NORAD Protests Russian Buzzing

It is a casually interesting difference in perception. I was on a British carrier in the North Sea and occasionally Sub Arctic during the time of the Cuban missile situation. Moscow was something like 500 miles or so away from us. I suppose the claim could be made that we were at the tip were there to be any unpleasantness. We knew that the Russian Bears were probing our defenses, but we also knew that we had a somewhat serious job of explaining that we were there. One had to keep a sense of proportion and sense of fun when intercepting.
In later years I met some of the Bear pilots. They told me that they welcomed our arrival since it broke the terrible monotony of the 23 hour mission from East USSR.
If fighter pilots don’t have a fairly good supply of youthful exuberance, they have certainly changed in the last sixty years…… shame that.