter Squadron
Megatons for you Boris
We ran the cool-ass, swing wing F-111’s all over Europe, and the at a moments notice, Russia.
One of my first friends there was a Puerto Rican Seargent named Sepulvida. He was a very nice guy and offered to take me to the City of Oxford on the first weekend we had off, for a day of fun and sight seeing and to have a pint in a REAL pub. 🙂
Part of the Oxford plan included visiting a Drafting Supply shop that sold an extendable drafting compass that I needed for work. It was a sunny day and we were walking along the sidewalk of the main drag in Oxford near the big Camera building. We were in uniform and were so proud and cocky, looking at all of the girls. We had to cross the streeet to get to the drafting shop, and I started to cross on a long angle towards the shop as it was plain to see no cars were coming for blocks…
Suddenly in the middle of a joke and a laugh, Sepulvida jumped out, grabbed, and semi-tackled me, and threw himself over me, as we crashed onto the cement curb hard. As we hit the ground a double decker English bus blew by us at about 40mph… I was dead center in the lane. It missed us by inches… I would have been knocked 100 yards stone dead. Sepulvida saved my life. Thanks Sepulvida! CLOSE ONE!
Lesson Learned: Look both ways before crossing the street especially in places where they drive on the wrong side of the road…
Mike Hines – Emperor of the Internet