So, there I was, taking a few days off from work and decided to take 2 of my Grandsons fishing. So, here in Bakersfield we don't have alot of water since our annual rainfall is about 4 1/2". We do have a couple of lakes (Irrigation resevoirs). Here I am with my daughter and her two sons 5 and 2 baiting hooks and trying to explain that there are no sharks or giant octopus in this lake to my 5 year old grandson when a CH-53 flies over. Shit, my heart was pounding and my eyes went a little blurry. Oh yeah, I still heard it first. Years ago I used to see them fly over pretty often, but I hadn't seen one in the last 5 years or so. I told my grandsons that was the type helicopter I used to be in. Now I listened to my 5 year old grandson tell me about when I was in the Marines and yes, we were friends with the Navy and the Army and yes we were the good guys and the bad guys shot at us and we tried to save people and, and, and, and on and on and on. I am not sure we, as Marines are up there with the Transformers or Spiderman, but in my grandsons eyes, at least I was close to it at least for a little while. Apparently my daughter had told him more than I thought and I was proud.
Oh yeah, no fish, just a stick and a quarter in the sand at the playground. It was a good day!

I take back all the bad things I used to say about working on the CH-53. I would like to change a servo, or fire up the APP one more time or try my hand at safety wiring something at least one more time. Just don't make me pump up that damn APP accumulator anymore.