High Flight
For those who might not know this about me, I spent much of my childhood and early adolescence hoping and even preparing, via flight lessons and study, to make a career of military aviation. This was simply for the chance to fly the world’s most amazing machines, rather than out of a desire for military life — far from it (more on that in a bit). But late in high school I was bitterly disappointed when my eyesight started to deteriorate, immediately precluding me from flight school and sending me on a completely different trajectory. In retrospect, I’m very, very glad that’s not the direction my life took — my passion for independent thought and action, and anti-establishment, anti-authority, anti-dogma outlook on life has only deepened with age and there is no way I could serve in any capacity in a Bush/Cheney military under any circumstances other than literal direct home defense… but my love of flight has never waned, and this kind of video will always resonate. To someone who hasn’t spent their formative years dreaming of piloting a supersonic aircraft this video may come across as merely cheesy propoganda… but for me, especially when coupled w/ the old-school poetry, it brought me way, way back. Thanks to Boing Boing and Dailymotion.com for stirring all those old emotions.
