My dad, an Irish immigrant’s son who by dint of hard work and good luck became a seaplane instructor from Stamford, Connecticut, could take a crowded train down to Arcada, Florida, and teach British farmboys how to fly on Stearman biplanes, incredible planes that are still flying. After learning how to take off and land in one piece, the British cadets quickly graduated to aerobatics fifty feet off the deck. The ones who survived were well-prepared to move on to Spitfires, the planes they used to drive back the mighty Luftwaffe. To this day, British families of pilots who died at Arcada gather once a year to honor them.

President Biden! In the time we’re wasting nitpicking how to get Russian MiG 29s from Poland to Ukraine, we could be picking up Ukrainian pilots at the border and having our Top Guns train them on American fighters that the Ukrainian pilots can fly back to their homeland. It would be like delivering big Javelins, which we are already doing.

They don’t call me the Idea Man for nothing!