Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sky King

My Army flight school buddy Doug Johnson sent this YouTube video to me. The song was written and performed by PHI's most famous ex-employee ('cept Bob Barbanes), Kris Kristofferson.

6 comments:

Bob Barbanes: said...

Infamous employee...I keep telling you, infamous! There's a certain Director of Operations who still has my picture on his wall...covering his dartboard.

Doug looks like he's having a good old time there, doesn't he? Nice wind off the water, good day for it.

Did they group you guys by your last names in flight school? I can just imagine... "Warrant Officer Johnson, today you'll be flying with Warrant Officer, umm, Johnson. You'll be Chalk Two in the flight. Warrant Officers Johnson and Johnson will be in Chalk One. Check with Sgt. Johnson for your aircraft assignments."

And what's with that Kristofferson ripoff of a Jimmy Dean song? I'm sure the people in the audience were going, "What the hell...what's a friggin' collective?? SING SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN, YOU BASTARD!"

Hal Johnson said...

Thanks Bob. I was trying to remember why that tune was so familiar: "Big John," by Jimmy Dean. Heck, makes me wanna go fry up some sausage.

When I got back into training after my motorcycle accident, I did end up in a class with three other Johnsons. Kind of irritated the TAC officers, as I remember.

In the late eighties, I had a conversation with Kristofferson at a Steve Earle concert. It was funny, because he was really excited about meeting a PHI pilot. I got him to laugh after he told me, "Tell everyone at PHI who remembers me I said hello." My response was, "Kris, you're a celebrity. They'll probably remember you."

Debby said...

This was hilarious.

Continuing the general thread of the last post and your obvious poor judgement, two rules so far: 1) Don't take coffee with a woman who has already kicked you in the gonads and 2) avoid 'butt puckering moments' in the air.

I bet if you ask Rhonda, she'll tell you I'm right. As you tell your stories, that list will get longer, no doubt.

Thanks for another laugh out loud moment!

Kelly said...

Well that was entertaining! (even if I was hearing "big John" in my mind the whole time...)

MarionL said...

How cool is that? I had no idea that Kristofferson worked for PHI. He can't sing worth a dang, but I did like him in "A Star is Born" with Barbara Streisand.

Pam said...

Love it! Love it! How cool!