RIP John Chesire

[Sublime]

'Throw a nickel in the grass'

RIP John Chesire.  F4 vet, 2 combat tours in Nam.  His memoirs are googleable and free online.  I only ever talked to him on quora but he had the greatest stories and was a great guy.  One of the original 'top guns'; like 2nd or 3rd class, flew the first operational F14 cruise.

Flew a tour in like 68 which he described as 'dull' went to top gun and flew a 72 tour he described as ' a different world' with the new AAA and SAMs and the NVN (hell and us) were more aggressive in the air war.

Honest to a fault, readily admitted he never laid eyes on a VN mig despite that being every true fighter pilots dream.  He had one on his scope before and tried chasing it down.  However it was a stern chase and headed right towards basically Hanoi and the main mig base area and after a few minutes he gave it up. Hell it was prolly a trap

If anyone is in contact with Pete Wenman pls have him msg me, John was very fond of Pete. I msgd him, Im sure he knows, but if not he deserves to, hes the one who made me aware of Johns existence.

 

edit wow I cant find his self written memoirs online anymore. Ill have someone find them for me.  His pics, and other stuff are readily googleable. His quora memories are pure gold.  This guy was a consummate professional and gentleman.  All of us Americans lost something when John passed away.