AMERICA ONE by T. I. Wade Read Free Book Online

but his straight talk, direct manners and often loud rebuffs of superior officers, were among the many reasons he had been passed over for promotion a dozen times in his career.
    He had often “explained” to superior officers, and even the President of the United States one day, “Where they should park their bikes!” Jonesy was not afraid of anybody, or any aircraft. He had flown hundreds in his lifetime and, although he had even crashed a couple, the Air Force courts never find fault with his flying. Long before any crashes, he often he told the mechanics what he subconsciously felt about the aircraft he had just flown; unfortunately, the problems he detected were usually forgotten as soon as he left the hangar.
    Jonesy wanted to fly ever since he could remember. The earliest house he could remember his family living in was inside an Air Force base. His father was one of the most decorated pilots of the Second World War and the Korean War, and was more respectful to superiors than his wild son. In 1965, the family moved to Andrews Air Force base, just outside Washington DC and, when he was twelve, the boy did everything in his power to catch a ride on any aircraft leaving Andrews.
    Jonesy was a tall kid for his age. He had tousled blond hair and freckles on his nose. If anybody noticed him, they would see a tall, blond-haired, skinny, freckly kid with startling blue eyes.
    His father was often abroad, still flying and teaching Air Force pilots in Germany, Japan or Korea. The times he was home, he did his best to get his crazy son aboard any aircraft he could, but the Air Force had many rules and regulations about allowing snotty-nosed little brats aboard a million-dollar-plus piece of equipment. Even holding the rank of captain, his father was not high enough up the chain of command to bend the rules.
    His mother, Meredith, ran the base commissary and worked long hours. His only sister, Beth, three years older than he, was at the stage of noticing teenaged boys and disliked her brother’s attitude enough not to worry if his usually dirty and freckled face didn’t appear in her small vision of life for days on end.
    The Jones family was the usual military family, always busy, often separated, and really enjoyed laughter, jokes, and life during their infrequent get-togethers, especially at a friend’s or base party.
    So, Jonesy went about getting hours in the air another way. Many aircraft took off daily from Andrews—fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and fuel tankers. There wasn’t enough room for a boy his size to slip aboard a fighter, nor were the bombers much use. Who wanted to sit on top of tons of bombs for a free ride? Not many, but if that was the only choice available he sometimes considered it.
    One of the earliest times he was caught Jonesy was thirteen; he was at Ramstein Air Force base in Germany sneaking out of a just-landed transport, and into a second one about to head back stateside to Dyess Air Force base in Texas. His father, based at Dyess at the time, was phoned about his son appearing suddenly at Ramstein. Within thirty-six hours, Jonesy was back at home at Andrews, via Italy and Dyess, where strong discipline was administered courtesy of his father and his leather Air Force belt.
    Another time, two months later, he was found scrounging for food outside the rear kitchen entrance to the Officers’ Mess at Misawa Air Force base in Japan. His father, still at Dyess, pleaded with the Air Force military police to return his boy to Andrews. This time it took him two weeks to return, the happy boy flying in the cockpit of several aircraft from Misawa to Andrews, via Korea, Turkey, Germany and the Azores.
    He was banned from approaching any aircraft, or even the runway areas and, because of him, several additional cameras were mounted around the inner base of Andrews Air Force Base.
    With the added surveillance on him, he was now grounded for a year before his father was relocated to Ramstein in