An Interview With Ron Standerfer, Author Of The Eagle's Last Flight - Page 3

Is the F100 the plane that I once heard of as ‘The Widow Maker’?

I’ve heard it called that, and other models too. Flying was a dangerous business in those days. We used to have a saying, “Flying is hours and hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror.”

Authoring is like good drugs — once you have one book, you have to have another! What is the next book going to be about?

I just started it. The key words are archaeology, suicide, kidnapping, murder, and one hell of a treasure hunt. And oh yeah - sex, lies, and betrayal.

If you could wind the clock back, would you do it all again? As I recall your bio says that you flew 200 combat missions - each one of those could have been your last.

I’d do it in a heartbeat. It was a fantastic experience. Look at it this way — today could be the last day of your life — or mine for that matter.

For the fighter pilot, death is a way of life, I am sure that in your real life you have lost friends. Is it really possible to just dust yourself off, and climb back into the cockpit?

Absolutely. It was all about compartmentalizing. We felt it was always the other guy that was going to get killed next, not us. So when the other guy got killed — or bought the farm, as we used to say — we went to his funeral, honored his memory, looked after his family, and then, it was business as usual. Ask any race car driver and I’ll bet he or she will tell you the same thing.

Postscript: Ron is a most entertaining guy. I suspect that we will be hearing more about this new writer in the near future.

Article Author: Simon Barrett

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

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