Still In Fightertown

Captain Brian Bews ejected as his CF-18 fighter jet plummeted to the ground at the Lethbridge County Airport during a practice flight on Friday, July 23 for the weekend air show in Alberta, Canada.

For two years I worked at the southern edge of "Fightertown." That's what they called the then NAS Miramar, on San Diego's Kearney Mesa... Site of the movie and real-life home of "Top Gun," Navy Fighter Weapons School 1969 - 1996.

F-14 Tomcats flying low and slow became a routine sight, as the enormous two-seaters made approaches. Other planes from San Diego might operate out of Coronado, a stones throw from where their carriers docked, but all the fighters came home to Miramar.

One afternoon I spotted a column of black smoke rising from the base and automatically put in a call to the Public Information Office. It was a training exercise for fire-fighters that used real jet fuel. The PIO apologized for not having notified the news media ahead of time.

The Tomcats have since retired. "Top Gun" is now run out of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at NAS Fallon, Nevada. Marines moved south from Irvine with pilots flying out of the now renamed MCAS Miramar in F-18 Hornets, like the one that crashed on Friday.

A friend who lives in San Diego County couldn't believe I hadn't even visited there in 20 years. He said he still thinks of me as a local... And the way that even a crash where the pilot escaped with a sore back and scraped up arms gets to me, maybe I still am at heart.

See a remarkable photo sequence by Ian Martens of the Lethbridge Herald.