"We'll ride her down together"

Originally Posted by ASL

The idea of a 21 year old bomber pilot calling a 19 year old gunner "son" is hilarious.

It happens.

When I was attending my Navy 'C' school, my friends began calling me 'Dad'. We were all 17 and 18 year olds. I do not think it really had anything to do with age, but with personality.

A few years later, when I was 30 and after I had served on board a couple different subs, I saw a list that the Yeoman had compiled sorting the crewmen by age. At 30 years old I was the third oldest on board. A nuclear sub, with up to 16 FBM missiles each with up to 14 nuc warheads, could very well add up to hundreds of nuc warheads. And among the crew who controls those missiles, the oldest guy onboard was 35.

It is a career of mostly 18 to 22 year olds. Once a servicemember gets to 25 years old he is pretty much among the 'old men' of the crew.

On my last sub, I was the oldest in the crew.

And I was forced to retire due to 'high-year-tenure' [old age] at 42.

[ASL]

Sorry to dig up this thread, but I happened upon some new information whilst reading about aircraft disappearances and it has some of the key elements, perhaps making it the inspiration for the film's events, albeit loosely:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_...Honor_citation

He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously because he thought he was riding the plane down with a severely injured radio man, but:

1) He didn't die in the crash, en route back to the US for follow-on medical care.
2) Turns put the radioman wasn't as badly wounded as thought, it was just a matter of confusion.
3) He (Vance) was kind of trapped anyways, unless he was willing to go 127 Hours on his foot.