Chapter 9: Farewell to the Exotic East

In the days following our encounter with the PRC MiG, I found my relationship with Major Chung, as well as with the younger pilots in the wing, had warmed noticeably. They all seemed to take even my smallest suggestions far more seriously than before. They had always treated me with much personal respect, but now they actively sought out my professional advice.

In a meeting with the Major a few days later, I proposed a plan to set up a schedule of simulated combat missions with each of his pilots to establish a base line of proficiency. Based on the results, I would then develop personal plans for each, to hone their skills. He was enthusiastic about the plan and insisted it be implemented as soon as possible, but only if he were to be included in the program ... as a student. That surprise me a little, but I guess his near-death experience still weighed heavily on his mind.

Mae Ling now visited my room nearly every night. That evening I explained my plan to her as we cuddled in bed. She also was very enthusiastic about the idea, but suggested we discuss it further in the morning as she had other, more gratifying, ideas for the evening. She was right, as usual. After an hour of creative lovemaking, we drifted off to sleep in each other's arms, sated and exhausted.

The next morning I awoke refreshed only to find Mae Ling gone, again as usual. Only the exotic aroma of her perfume lingered on my pillow to remind me of our evening together. After showering and shaving, I went downstairs and found her waiting for me. She called to her cook to prepare my breakfast, then turned to me and asked what I had on my agenda for the day. I told her that I planned to fly to Taipei to clear my plan with MAAG headquarters, and would probably stop off at CCK and Tainan on the way back, to touch base with my two counterparts, Sam and Bill.

She looked at me with a gleam in her eye, saying that she would like to tag along as my translator. I explained that would not be possible as I would be flying my F-104 today and that it was only a single seat aircraft. She seemed disappointed, but I noticed the gleam hadn't left her eyes. She went up to her room for a moment, and then returned with a smug grin on her face.

About that time, Captain Yeu arrived with the staff car and we departed for the base. Arriving at Major Chung's office, I kissed her goodbye, stepped out of the car, and entered the building as her car pulled away. Entering the Major's office, I told him of my plans for the day and asked if there was any problem with my flying 007 up to Taipei. He replied that normally there wouldn't be, but today my bird was scheduled for its 100-hour periodic maintenance inspection; however he had another aircraft he would place at my disposal.

I picked up my flying gear from the equipment room, and then made my way out to the flight line. Asking my crew chief which aircraft had been assigned to me, he pointed out an F-104B sitting off by itself. As I was performing my walk-around inspection, a staff car approached and pulled to a stop. I was dumbfounded to see Mae Ling step out of the backseat, dressed in a snugly fitting flight suit and shiny black jump boots, with a helmet in the crook of her arm. Reaching back into the rear seat, she tugged a 'chute pack out, slung it over her shoulder and approached me. With a smug grin, she said, "Major Chung assured me there was an extra seat in this aircraft, so now you have no reason for not taking me along."

I knew when I was beaten, so I laughed as I assisted her up the crew ladder into the rear cockpit. Getting her settled into the ejection seat, I strapped her in, and then connected her oxygen hose and communications cord before giving her a crash course on emergency procedures. Making sure her intercom was set to the hot mic position, I warned her not to touch the ejection seat handles unless I specifically instructed her to do so. She nodded at me, her eyes shiny with excitement, as I climbed into the front seat, strapped in and signaled the crew chief that I was ready for engine start. As we pulled out of our parking space, my crew chief came to attention and snapped us a sharp salute. I'd never seen one do that before, at least not here on the island. I think it was more for Mae Ling's benefit than my own.

Once I had received permission from the tower to takeoff, I pulled slowly out onto the active, eased the throttle foreword, and once we started rolling, slapped it into 'burner. As the added thrust pressed me back hard against my 'chute pack, I heard a surprised gasp over the intercom, followed by an even louder gasp when I rotated sharply and took us to altitude like a high speed elevator at about a 70 degree angle of climb. Leveling off at 6,000 feet, not being sure how she would react to breathing 100% oxygen, I set our course for Taipei, switched on the autopilot and said, "How do you like the ride so far?"

Her voice came back, bubbling with excitement, "Great! Flying TWA was never like this. Do you mean to tell me you get paid to do this?"

"Yes and quite well thank you, but don't tell a soul. They might start charging me for the privilege!"

She laughed and replied, "Your secret is safe with me. Where are we now, by the way?"

As I was locked on to the TACAN beacon at Taipei, I glanced at the DME indicator and replied, "I'm showing we're 150 nautical miles out, we should be touching down at Taipei in about twenty minutes. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride."

Nineteen minutes later, Air Traffic Control worked us in between a TWA and a Cathy Air flight, and I went in hot to save time. As I banked hard onto final and lined up with the runway I heard a squeal of excitement from the back seat.

"What's wrong?" I asked, thinking Mae Ling might have lost her breakfast.

"Nothing is wrong, Buzz. It's just that this is almost as much fun as the rides I used to go on in California, at the County Fair!" she bubbled. I thought to myself that I just might have created a monster here.

As I flared out and touched down, my passenger said, "Is that it?"

Since she sounded somewhat disappointed that we had returned to earth so soon, I chuckled, "There's always the flight home to look forward to."

Parking our aircraft on the military side of the field, I climbed out, helped out of her lap belt and shoulder restraints, and then assisted her to the tarmac. At Operations, I asked them to file my return flight plan to Pingtung, departing in three hours with short stopovers at CCK and Tainan. I noticed the CAF Ops Officer, a Captain, was looking at Mae Ling rather strangely. It was then I realized that the CAF didn't have any female pilots. That was when I also noticed that the Major had provided her with the flight suit of 1st Lt. Liu Win Sung, one of our smallest pilots.

Thinking quickly, I said, "Miss Wong is my translator and personal assistant. She was required to attend at meeting with me at the American MAAG group and had to borrow a flight suit. If you need confirmation, please place a call to Major Chung at Pingtung Base Operations. He will be glad to sort it out for you. In the meantime, we need transportation to the city."

After a very brief phone conversation with Major Chung, the Captain turned to us with a wide smile and told us there would be a car around in just a few minutes.

At MAAG headquarters, I pitched my training plan, and partially because they had heard of my encounter with the MiG over the straights, it was approved unanimously, although they were more than a little curious about my aide, Lt. Liu. When I told them about Major Chung's little deception and they all got a laugh out of it. One Captain even asked, tongue-in-cheek, how he could wrangle a transfer to Pingtung!

On the flight back, we stopped briefly at both CCK and Tainan to brief my counterparts on my training plan. Bill's reaction was that, if it went well, he would press for a similar plan at CCK, but Sam said, although it sounded like a great idea, he doubted he could sell it to his boss at Tainan.

As we made our turn onto final at Pingtung, Mae Ling's voice came over the intercom saying wistfully, "I really hate to land, this has been the greatest day of my life."

In response I asked, "How much did you have to promise Major Chung to set it up?"

"You don't really want to know ... but rest assured I have no intention of fulfilling that little fantasy!" she chuckled.

I was still laughing as I landed and taxied to the parking ramp. By now the sun was low in the western sky, so we decided to call it a day. I was pretty tired, so I excused myself after complementing the cook on her excellent supper, and then turned in. As expected, Mae Ling showed up shortly after eleven and out did herself with erotic tricks under the covers. As we were lying in each other's arms, recuperating from our latest bout, she whispered, "I want to learn how to fly, Buzz."

Chuckling, I responded, "I thought you were flying pretty well just a minute ago!"

"No, I'm serious. I want to become a pilot, you silly ass! In the past, flying was always just a quick way to get where I needed to go. After today, in that little fighter, I want to fly them!"

"Well, if you're serious about it, I'd suggest you change your Doctorial major from Political Science to Aeronautical Engineering. I'm not sure it would get you into fighters, but it wouldn't hurt. I doubt the CAF will have female pilots anytime soon, but the USAF has been throwing out hints that we would have females flying with us in the future. With your dual citizenship, it's worth a try. If you still can't get accepted into an air force, you could always buy your own plane."

"Ummm," she muttered, as she climbed atop me for her goodnight kiss. The kiss, coupled with the erotic things she was doing with her hips, earned her another round of sex before she rolled off me and drifted into a deep sleep, a smug smile on her lips. I wondered if she was dreaming of me, or of piloting her own sleek aircraft, high above the clouds through empty, sunlit skies.

The next morning, I began putting together a detailed pilot training plan and three days later I found myself over the Pescadores islands with a young Chinese lieutenant flying on my wing. Although, like most of the pilots, he had been through the combat training courses at Luke and Nellis, he needed to polish up his learned techniques. To drive this point home, I unexpectedly threw my ship into a shuddering Split S maneuver and came up on his tail before he even realized I'd broken formation. I impressed on him that if I'd been one of those MiGs we could see in the distance close to the mainland, I could have easily blown him out of the sky. That got his attention immediately, and from that day on he was one of my most attentive students.

It took me nearly four months of intensive training, but by the end of that time we had a wing of pilots that I would have willingly led into combat against any enemy. My belief was tested the a few days later when Major Chung ordered a max effort fighter sweep deep in MiG country over the Pescadores Channel close to the mainland coast, and I flew along with them. The PRC air force responded by sending up about forty MiG fighters to challenge us. In the resulting fur ball, not one of our F-104s was lost and only two sustained minor battle damage, but fourteen of them proudly bore the X'd-out MiG silhouette beneath their canopy rails the next morning.

Shortly after that, the requirement came down for our pilots to also assume a fighter-bomber role. Although the F-104 had been touted for this role in Lockheed's sales pitch and I'd been schooled in the technique, the 104 wasn't especially suited for it; its speed was too great and its ability to absorb small-arms fire too marginal to work well down in the weeds.

Nevertheless, I brushed up on my techniques and soon had a plan in place to run our pilots through a refresher course. This did not go as smoothly as the air-to-air course I'd previously conducted, but within a month most of them could at least put the 50lb flour-filled sacks within a fifty-foot circular target. How that would work out if the target were firing back at them with 20mm quads still remained to be seen. However, it was the best I could do with what I had to work with.

A few nights later, as Mae Ling and I were relaxing after a particularly strenuous bout of lovemaking (I could never bring myself to refer to what went on in my bed as merely 'fucking') she looked up at me plaintively and said, "You know, you've been here ten months today."

I thought for a moment, knowing where this conversation was going and dreading it before answering, "You know, you're right! I've just been too busy to think about it."

"I can't stand to think what my life will be like without you in it. I really think I'm in love with you," she murmured.

Oh God, this was a conversation I didn't really want to have, at least not at the moment. I admit I had thought of how nice it would be for us to spend the rest of our lives together, but had dismissed it as soon as the thought occurred. The chasm between our lives was just too deep and wide for it to ever work out. She was a child of wealth and privilege, while I was an itinerant fighter pilot, undereducated by her standards, who could be moved from base-to-base at the whim of some faceless drone in the Pentagon to any place they thought they needed me at the moment.

Instead of putting my thoughts into words, I just kissed her softly and said, "We'll speak of it later, dear. Now, go to sleep." Long after she had fallen asleep in my arms I was still staring at the ceiling, knowing that our time together was quickly drawing to a close. Just how quickly was unveiled the next day when I walked into Major Chung's office.

As I stepped into his inner sanctum, he looked up at me with a broad smile on his face. Picking up an official looking envelop, he handed it to me saying, "This was just forwarded to you from MAAG headquarters in Taipei."

Since the envelope was still sealed, I knew he hadn't read it, but I also knew he was quite interested in its contents. I merely thanked him and shoved the letter into the map pocket of my flight suit.

Taking care of the business I had with him, I then strolled out to the flight line, leaned against the wing of my aircraft and retrieved the envelope. Tearing it open and scanning its contents, a wave of depression washed over me.

Cutting through all the bureaucratic bullshit, I learned that my MAAG assignment was being cut short due to a crisis in Europe, resulting in what was referred to as 'an acceleration of the Berlin buildup'. Abandoned airfields all over Western Europe had been reactivated in response to the Soviet threat and, as usual, pilots were in short supply. As a result, an Ohio ANG unit had been deployed to Etain, France the previous year, along with their F-84Fs. However, because of their extended deployment, which would soon result in their permanent reversion to active duty status, they had been ordered back to the states, but their aircraft were to remain at Etain. A few of their senior pilots had been given temporary extensions and would remain behind to provide transition training for the incoming replacement pilots. I was told to complete any unfinished business and report to MAAG Headquarters at Taipei within two weeks, to receive my orders and complete my out-processing.