By An Irritated Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

When Tom MacRae of Peoria, Arizona sat down to write a letter to the editor about some jets that had annoyed him, he put his sarcasm into afterburner. Here's MacRae's letter to the Arizona Republic, in toto:

Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the morning air show? Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 a.m., a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune! Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns' early-bird special? Any response would be appreciated.

MacRae's essential error, so common today, is assuming that it's all about him. The reporters of the Republic demanded an answer from the powers that be at Luke Air Force Base, on behalf of Mr MacRae. Luke, in the person of 56th Fighter Wing commander Col. Robin Rand, responded:

The "wake-up call" witnessed the morning of June 15 was a formation of F-16 jets from Luke Air Force Base lining up for a memorial service in Sun City at the gravesite for Air Force Capt. Jeremy Fresques (below), an officer assigned to Air Force Special Operations. Fresques gave his life in defense of our country while serving in Iraq.

Ouch. Rand wasn't quite finished, though:

It is unfortunate that at a time when our nation is at war someone would believe we have less than honorable and professional reasons for such a mission.

Owie. The squadron CO, Rand mentioned, had the difficult duty of informing Fresques's parents of their son's death -- on Memorial Day. Col. Rand didn't mention (at least in the edited letter printed in the paper) that officer's name (but it is Lt. Col. Scott Pleus) or that he knew Fresques well. Fresques had been a member of the wing's 56th Communications Squadron before being accepted to Combat Control school,.

To its credit, the Republic printed Colonel Rand's response. It also printed a letter to the editor from Michael Budrock of Glendale, who remembered seeing F-16s on the afternoon of 9/11, and hearing a neighbor call them "beautiful." Budrock added: "Yes. They were then. They are now." The Republic's copy desk caught his meaning perfectly in their headline: "Be Grateful Those Jets Are Up There."

A few days later the Republic received, and printed, a letter from Lt. Col. Pleus, whose 63rd Fighter Squadron, 56th FW, flew the mission. He does not dignify MacRae by naming him in a letter that is a model of self-control:

On June 15, at precisely 9:12 a.m., a perfectly timed four-ship of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt Jeremy Fresques....

... [B]ecause of the jet noise, I'm sure you didn't hear the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, or my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their son's flag on behalf of the president of the United States and all those veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have endured.

A four-ship flyby is a display of respect the Air Force pays to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects.

The letter writer asks, "Whom do we thank for the morning air show?"

The 56th Fighter Wing will call for you, and forward your thanks to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques, and thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives.

Meanwhile, Republic columnist Ed Montini followed up. "[L]ife for most of us is so comfortable that we sometimes forget the nation still is at war," Montini mused. "So much so that a solemn mission of honor can fly directly over our heads yet remain under our radar." He contacted Colonel Pleus and Fresques's widow, Lindsey, also an Air Force captain, and recorded their words for the Republic's readers -- those that made it to page B-10, anyway.

Ingrates are scarcely a novelty. Kipling's barracks-room sang of them; in these very pages I once recorded a similar put-down of a similar ingrate from 1943. A good way to purge your attitude of ingratitude, I find, is to look up, for instance, Jeremy Fresques; and the four other airmen (three Americans, one Iraqi) who perished with him in a Comp Air 7SL on Memorial Day, in an accident  unofficially blamed on a sandstorm. You will learn that Fresques had only just made captain that morning; that he was a volunteer for the hazardous world of special tactics; that he told his mother, "Don’t watch the news, Mom. Don’t believe what you see on television. The American military is doing a lot of good in Iraq, and I’m proud to be part of the effort."

The military honors its own for many reasons -- one of them being, who else will? Well, perhaps, we will. For those of you who haven't personally lost a friend, unit member, or family member, I suggest an exercise. I haven't got the space to tell you all that I learned about Fresques and the men that perished with him in an hour with Google. I recommend it to any of you as a good way to spend an hour, and you can experience the same wonder and feeling of discovery that I did. It will humble you, if you're any kind of a human being.

Yes, Mr MacRae, in your own words, "Imagine our good fortune!" That we have men like Jeremy Fresques, who instead of going to an Ivy League school and focusing on some self-centered pursuit of money or power, go to service acadamies, volunteer for risky special operations units and put their lives on the line for people that they'll never meet -- and that would sneer at them if they ever did.

Imagine that.

(Note: I wanted to contact Mr MacRae for his side of things, but there is no such listing in the white pages for Peoria, Arizona. If he wants to talk, I'm hognose@aero-news.net , and I'll pass it on).

FMI: www.luke.af.mil