My Best Friends F-18

Inspiration comes in many forms. And one form is when my best friend comes to visit me....IN HIS F-18!!!!! Thats right, my pal flyes for the Navy. And so does his wife!!!! F-18's BABY!!!!! He's flown in Iraq and even gave air support to Marines in Fallujah.

Every once in a while Jon will pop out and visit....IN HIS F-18!!!!!!




He usually flies into this place.




Coming in for a landing




Taxi in




Jon is an 'A' typical Navy fighter pilot and I dont mean that Tom Cruise shit. Jon's all cool!




And a little cookoo. Hell you have to be to land on a postage stamp in the ocean ( aka Aircraft Carrier)




My brother and Jon walking the "spine" of the plane





My brother and I got to spend time with Jon on his aircraft carrier. Its something the Navy has been doing since Vietnam. Its called "Tiger Cruise" A lucky few civilians get to ride the last leg of the tour with there host. We got up close and personell with the F-18....





so yeah, I can fly this baby.





My boy loves the F-18 too. Who can blame him.





But then it comes time for Jon to go and fly back to his home base and put his Hornet to bed. The missile aint armed





Hornet by night





Prep for take off





The saddest part of Jons visits is when he has to leave. So long pal. FULL ON AFTERBURNERS!!!!




Its always inspiring to see Jon. I've known him since high school and all he's ever wanted to do was fly jets for the Navy. And even before I knew him we wanted to fly jets. Just knowing Jon has inspired me to do a short story based on his experiences as a Naval fighter Pilot.

I hope to complete it to be in the upcoming AFTERWORKS 2 anthology- coming this summer to comicon. So everyone stay on me to get it done. Especially YOU Jon.



MANDREWS OUT