Blog the Travelogue

I love airplanes and fighter jets. I've been to at least a dozen military airshows. Everytime I see the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds in action it really moves my heart. But I'm gonna tell you about a really cool dog fight I saw this morning.

For those of you who don't know, a dog fight is when 2 or more military fighter jets try to blow each other up. The Ft. Walton airshow a few years had a theme about History of Dog Fighting.

(1)They started from the WWII era and progressed to until modern day jest. The first act was a mock dog fight between a P51 Mustang and a Japanese Zero. Truth: there are no Zeros left on the world they were destroyed in the War. So, They had to take an old T-6 Texan a paint it like a Zero.

This was without a doubt the best act (minus the jet truck). The entire dog fight took place in fornt of your eyes. You don't even have to turn your head. Slower speeds allowed you to seee the lines and understand how a dog fight worked: how to out manuver and out smart the bad guy.

(2)The next fight was between a F-86 Saber and a Mig-15: The Korean Era.
This was the first jet dog fight. With much faster speeds you had to turn your head quite a bit to keep up, but the fight was stil in front of you. You could still see the lines and the same manuvers as the first fight.

(3)The Moder Era was between an F-15C and F-16B. The 2 seater F-16. I think it's the closest thing to the Russian Mig-29 in the U.S. inventory. This was the most boring of the three. Why? Becuase these things are so fast they can't just turn on a dime. The dog fight took place all around us. They even had to fly miles out. You couldn't even hear them. Whenever they came back they only stayed at show center for a few secoond and then they were back out over ocean again. It was loud and fast, but not the same as the first fights.

There were plenty of other acts, but these were the dog fight acts.


Anyway, I woke up, did some writing, and decided to step outside for a minute. Then I saw it...Plain as day! From my right, this little sparrow beging hunted by a big hawk. Man, it was cool. That little bird was flapping like crazy. Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap...Swisting, turning, fliping...Anything to get that Hawk off his back. It did no good. The Hawk sweapt his wings to attack mode to reduce drag and increase manuverability. The Hawk anticipated every twist, flip, or jostle. Poor little sparrow...

But then, the sparrow did some the Hawk did not intend: He pitched up hard and flew straight into a bush. The Hawk followed. Dumb move. The little bird just jumped around and headed back out. But the time that big Hawk got out the little sparrow was long gone!

It reminded me of a dream I once had. God speaks to me in dreams.

In this dream I was a fighter pilot. I was in some kind of attack aircraft. It wasn't a true fighter jet. My mission: to blow up a bridge or some enemy installation. On my way back to base I came under attack much like the little sparrow. I did everything I could to shake him, but he had a true fight jet. I couldn't match his speed or manuveraility. I was a gonner...

In desparation I cried out over the radio, "I can't shake him, I can't shake him." Help came. I looked 10 o'clock high and saw two F/A-18s turning in for the kill. I knew I was safe.

My point? This is a good picture of how the body of Christ works. Each person has his or her job. And each job takes up where another leavess off. You see in that dream it was my job to disrubt the enemys railways, bridges, and supply routes. Cut them off at the source. But it was the job of the fighter to protect the attack/strike aircraft.

One person may be a teacher and another a prophet and another may be for service or encouragement. Niether is better than the other and they all compliment each other to build up the body.