What's In a Name?

U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel, Air Force Special Operations Command commander, passes the guidon to Col. Albert M. "Buck" Elton II, 27th Special Operations Wing commander, in a change of command ceremony at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., July 8, 2011. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Ericka Engblom)

I used to think my family was sorta unique, in that we have three generations of Bucks... my father, Berl "Buck" Pennington; me, Norman "Buck" Pennington; and SN1, Ivan "Buck" Pennington... all of us bein' career Air Force.  Well, I THOUGHT we were unique until last night, when I met Col. Buck Elton, the commander of the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon.  Col. Elton was the guest speaker at the quarterly meeting of the Llano Estacado chapter of the Air Force Association, which I attended last evening.

Col. Elton opened up his remarks by saying he's the third in a line of Bucks, all of whom are or were career Air Force, going back to his grandfather who served in WW II.  I just HAD to raise my hand at that point to interrupt him with my "small world" story and the membership got a pretty good chuckle outta that.

It really is a small world, eh?  Or a strange one, you choose.

I've posted this photo before but some of you may not have seen it.

That's the Ol' Man, me, and Mom... c. 1947 or '48.