I still have a VF-43 patch (along with a F-5 patch) given to me by Boomer. Long story, but his family was friends with my family and my mom was Stuff's (Boomer's little brother) 5th or 6th grade teacher when we lived in Annapolis.
Over the years before as I was growing up, Boomer was very kind and occasionally hooked me up with good deal visits to share a little bit of the Navy with me, as he and his dad knew how interested I was in becoming a Naval Aviator.
So one day in 1992, I got a call at my desk at the Pentagon; “Boomer” wanted to know how to get a picture of his squadron, the Jolly Rogers, on a magazine cover (I had multiple covers to my credit by then). We discussed some ideas and he expressed the wish to be on AvWeek. That was a tall order since it has to be something new and noteworthy besides being a decent picture. However, I knew several of the editors very well from my tenure as editor of Approach so I said I’d make call and see what the art of the possible might be. I proposed a flight of 3 Tomcats each outfitted with a different loadout (Bombs, Missiles and TARPS) to call attention to the newly adopted mission of Air-to-Ground for the community. They bit hard on that so I called the squadron to inform “Boomer”. I figured he had someone in the squadron to shoot the picture and asked when he thought they could set it up. He said “Whenever you can get here since you’re going to take the picture. That way I know it will be good enough!”
One of the images I took used for article on Tomcat carrying bombs for a living.
Two of my covers...including the one Boomer wanted
One of the candidates for the cover that did not get selected, but was my favorite!
