You're joking, right? Did you just learn about this aircraft this week!? You can find countless "Viper driver" patches/designations/lore, in a quick internet search. The Viper nickname has been in the USAF vernacular for almost as long as the airframe itself.

Watch out guys. This pilot always has some tricks up his sleeve!

You missed the sentence "as far as fighters..." From that I deduced that the remaining graduates went on to fill other aircraft slots of which this article isn't the focus.

This type of content is exactly why I love this blog! Great write up.

Those Aviano AB tags are making my eyes misty! Reminds my of my time with USAEUR.

Penny Benjamin would be proud!

Those are Grumman Albatross. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j…

You are lucky indeed. I once took the exit to Marana with the same intention, and was not so kindly asked to turn around before I could get close. I tried to pull the pilot/enthusiast card, to little effect.

What you hear in the cabin, is actually the sound of the slipstream passing over the fuselage. You really only hear the engines during takeoff.