Tales of the White Rocket: Training Air Force Pilots in the T-38A

“Legacy UPT” (Undergraduate Pilot Training) conventionally covers the T-38A flying training experience from 1961 through the eighties. Those of us who flew the T-38A during this period had a ball! Our experiences were unbelievable at times; heartwarming on some occasions, and heartbreaking on others. Often, at the end of the day, we would gather in flight rooms or our social rooms and share our experiences flying with students, encountering emergencies, and recalling the tales of those who went before us. This book is meant to share these stories, to remember and honor the men and women who flew the ’38 during that time period.

These stories will make you shake your head on occasion and laugh out loud at others. To the best of my knowledge, they are all true. Adding 5 knots or lowering the altitude by 100 feet will not change a story here at all! While the majority of what you will read is from my own experiences, I have included other stories from “Guest Help!”

I would like to sum it all up by paraphrasing from groups of old men usually found at farmers’ markets across the country (“Old Coots Giving Advice; It’s probably bad, but it’s Free!) Our stories, for the most part, are true, and you will learn a little bit about flying!

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0GYWT5JJS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 28, 2026
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 172 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8274514446
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.43 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #79,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #64 in History Humor #114 in United States Military Veterans History #3,384 in Memoirs (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars (47) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });

Product summary

shift
+
opt
+
D