When other troopers asked him why, he replied that he intended someday to become commander of the entire highway patrol. Two or three years of this challenging work was enough to inspire most black troopers to look elsewhere for employment, but Jim Tile hung on. This way they could spend most of their days writing tickets to foul-mouthed Klansmen farmers who insisted on driving their tractors down the middle of the highway in violation of about seventeen traffic statutes. In the 1970s the usual fate of black troopers was to get assigned to the lousiest roads in the reddest counties. STANLEY HO'S METICULOUSLY planned party had deteriorated into a bacchanalia. Pitt and Giordino climbed from the cockpit and shook hands with Gunn and Stewart. Once clearance was achieved, the crane swung the aircraft over the side and lowered it onto a landing pad on the stern deck next to the ship's helicopter. Water fell in cascades from the hull and floats as the Coast Guard crew manning the guy ropes pulled the aircraft into the proper attitude. A signal was given and the crane's engine shifted into gear and hoisted up the Skyfox.

The cable was lowered and Giordino attached the hook and lines to the lifting rings on the top of the aircraft's wings and fuselage before catching guy ropes from the crew. The boom from the ship's crane swung around until it was hovering over the Skyfox. Giordino raised the canopy and waved up to Rudi Gunn and Captain Frank Stewart, who were standing at the railing.

'What are you talking about? You were caught and sentenced.

He glared at me, his face full of hatred.Ĭame here?' said Cleve.

Another word for audacity