Now, this is no s***t, or should I say "once upon a time..."?
In spring of 1974 I ran into Jimmy Carter at a college in New England. He was an obscure Georgia governor a thousand miles away from home and I was the only one in the student union who knew who he was. He was glad to chat with me for a few minutes.
I had seen him arrive at NAS Atlanta the previous summer (or was it the one before?) in the number 7 Blue Angel F-4J (BuNo 153076) prior to the Blues' performance that afternoon. The pilot was fellow Georgian Bill "Burner" Beardsley. After landing, a state flag was presented at a minor ceremony, not sure who kept it from the pictures.
Jimmy said his Phantom ride took him down to his farm in Plains, Georgia and Burner rolled inverted to give the Governor a good look at his property. He remembered the sweat rolling into his hair as he hung upside down in the straps. The future First Lady Rosalynn was with him and an aide was tugging his sleeve as we chatted. It turns out that he was doing early groundwork for his 1976 presidential run in the off-year New Hampshire House elections.
The Blues in Phantoms were the most awesome airshow act I've ever seen.
