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(Thanks to the Illinois Lottery)
On our last day aboard the USS George Washington, I got to ride in an F-14 Tomcat! My friend, Commander Eichelberger, pulled some strings and got me aboard an F-14 for a routine escort sortie.
Below is a pic of me in the rear seat. I was the radar operator for this particular sortie.
I got the pilot to snap this pic to the left while we had a little down time.
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| Here is the aircraft we rode from the aircraft carrier to Sri Lanka. It is an E2C Hawkeye. |
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The E2C Hawkeye we flew to Sri Lanka was awfully slow. We only flew at about 300mph. Top speed is 350mph on this radar plane. Once we landed and got to the hotel, I was glad to see our extra luggage had made it there from Egypt. I'm glad I sent it ahead of us! We had to travel lightly aboard the Navy plane. We really enjoyed our Hotel in the city of Pinnawala. It was very luxurious, and not far from the world famous Pinnawala elephant orphanage.
| Below is Mary in front of some ruins. |
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Sri Lanka was very beautiful and peaceful, a BIG change from the aircraft carrier we just left!
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| Above is the Temple of the Tooth. It was VERY beautiful |
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The Temple of the Tooth:
The tooth was said to have been snatched from Budda's funeral pyre in 543BC and smuggled to Ceylon. The present Temple of the Tooth was built in the 1680s and is now a World Heritage site. Would you believe they built a temple for someone's tooth?! I kept making little jokes and remarks as we toured the temple. Mary started getting pissed off at me. So she forced me to spend a day studying the Buddist religion with a bunch of bald robe wearin' guys! Hey, I'm almost bald, maybe it was destiny.
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| I'm the second guy sitting down from the right. |
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| I got even, and had Mary dress up too! |
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