Flight from Arabia
The Embassy Flight
by
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Charlie's voice, calm and collected..."This is Tango-two-two-one. We are taking off. Please give us a runway assignment.
"Tango-two-two-one. I repeat, you are not cleared for take-offs. Return to holdings area!"
"This is Tango-two-two-one and we are not returning to the holdingarea. If you do not give us a runway assignment, we will use runway 11B."
The engines revved up and we started building speed. And tension started building, too.
"Bruce, what's happening?"
"I haven't a clue, Lainie."
"Tango-two-two-one! You are not cleared for take-offs! Return at once to the holdings area!"
"Hey, Tower! This is Tango-two-two-one and we're taking off! See you around...like a doughnut!"
With that the gear left the ground, and we could feel the smoothness of flight. After we started to level off, Redman came out of the cockpit and sat between us.
"Go look out that porthole, the one forward on the right." We unbuckled and went to the porthole. Off in the distance to the north, you could see little round puffs of black smoke floating in the air. More and more appeared until...it hit me.
"That looks like ack ack, Lt.! Anti-aircraft fire! Just like in the movies or something."
"It is ack ack. But this ain't the movies."
Later in the journey...
It was 7 1/2 hours flight time to Kindley Field in Bermuda. Mouse fixed us up with a "double-berth" bucket seat pallet and included some of the softer army green blankets. We raided the fridge for some crackers and cheese and Coca-Colas even though we were still full of oysters and scallops. And wine. We weren't that tired, bu we were ready to snuggle, and we lay there together with her arms around my chest and her sweet breasts pressing against my back.
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About the Book
Right after author Bruce M. Barrett graduated from high school at Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio, he accompanied his father and mother to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where his dad was to be the military attaché to the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Flight from Arabia recounts Bruce’s adventures in Saudi Arabia, including accompanying his dad on some pretty hair-raising then-secret missions and his trip home to go to college. Bruce’s father assigned him to accompany a general’s daughter back to the States, and they wound up on an air force cargo plane traveling through Egypt, Libya, and Pakistan, among other places. Together they explored the cultures and their budding friendship along the way. Bruce shares his memories of Saudi Arabia and its people from the heyday of the nation’s alliance with the United States.
This memoir recalls the adventure of a lifetime as two college-bound military brats in the mid-1960s take a military flight from the Middle East across Africa and Europe to the States.
About the Author
Bruce M. Barrett was born into a military family and traveled the world with his air force father and his mother. He earned a BS in commercial art from Texas State University (then known as Southwest Texas State University) and made a living as a musician, artist, house painter, carpenter, and a variety of other roles. He is currently retired and living in Pensacola, Florida.