[Joeaksa]

Nostatic,

Mostly while playing military. You have no idea how large a 20mm or 37mm round, followed by tracers, looks like when its coming up at you and tracking your every move. The times on the ground were in Central America, in the early 80's... do not ask... but I know the sound of a AK by heart.

I flew a ambulance aircraft for years, based out of Berlin with worldwide ops. Did a lot into the Gulf area as well as Bosnia and Yugoslavia. The red cross on the tail makes for a very nice target while moving... Was based in Riyadh as well for one tour.

David,

Its a dream job, and I get paid for doing something I would do for free. That said, have been laid off three times in the past 10 years and will be 50 in three weeks, so being out of work is not fun. Have been with McDonnell Douglas, Boeing and Bombardier, as well as a couple of airlines and they all are as stable as mud when it comes to long term employment for flight crews. Am trying the private sector now and hope to retire here!

Re the arming of the crew on a jet... funny how the Israeli airline El Al never gets hijacked! They have a sky marshal on board every flight and the flight crew is armed to boot. There is a guard with a machine gun guarding the airplane 24/7 at the airport as well. The kooks have learned that they will either die or waste away in prison and so have moved on to blowing themselves up.

joe