yes, well...this is an entirely different situation. Without knowing much about your cuz, from what little you've told us, IMO, he hasn't actually lost a thing. He got to be THAT person, and he got to do it for a long long time. Everyone knows, going into it, that flying fighters doesn't last for long. The active military saves most of the gas for the younger guys. as you move up, you move out. It didn't come as any surprise. Another example of this is that all airline pilots have to retire at age 60. You see an obit in the paper of someone that is "only" 60 these days, you say, "gee, he was so young...what happened??". But thems the rules, and everyone knows it.
Unless he was stricken with a serious medical condition, he CAN still fly. something else...somewhere else...even fighter jets, potentially. There are lots of "old guys" flying high-performance fighters in the reserves and national guard. Its kind of counter-intuitive, but thats the way it works. (reserves don't have any "young guys", for the most part). These "senior" guard pilots get more flying time, on a "part time" basis than they ever did as full-time active military. And there's all kinds of other flying. If you're hung up on going mach-2, and nothing else will do...well, that's the attraction to some people. I've known people like that. I never had any desire to light my hair on fire. I'd have been just as happy flying the proverbial "cargo plane full of rubber dog @h!t outta hong-kong". I'm not (oops) an adrenaline junky or "thrill" seeker. thats not what it is, (or was) for me. Your cuz can mourn "not flying the f-14 anymore", and thats certainly understandable. But no one is going to take away his gold wings. That is who he IS and that is who he will always BE, whether he's actually flying, or not.
Oh, and funny how people draw parallels between flying and scuba diving. I was just at an outing with a guy who is an ex-F14 pilot, and someone made that comparison to him. He laughed out loud, HARD...as his laughter slowed, he said, "um...no (chuckle chuckle), its n o t h i n g like that!".
