Norman, OK - Marty Stone didn’t want to put down his one-time roommate, but the fact is it’s time for Gerald Swindle to give up his nickname. 

G-Man, meet the “Six-G Man.”

You see, yesterday Stone had the once in a lifetime opportunity to fly in an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet at Seymour Johnson Air Base near his North Carolina home, and the effects were extreme.

“People talk about G’s but no matter what explanation you give, you can’t really understand it until you experience them,” he said. “On the most extreme roller coaster you feel two or two and a half G’s, but fighter pilots experience five and a half to six G’s on a regular basis. For every G, you double your body weight, so imagine the strongest person you know pushing in on your gut and ten fat men on your head.”

The effort was arranged by Major Fritz Boudreaux, who introduced himself to Stone at the 2006 Bassmaster Classic, and allowed the personable North Carolina pro to cross one more item off his “bucket list.”

The plane that Stone got to ride in is no simple vehicle -- “That’s a $50 million dollar bird,” he said – so there was some mandatory training prior to his ascent.

“When I arrived there on Tuesday, they gave me a tour of the base and gave me really more of the red carpet treatment than I deserved,” Stone said. “Then I had what they call ‘egress training.’ There was more time spent on what to do if something bad happens than on the fun thing I was going to do. There were also very specific things I was not allowed to touch.”

In addition to the training, Stone, whose normal work attire consists of a tournament jersey and a pair of shorts or pants, was fitted for a flight suit and a G Suit.

“It’s basically a man’s girdle,” he said. “Let’s just say it was very revealing, wrapped around your abdomen.” 

In order to get properly fitted, Stone had to stand up against a wall with his arms and legs spread wide. “The last time I was in that position, I was in high school and there were sirens involved,” he joked. For his slight discomfort, he was able to keep the flight suit as a souvenir of his experience.

He was paired up with a Captain with the call-name “Twister,” who rode in the front seat of the plane while Stone sat in the back. He said that he never realized how much work is involved in the back-seater’s job and reported that he was qualified to do little more than “hold on for dear life.”

“Twister had the patience of Job with this 40 year old babbling man,” Stone said. “We had a lot of fun.”

He got to experience what is known as a “Maximum Performance Take Off,” which allowed them to reach a ground speed of 400 mph before launching what felt like straight up in the air.

“We went from 100 feet to 10,000 feet in the blink of an eye,” Stone recalled. “I was doing my breathing and puckering like they taught me. I didn’t black out. I didn’t get sick. They teach you how to throw up, but I didn’t want to be the one who hurled and came back with a barf bag hanging from his helmet. By the time we were into our second or third set of G’s, I was more relaxed.” He did however note that Twister’s barrel loops “almost got me drunk as a dog.”

They did two complete inverted loops, experienced two tanker fill-ups at 300 mph and played chase with the flight leader. 

“It was like tag at 400 mph,” Stone remembers. “We went up, down, sideways and around and around, just like air to air combat. At one point I heard the radar lock on just like in the movies.”