Topic: Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird"

[Ken (OP)]

... these two videos are a bit long, but if you love aviation history and American social history as I do then you may find them worth the watch.
(*social history* as in American racial history.)

Col. Walter L. Watson, Jr.

Col. Walter L. Watson, Jr., USAF (Retired), was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the oldest of four children of the late Walter L. Watson, Sr. and Mildred Platt Watson. He attended public schools in Richland School District One and graduated from C. A. Johnson High School. While at Howard University in Washington, DC, he earned a Mechanical Engineering degree and commission as an Air Force Officer via the ROTC program. Additionally, Colonel Watson holds a Masters degree from Chapman College of Orange, CA, in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Colonel Watson is the Senior Aerospace Science Instructor (SASI) of the C. A. Johnson Preparatory Academy’s Air Force Junior ROTC unit (SC-065)...

LLESA Author Series | "Sled Driver: Flying the World's Fastest Jet" by Brian Shul

Brian Shul was born in Quantico, Virginia, in 1948.  He graduated from East Carolina University in 1970 with a degree in History.  That same year he joined the Air Force and attended pilot training at Reese AFB in Texas.

Brian served as a Foreign Air Advisor in the Viet Nam conflict, flying 212 close air support missions in conjunction with Air America.  Near the end of all hostilities, his AT-28 aircraft was shot down near the Cambodian border.  Unable to eject from the aircraft, Brian was forced to crash land into the jungle.  Miraculously surviving, he was severely burned in the ensuing fireball.  Crawling from the burning wreckage, he was finally found and rescued by a Special Forces team...