Hello and welcome to the Fighter Pilot podcast. I am your host Vincent Iolo. If you are a long time

listener, you know we build this program as the, quote, internet radio show that explores the

fascinating world of air combat, the aircraft, the weapon systems, and as we always like to say,

most importantly, the people. And if you've listened more recently, you know that last month,

my brother Rocky died due to injury sustained in a tragic motorcycle accident. Well, in my grief,

I revisited an interview about tiger cruises that Rocky and I recorded with our oldest brother

Kai back in the summer of 2019. And this was based on experiences that three of us enjoyed on

the USS Nimitz back in the fall of 2003 when I was assigned a strike fighter squadron 97.

Well, unfortunately, parts of those audio files were corrupted. This was back before I converted

to my current full-proof system. And so I never turned the interview into an episode, hoping

the three of us would have a chance to get together and try again. Well, since that's impossible now,

I asked our producer Bernie to do his best to make these existing files at least passably tolerable,

and he did his best in any remaining audio faults are mine and not his. So a couple quick caveats

before we listen, you'll hear my oldest brother Kai referred to me by my real first name,

Ella, that you didn't know that. Vincent is my middle name. If you listen on headphones, you might

notice Kai and I are biased left and right with Rocky's audio in the middle. You might also

hear some interruptions. We were recording at Rocky's house with all our families there. They're

having a pool day and we're upstairs enjoying ourselves. And so that's just normal. And of course,

you'll hear the three of us carrying on like only brothers do because we were the best of friends

and Kai and I and the rest of the family miss Rocky so dearly. So please enjoy this discussion on

tiger cruises as a tribute to our fallen brother Rocky who we lay to rest the day this bonus episode

airs July 12th 2021. Rest in peace, brother.

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