Happy Birthday, Buck!

Anyone and everyone who is familiar with the works of Douglas Adams knows the significance of the number 42. But today the number means something just a little different to me (and more than a few others). Because it was 42 years ago today YrHmblScrb was pacing the floor of the day room at the 669^th Radar Squadron on Vandenberg AFB, California… waiting, in the time honored fashion of countless fathers before him, for the phone call that would come from the VAFB hospital, telling me “Congratulations, Airman Pennington…you’re a father!”

I didn’t get to pace all that much, though, because I had hardly arrived in the day room when the phone rang and I received the anticipated message. The First Mrs. Pennington was in labor for all of about 30 minutes before Ivan Anthony Pennington arrived in this world… which is pretty danged good for one’s first-born. And... just in case you're wondering why I was in the day room and not the delivery room, Buck was born back in the day when fathers were barred from the delivery room birthing suite. I'll withhold comment on that subject.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since August of 1966. I’ll repeat what I said last year on this occasion: “As the citations accompanying military awards and decorations always say: ‘By his significant accomplishments and superior performance, Captain Pennington has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.’ His wife, children, and parents, too.”

Happy Birthday, Buck!