About Me
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Registered with Wikipedia in December of 2005, after months of slacking and faceless editing.
I have co-written, with my dad, and published several books, aimed at beginners, on Aviation archaeology, so I felt it natural to write my first article on Wikipedia on the subject. I have continued by writing, and editing, content - not so much about the aircraft - but focusing more on the people of aviation. The human factor is really where the history, and the interesting stories, are found.
Random interests: Collecting aerospace lucite paperweights, naval ship decking, and 'piece of places'. I also collecting autographs, but only thru the mail, or in person.
I drive a white 1999 Jeep Wrangler (Sahara package), named 'Snoopy', and go four-wheeling quite often, normally in persuit of aircraft wreck sites.
I also think it is important to mention that, on an island in the South Pacific, I am worshiped as a god, although I, in no way, actually claim to be one.
Favorite Quotes
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- "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnett, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert A. Heinlein
- "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat." - Teddy Roosevelt
- ""As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I'd like to just say what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind." - Eugene Cernan, Commander of Apollo 17, December 13, 1972
- Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
- "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. …God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." Thomas Jefferson, in a letter, dated 13 November 1787, to New York senator William S. Smith.
- "People will fight long and hard for a little piece of colored ribbon." - Napoleon Bonaparte
- "You got to think ahead to the future... Folks like things that have actually been there..." - Attributed to Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom
- "Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research."" - Wilson Mizner
- "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory." - Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore - US Army
- "Brevity is the soul of wit..." - Polonius
