I had almost finished year two in northern Japan. This old country bumpkin got homesick. I was out running the engines to check out maintenance that got done on my aircraft. It was the middle of the night in a far off land.

 I was right at the end of the runway with the engines running when a thought entered my mind. I could take off and go home for a visit.  

I was sitting at Misawa Japan location 40.67823° N, 141.3474° E and Hayti, South Dakota is on 44.673603° N, -97.18824° E. A quick flight plan was developing in the back of my mind, fly back around the globe. 

I would come into Hayti real low over Lake Marsh, just clearing the Herald Enterprise building to land on Main Street. I was sure I couldn’t get stopped by the time I got to the Horseshoe. So I would taxi down to the Court House, turn around, and come back to have a beer or two. I would then fly back to Japan before anybody missed me.

I started to have second thoughts:

1. The Air Force would shoot me down before I got very far from the airbase.
2. I’m sure I would not be very good at inflight refueling, which I would have to do to fly that far.
3. I would no doubt get lost en route to Hayti.
4. That is a long way to go for a beer but I would get to see some friendly faces.

I decided to scratch the whole mission, chalk it up to another wild dream. 

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