With no jets to fly, the grounded pilots had to find ways to kill time—some buried themselves in books, others practiced formation maneuvers on the tarmac like kids playing “tag,” and some just went for a run or hit the gym. Then there were guys like Lin Mo, spending all day on the range burning through ammo.
With so many flight missions canceled, the base had gone eerily quiet. Without the usual nighttime roar of engines taking off and landing, a lot of people had trouble sleeping—silence just didn’t feel right anymore.
The armory at the air base wasn’t stocked quite as extensively as an Army depot, but with a security battalion stationed there, it had everything a pilot could possibly need—assault rifles, rifle grenades, light and heavy machine guns, even sniper rifles were available f
