In 1967, legendary author John Steinbeck climbed into a Huey helicopter over Vietnam—and what he wrote afterward was so raw, so strange, and so brutally honest that it still messes with pilots and historians today. This episode dives into the Vietnam War helicopter experience through Steinbeck’s eyes: the sound, the fear, the weird calm, and the “ecstasy” of combat aviation that only those who’ve strapped into a military aircraft truly understand.

We unpack what happens when a world-class writer meets rotary-wing warfare head-on, why Huey pilots in Vietnam lived on a knife edge between poetry and panic, and how Steinbeck captured the psychology of flight, risk, and survival better than most official war histories ever did. It’s part aviation storytelling, part Vietnam War history, and part “what did I just read?”—told the only way pilots can: with irreverence, curiosity, and a healthy respect for anyone who willingly steps into a machine designed to hover over a jungle full of people shooting at it.

If you’ve ever wondered what flying a Huey in Vietnam felt like, how war correspondents experienced combat aviation, or why pilots sometimes describe danger in oddly beautiful terms… buckle up. This one’s a ride.From Vietnam War Huey helicopter missions to pilot safety, ATC coordination, and the strange psychology of combat aviation storytelling, this episode explores how flying in war changes everyone who touches the sky.

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The Beginning of My Crime Spree sounds like a joke—until Captain Mike “Masher” McGrath explains how survival inside the Hanoi Hilton sometimes meant quietly breaking the rules.

In this episode of So There I Was, Masher, a retired US Navy A-4 Skyhawk and A-7 Corsair pilot, recounts flying 179 combat missions over Vietnam before being shot down in 1967 and spending nearly six years as a Prisoner of War in Hanoi. He shares firsthand stories of resistance, resilience, and the subtle “crimes” POWs committed to survive captivity—communicating in secret, organizing under pressure, and refusing to break.

Told with dry humor, clarity, and perspective earned the hard way, this conversation offers an unfiltered look at life as a POW during the Vietnam War and how human will, discipline, and leadership endured under brutal conditions. Masher also discusses how he later documented these experiences through stark artwork and his book Prisoner of War—Six Years in Hanoi.

This is not history from a textbook—it’s lived experience, told straight.

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#VietnamWar

#POW

#HanoiHilton

#NavalAviation

#MilitaryHistory

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#Leadership

#Resilience

#TrueStories

So there I was… five miles from the runway at Stansted, flaps moving from 35 to 50 on an MD-11, when the airplane abruptly rolled to nearly 60 degrees of bank on short final. That’s not a metaphor. That actually happened.

In this episode of So There I Was, Fig and RePete sit down with Chubbs, a Guard fighter pilot turned FedEx check airman, for a master-class in aviation storytelling, decision-making, and pure “how did we survive that?” moments. From a flap literally departing the aircraft and landing between cars at a pub, to CRM failures so bad they ended careers, to Guard shenanigans involving stolen cars, helicopters, and a flattened Crown Vic — this one covers it all.

Along the way, we dive into MD-11 systems quirks, high-stakes line checks, cargo ops into combat zones, fatigue, judgment calls on short final, and why sometimes the smartest move is to undo the last thing you did and land the airplane. Equal parts hilarious, terrifying, and educational — exactly how aviation stories should be told.

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#AirlinePilotLifestyle #WhatIsIOEForPilots #AviationHumor

In this episode of So There I Was, Fig and RePete are joined by Kemo and they sit down with two air traffic controllers to talk about what pilots never see — and rarely understand — on the other side of the mic. From go-arounds that mean “you’re not trying hard enough,” to near-miss moments that make an entire tower pucker, this conversation pulls back the curtain on how airspace actually gets managed.

Along the way, we dig into controller training timelines that rival military pipelines, staffing shortages that stretch patience and margins, and what it’s like working a shutdown while still moving metal safely. Then things go sideways — canceled takeoffs for iguanas on the runway, Brasher warnings explained, and stories that absolutely did not make it into the AIM.

It’s equal parts aviation reality check, dark humor, and behind-the-scenes storytelling — and once you hear it, you’ll never hear ATC the same way again.

New Year’s Eve, no guest, and somehow the cockpit still turns into a full-blown sitcom. Fig & RePete kick off with a takeoff that goes sideways at V1 when “rotate” gets called… and apparently translated into “stare blankly into the void.” From there, it’s the perfect hangout episode: Top Gun continuity crimes (medals disappear, sunglasses teleport), a hard pivot into the Air India 787 post-rotation dual-engine power-loss mystery (and why one explanation feels disturbingly too plausible), and a buffet of leadership horror stories that’ll make you grateful for every normal human you’ve ever flown with.

Plus: quiet professionals, jumpseat survival tactics, and one legendary “turn the checklist 90 degrees” power move that ends exactly how it should. Funny, sharp, and just unhinged enough to feel like the crew room after midnight.

This week’s So There I Was episode is a Hangout — that happens when you put pilots, controllers, and a few proud troublemakers in the same virtual room and hit “record.” We swap the kind of stories that never fit in a checklist: a Harrier night recovery that ended six inches from a very bad day, a Learjet that missed an airliner by 100 feet in IMC, and a “UFO” sighting that turned out to be Starlink doing accidental aerobatics in the sun’s glare.

Then Heater drops in and casually explains how Top Gun almost became a dark vampire movie (until someone showed the director what blue sky actually looks like). Add laser-strike rage, EMAS explained for non-pilots, and the annual reminder that the Marines were the in-flight entertainment.

Happy New Year—check six, and don’t touch the igniter wiring.

This is what happens when you put a Navy Tomcat legend behind a camera and let him tell the story his way. Heater takes us from KC-135 tanker ops with that infamous hard hose, to the kind of “how’d-you-do-that?” plug where he’s steady on the basket and still managing to grab photos mid-refuel. Then we pivot into Top Gun lore from someone who was actually there: the “Star Wars on Earth” in more ways than one; the image that helped ignite the franchise; two days of filming “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” and the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mystery of a possible Darth Vader lurking in the background of the bar scene. Along the way, Heater breaks down what aviation photography really takes: planning, timing, composition, and the occasional blind shot that somehow becomes iconic. And years later, he’s still uncovering gems in old slide boxes that prove the best pictures sometimes outlive the moment by decades. Long-form, hilarious, and packed with aviation history and insider detail.

This week’s sponsor: Antigravity A1 Drone. Learn more at sothereiwas.us/antigravity

Episode 190 is what happens when you hand the mic to Captain CJ “Heater” Healy and then just try to keep up. Heater takes us from a childhood obsession with WWII airplanes to roller-coaster “G-training,” to flying—then teaching—at the highest levels of naval aviation. Along the way, we hit the $10 “Mexican Justice of the Peace” wedding that turned into a 53-year marriage, the fighter-pilot path that almost didn’t happen, and the mind-bending world of MiGs at Area 51 — yes, the ones that “smelled like a hydraulic leak with an electrical fire.” — Heater also reveals how a single photograph helped spark Top Gun, plus what it was like being on set and shooting real missile events that almost ended VERY badly with a very non-digital camera… including mid-flight film surgery. This one’s a top-five all-timer—no doubt.