In short, Oceana is a feeling, a state of mind. It’s been a special place for me ever since I took my first long drive at age 17 to see the final F-14 Tomcat demonstration.

As I look back at the season past, there was one act that caused a major cashing of chips and completion of “honey do lists”. Earlier this year, the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) announced that their flight demonstration team, the Frecce Tricolori, would embark on a North American Tour.

Before we knew it, two small dots appeared on the horizon and the two F-16’s from 312 ‘Bonzo’ squadron approached and briefly disappeared behind us. The anticipation and excitement built up before more hand gestures indicated they were approaching our aircraft from the rear and before we knew it, two Vipers appeared from nowhere and positioned themselves beautifully on our wing. What a sight!

An aircraft is intricate. Like a human body, there are things that connect to doodads and thingies that are bolted on to whatchamacallits. It’s a life size jigsaw puzzle. As they say, Rome was not built in a day and those “how it is made” documentaries compress a marathon process into the time it takes to heat up a DiGiorno’s pizza. Building an airplane takes time and patience. 

I followed the trail he weaved through journalist's eyes in the plethora of yellowed documents and aged photos, piecing together a picture that connected the big events of his life. I am pleased and honored to introduce to you General William Bradford Rosson.

Anyone who does battle up here in these cloud cathedrals must possess this delicate spatial awareness in addition to the sharpened skills, cognitive depth, lightning-quick decision making and physical endurance that makes this elite breed of sky warriors so special.