Land, Fly or Die
The story behind the name
From that moment on, whenever I was tempted to complain or had a hard decision to make, a voice in my head would say “Land, Fly, or Die.”
For my first assignment out of pilot training, I was assigned to fly the OV-10A Bronco. After several months of learning to fly the Bronco and the mission of a Forward Air Controller (FAC), I started my first front-line pilot assignment flying the OV-10 for the 19th TASS at Osan, AB, South Korea. TASS = Tactical Air Support Squadron. I arrived at Osan in February, 1981.
The squadron pilots were a very young group. Like me, most of us received a FAC assignment right out of pilot training. Combine that with a very (I mean very!) unstructured flying environment, and there were many interesting flying experiences.
The squadron front desk had a radio and on-duty pilot to communicate with airborne pilots. At Osan, the base was fogged in most mornings so we rarely took off before 9:00 am. If an early mission was needed, a takeoff before 7:00 would usually be in the clear before the fog appeared.
One morning a pilot was assigned to one of the early missions and, when he returned to land, the base was fogged in. This particular pilot was clogging up the radio frequency with complaints about the weather and if he was going to be able to land. He wouldn’t shut up!
Finally, one of the pilots, a captain, grabbed the radio microphone, keyed the mic, and said “Land, Fly, or Die”. After that there was silence in both the squadron and on the radio.
From that moment on, whenever I was tempted to complain or had a hard decision to make, a voice in my head would say “Land, Fly, or Die.”
About Tim
Thank you for reading my first substack post. If you don't know me already, I am Tim Plaehn. As a kid from a small midwest town, I somehow got accepted to the Air Force Academy. Once there I found out I could become a pilot. Doing so had not been in my plans, but who could turn down a chance to go to pilot training. My flying career lasted 8 1/2 wonderful years. On this substack blog I will be sharing stories from those years.
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I am using this platform to share my Air Force flying stories. I was an Air Force fighter pilot for 8 ½ great years in the 1980s. I bring memories of unique experiences, exciting flying, and near misses.
I will share many (all I can remember) stories about my days as a fighter pilot. I like to say that I flew F-16s in Las Vegas when the first Top Gun was the hot movie. My life was better than Tom Cruise’s.
I am an information junkie, constantly reading about a wide range of topics. I have an analytical mind and am skeptical of mainstream media reporting. As I find interesting information, I will share it with my analysis here.
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