| Bill Sigler and I grew up together in the West End of Louisville. We went to St. Columba School (he was one grade ahead of me), cut grass together, bicycled together, went through the Boy Scouts and became Eagle Scouts together, became ham radio operators together. Then I went to the seminary and he went to the Coast Guard Academy and both of us learned how to fly and acquired an enduring interest in aircraft. Bill now lives in Alaska and I in Cambodia but we keep in touch and learned we would both be in New York at the same time so we met today in the City. |
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| We met at Bill's friend's house and then took the Metro North into Grand Central Station. From there we walked across Manhattan Island to the East River. On the way we passed this car taking photographs of Manhattan for Google Street View. |
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| Our destination was the aircraft carrier Intrepid, now moored in the East River in Midtown and converted into an aircraft museum. Bill and I both are pilots (he with much higher ratings than I) and have a serious interest in aircraft. |
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| Intrepid has several interesting groupings of aircraft, the helicopters pictured here but also vintage fighter jets from different countries, attack aircraft, a Concorde, and an SR-71 Blackbird. It was fascinating to hear Bill's explanation and description of the various aircraft we could view. |
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| We also toured Intrepid and on the bridge and navigation decks Bill explained a lot of the instruments that I knew by name but could now see in real life. The last time I was on the bridge of a military ship was when I visited Bill when he was a Coast Guard officer aboard USCGC Barataria in New London, Connecticut. |
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| Moored alongside Intrepid is the submarine Growler which was the first submarine equipped with nuclear cruise missiles in addition to the conventional torpedoes. |
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| Here we are on the Intrepid flight deck after our afternoon together. Bill and I have kept in touch but this is the first time we did something together since 1958. It was great to be together again. |
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