Aside from exciting things like movies and television shows that sparked my sons' interest in the military and aircraft, there were chances like this where Leif got to climb into the cockpit of a fighter plane; heady stuff for a 7-year-old!
Leif wanted to see a fighter plane, up close, so his dad took him to see a plane at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, where we lived from the summer of 1983 to the summer of 1986. This was a National Guard plane and the pilot was there with Leif. He was in the photo but since I don't know who he was or whether he would want his photo online, I cropped it.
In this photo, Leif is wearing kid's camouflage BDUs ("battle dress uniform" for you civilians) that Peter W. bought in Korea when he was there on TDY (temporary duty). Leif was thrilled to have them and loved wearing them.
Little did we know that he would be wearing the adult version for real, though as I've already mentioned, his hoped-for Air Force career was not to be, and as he found out as a high school sophomore, he couldn't be an Air Force pilot because he was too near-sighted.
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