Here I am, living in good old wonderful Europe! On the day 60 years after the first ever take-off from a ship (by Eugene Ely), I was born in a small town called Süchteln, Germany. Süchteln was located near by two major Royal Air Force airbases, Wildenrath (click here for a satellite photo) and Brüggen (click here for a satellite photo). One was a McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2 airbase (Nos. 19 and 92 Squadron), the other one was a major Panavia Tornado airbase respectively. My interest in aviation started with my first model kits and my first airshows and when I joined an informal Spotter Group at RAF Wildenrath. From the age of 15 onwards I went to airshows in Germany, Belgium, France, the UK and the Netherlands, gathering a lot of information, experience and more and more slides & photos. My special enthusiasm for the F-14 Tomcat arose when I saw the movie "The Final Countdown", featuring VF-84 F-14s and the carrier USS Nimitz. For long years I gathered anything about the Navy and especially about the Tomcat. Also, I was a member of the The Tailhook Association to stay tuned to the Tomcat community.

After school I went for my inevitable tour of duty with the German Army. I spent my time with an artillery batallion that was part of a NATO Composite Force. During that time I was lucky enough to participate in an exercise in northern Norway. It was more like a holiday than an exercise to me ;-) My job was to assist staff-officers in the analysis and interpretation of battle-field situations and to maintain and drive a lovely vehicle called "Unimog" which was older than myself!

The brick in the Walk of Honor at the Grumman Memorial Park dedicated to me!

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