In this week’s episode of So There I Was, Ike joins us with stories so wild they make the Quigley, Beirut, and Cherry Point weather sound like minor inconveniences. We open with Ike casually mentioning that he once found himself upside-down over the North Atlantic at night — because of course he did. From growing up under the Nashville approach path to being choked in boot camp for laughing, to nearly “smoking” the British ambassador in Beirut when his door gunner got jumpy, Ike’s journey from farm kid to single-seat attack pilot is a rollercoaster with no safety bar.

We hit everything: CH-46 shenanigans, A-4 aileron rolls where drop tanks were definitely still attached, Harrier culture, maintenance-shop misery, and why flying vertical is basically a religion. Add in toilet installations on mountain peaks, British PT instructors who try to kill you, and Marines being Marines… and you’ve got an episode that is equal parts chaos, nostalgia, and aviation gold.