>The 74th and 75th FS get to have the shark's face nose art because
>they are the descendants of the WWII Flying Tigers

Indeed, there's a mention of an alumnus of the WWII 75th, the late Donald S. "Lope" Lopez, in the piece. After Robert L. Scott's God Is My Co-Pilot (which was written while the war was going on and thus is missing the end), Lopez's Into the Teeth of the Tiger is pretty much the definitive memoir of the American fighter pilot's life in the China-Burma-India theater. (It also contains two of my favorite fighter pilot anecdotes, the punch lines of which are "Your streamers were still there" and "No, sir, I don't know how they found out" respectively. :)

As an aside, the two Air Force personnel specifically mentioned in this piece, General John P. Jumper and Major Kim "Killer Chick" Campbell, are real people. Gen. Jumper has the interesting distinction of being (as far as I know) the only sitting member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to appear as himself in a fictional television program: He was in an episode of Stargate SG-1 while still in office. Major Campbell really did nearly get shot down over Baghdad in 2003. She brought her A-10 back to base and landed safely with a big ol' hole in the tail and no working hydraulics at all, a feat of airmanship that won her the Distinguished Flying Cross. No disrespect is intended by including either of them here (rather the opposite, in fact, though they could be forgiven for not seeing it that way).

Senator Cornpone (R-The Deep South) and Congresswoman Ferret (D-The Midwest), on the other hand, are entirely fictional, and no resemblance to any person living or dead is intended.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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