Back in 1965, not long after President Johnson made the SR71 “public”, I was in high school in Fort Worth, Texas, home of Carswell AFB. The base was home for squadrons of B-52s and the supersonic B-58 “Hustlers”. We routinely saw both leaving in the morning for missions to who knows where. One weekend they announced that the experimental XB-70 would be visiting Carswell for a semi-public airshow as part of a tour around the country. A friend’s father was a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force Reserve and he was able to get we two boys onto the base for the event. The B-70 was cool and it was a true experience to watch it take off for the return trip to California as the air show closed down. After that, the three of us were heading to the parking lot when we came around the corner of a hangar that had the main door just slightly open. We looked inside and discovered an SR-71 parked there. Imagine the surprise of seeing that alien looking craft at a time when I had never even seen a photo, let alone the real thing. We were all over the place looking at it and marveling at the machine, while the Lt. Colonel was nervously saying we probably didn’t belong there and should leave quickly.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/reader-mail/top-letters-and-comments-december-24-2021