Gen Robin Olds

Brig. Gen. Robin Olds

July 14, 1922 - June 14 2007

Fighter pilot is an attitude. It is cockiness. It is aggressiveness. It is self-confidence. It is a streak of rebelliousness, and it is competitiveness.

But there's something else - there's a spark. There's a desire to be good. To do well; in the eyes of your peers, and in your own mind.

I think it is love of that blue vault of sky that becomes your playground if, and only if, you are a fighter pilot.

You don't understand it if you fly from A to B in straight and level, and merely climb and descend. You're moving through the basement of that vault of blue.

A fighter pilot is a man in love with flying.

A fighter pilot sees not a cloud but beauty, not the ground but something remote from him something he doesn’t belong to as long as he’s airborne.

He’s a man who wants to be second best to no one.

Vietnam F-4 Phantom Pilot

Rest In Peace.