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Tally Ho! Fighter pilot training key to Sheetz parking lot survival. Brock "Buck" Armling, who downed three MiGs in a one-week period in Vietnam, said nothing in his extensive naval pilot training could have prepared him for what he encountered in the Sheetz parking lot on tailgate weekend in State College. Armling and his wingman, Joe "Striker" Macintosh, were pulling escort for a convoy of football fans when, low on fuel, they entered the deadly auto-hunting ground called the Sheetz parking lot. "We rolled in feet dry with the sun on our six and as soon as we leveled off, it was a a total furball, cars, trucks, vans, and motorcycles dartin' everywhere." Armling said. "Right away, Striker warned me I had two bogies on my tail, so I banked left, shook 'em off and looked for a go juice pit." Armling nosed his vehicle into place and took deadly aim at the far corner of the lot where a fueling pit opened up. "Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some crazy college kids in a sports car flying toward me and I shuttered to the left," Armling said. "They had face paint on and there was smoke pouring out of their cockpit, so I knew they were doin' the doobie. I hard-ruddered to the right, three-sixtied and made like a dot for another fueling area." After successfully re-fueling, Armling maneuvered toward the exit. His wingman radioed of serious trouble at his 12 o'clock. "Just in time, I saw an older Korean woman with a beer in one hand and a cell phone in the other, pushing the envelope," Armling said. "It was like coming face to face with the Red Baron. I broke off the engagement and headed for safer waters." Armling said he still has nightmares about the experience. "Luckily the folks at the Altoona VA have a great delayed stress program that I attended," Armling said, as he bit his lip. "We lost a lot of good men back at that parking lot, good men."
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