Favorite Aircraft

[Jerry D]

That was a big bullet to dodge "revwardoc" some days its good to be the new guy. I worked on C-141's up north at McChord AFB been to Norton back when it was an Airbase to NCO Leadership school. I was there a week before I realized there were mountains out there Some thick smog they had . I was a Radio tech on them and after the big rivot workforce experiment I learned about 50% of the Airframe I got to learn how to fuel/defuel, service tires, pull leading edges, do 7 level panel insp for pre flights. set right seat for engine runs, ride brakes for tow jobs, and was even asst crew chief on one of the Starlifters for a year till it went to the bone yard . They replaced it with a C-17 later ........

[revwardoc]

Jerry D, I remember that NCO Leadership School (Lifer Tech, we called it). I had the CQ at their chow hall a couple of times and took definite advantage of my position. One Sunday morningsome multi-striper came in wearing civies and had forgotten his ID card, so when he went to sign in I told him I needed to see it. He gave me a cold look and told me he had been in the AF longer than I'd been alive. I said that was all well and good but, no ID, no breakfast. He started to rant and rave, turned 6 shades of red, sputtered, stammered and swore to have me busted but I held firm. The head of the chow hall came over to see what the fuss was all about and told him that I was right and to go get his ID. He left and came back in full dress blues, ribbons and all the stripes in the world. I smiled, thanked him for his co-operation, handed him the pen and told him to enjoy his meal. I don't think he did.

re; smog. Yeah, the San Bernardino Valley is horseshoe shaped and with the opening facing west so that all the smog in the LA basin blow into the valley and is held in by the mountains. If you drive up to Big Bear, above the 4,000 foot level, you can look down and see that lousy brown/grey "air". Did you notice that there were very few big trees in the valley? That's because the smog killed most of them off. On really bad smog days, it was trying to breath in chest deep water. Thank God the 141's had oxygen on board. Sometimes we'd have to sit for a few minutes and suck it down. Damned smog also ate away my windshield wipers. I had to replace them about every 2 months and my car always had a layer of "dust" on it. Yep, there's nothing like fresh air, too bad there wasn't any in Southern Cal.

From the description of what you were doing it sounds like you were APG, like me. The one good thing about working on 141's was that I got to go TDY quite a bit. I know 141's are still flying as I've seen them occaisionally but they may just be forAF Reserve or National Guard personnel. I only worked on C-5's twice, both times at Hickam, but the guys who were assigned to them on a regular basis said they sucked 'cause they leaked like the proverbial sieve. For a short time at Norton they instituted a program where E-4 and up APG mechanics would be eligible for flight status. It lasted for a year or so but was discontinued. Don't know why.

Did you guys at McChord wear hats other than the olive drab (that's what we wore)? We tried to talk the "powers that be" into letting us wear black baseball caps with the squadron logo on the front but they wouldn't let us. We also wanted to wear our squadron and wing patches on our fatigues, same answer. And then they started the PRIDE program...talk about a mixed message. I hope you guys had it better than we did.

[cadetat6]

Best AT-6 Texan
Why? Thats as far as I got in Air Cadets
They had too many pilots so they asked us!!!to transfer to the Infantry

Art a long ago air man

[Jerry D]

revwardoc: Yes, at McChord we got to wear organization Ball Caps with OMS,AMS,and FMS on them. I was in AMS till 89' then was AGS .In AGS they combined OMS and AMS together so us specialist got to learn how to be APG and some APG learned how to do electronics the younger APG airmen were eager to learn avionics to fill out there resume We also had to sew on Unit and Organization patches on our Fatigues OD green and later Cami uniforms. Getting back to the APG stuff I have a 623 full of APG stuff I was qualified to do from Pre-flight to post flight inspections and most stuff inbetween. about the only task we weren't allowed to cross train to do was LOX aircraft . And being a Communications troop I already had cherry picker on my license so I got to drive the deicer insted of deicing planes. In the winter that was nice sitting in the cab insted of being up there spraying fluid in the freezing air and I agree about the oxygen onboard the planes some nights on graveyard shift that kept me awake and it was good for some headaches too.
On interesting stories my funny one was one night working forward supply point I answer the phone "Duffys' Tavern open all Nite" and some Col. asked if I knew who he was and I said nope never heard of you still pretending to be someone at Duffys' he got a little irate and then hung up. The phone rang and I answer it " 314th Forward Supply Point Airmen Jerry speaking" and he asked if I had just been on the phone with him and I said flat out to the same Col. "No Sir I have been here all night and this is the first time you called" and this was before caller ID so he didn't know what to think since I was not acting like the last call and that was that . Another successful grave shift prank on a Saturday nite and on twelve hour shifts it sure helped kill time That was when I was stationed at Little Rock AFB back when Clinton was still just taking from the people of Arkansas LOL. I had a great first 12 years in the Airforce I got to go TDY to all the nice places (UK, Germany, Japan, Spain, Goosebay, Greece) and some I didn't care to go to (Saudi, Turkey) but the last 8 years were with Billy Bob Clinton and them military years were mighty lean and from what friends told me back in the 80's that was how the Carter Administration was to them. The only big difference we didn't miss a paycheck during Clinton like the guys did under Carter .

[revwardoc]

That LOX can be some damned dangerous stuff! I remember that normally when the LOX had to be serviced we'd have to leave the plane but this one time an outgoing flight developed a bad enough engine problem wherethey had to shift the cargo to the plane I was assigned to which needed LOX. So there we all were, running around like idiots trying to get the bird ready while the LOX truck was filling things up. Naturally some LOX fell in drops on the tarmac and one of the newbies tripped over the power unit cable and his hand fell right on a drop. Talk about a nasty burn!! It got him a desk job for a few weeks, not to mention the odd skin graft.

I used to do that phone gag, too. Once, on grave shift, I answered the phone in an old lady's voice and said, "Gramma's whorehouse, we don't give a f**k for nothing'!" Unfortunately for me it was the line chief calling with an emergency message for a guy and he had heard me do it before. He laughed back then but not this time. I had nothing to do the next few weekends, anyway. Are you drawing the conclusion that I was a bit too much ofa smartass for my own good?

Where did you go in Germany? I did a TDY at Bitburg AB in October of '70 and had a great time. I managed to get to the October Fest in Munich and got abismally drunk. At the Fest (and after many beers) they were changing oom-pah bands so, in the lull, one of our guys jumped up on the table and started singing the U of Notre Dame fight song. Those of us who knew it joined in and the locals all stamped their fists on the tables and a good time was had. A local sitting next to me asked me why we were singing so enthusiatically about a French cathedral! The beer induced haze made the explanation a bit of a trial but I think I got the point across.

We had the same problem with pay except it was because of the Johnson administration. I guess he didn't mind getting GIs killed but he didn't want to have to pay for it. The pay scale finally changed under "Tricky Dicky" but not until my final few months in. At that point a "mosquito wing" was making more than I did as a sergeant because I wasn't eligible for a raise since I wasn't going to re-enlist. Oh well, nobody said the the word "fair" was ever entered into the military dictionary.

One of my cousins was stationed at Little Rock back in the early 60s. He was a motor pool mechanic. He was offered changes of duty station and TDY's but turned them all down, literally never leaving Arkansas during his tour of duty after Basic, and didn't even take any leave. His brother had the same MOS but in the Navy at San Diego and he did the same thing, just stayed in San Diego and turned down any opportunities of sea duty or any overseas assignment. In the meantime their younger brother who was in the AF 2 years ahead of me became an air traffic controller at Upper Heyford AB in England and took his leave all over Europe. Lucky bastard!

[tech_corporal]

Almost anything with props. preferably P-47's, they were a hell of a lot more sturdier than the mustangs. Don't like jets its all energy management.

[wrbones]

too damn fixed wingers around here! Rotorheads do it everywhere!

CH-53 A or D model!

Second is the CH-46, any model!

damn grunts'd be lost without us!

[Jerry D]

wrbones: I worked on HH-53's at McConnel AFB in Sacramento,CA for 4 months and them helo's had personality and would let you know it if you forgot to close your Tool box you would come back to a box full of hydraulic fluid

revwardoc: I spent the weekend at Landstall Army Medical Center when I got Med-evac from Saudi to the states with a broken leg ( hard to work on planes with a busted up upper tibia) I got to find out about the infamous US Army green eggs there them powderd eggs turn green for real and I have been thru Rein Mein and Ramstein a few times also got to see a little bit of germany out the bus window but didn't get off to meet any Germans just transport from one base to another then on a plane to somewhere else like Turkey or Saudi . Did y'all ever freeze frogs in lox then let them thaw out later ? for some reason frog can be frozen in lox and live go figure (they start hopping off tables after being dip-frozen in lox ) BTW Bitburg brews a good Pilsner beer

[Boats]

I'd have to pick the A4 and A1E units. These little workhorse's and their pilots flew many missions - up close and personal. They could take a hit and keep on going and payloads were impressive.

I kindof favor the A1E because of its payload capabilities but the little A4 was impressive just to look at. It had short wings and looked like it was ready to fight just sitting there.

VN 1965 to 1967

[revwardoc]

Jerry D;Yeah, we'd freeze frogs (andother little critters) with LOX. We didn't thaw them, though. We'd toss them in the air andlet them shatter on the ground. Made for some nasty messes.Sometimes we'd take thestill frozen parts and put them in a guys field jacket pocket and, after a few days the stink would be unbearable.

Itook a tour of the Bitburg brewery. Not bad, but I'm an ale man. I remember being in a bar in downtown Bitburg and while sitting there I heard this sweet little voice say, "Ein bier, bitte!" I looked down to see this little German girl, about 5 years old. The bartender handed her a bottle of beer roughly half her size. She said, "Danke" and left. The guy told us her father would send her to fetch a beer for him about that time every day. Try that in the States! One day while touring downtownBitburg, we were standing at a fork in the road and up comes this German "jeep", screeching to a halt in front of us. Behind him is an armored column, tanks and all and he starts directing them to the left and right. I'll tell ya, after being brought up watching WWII flicks, it was a little unnerving to see that iron cross zooming past.

One day a few of us went into a bar in Trier, Germany (There were plaques hanging on the wall that were made in Camden, NJ. Go figure!). I was wearing a rough leather "Buffalo Bill" jacket complete with fringe that I had bought for $40 in San Francisco. This one local guy really liked the jacket and offered me 100 marks for it. At the time that was about $30 US dollars. I said no, and he upped it to 200 marks. That would've been a profit but the guy was so annoying I again refused. He yelled something at me in German and left. The barkeep, who spoke English, translated and told us the guy said he'd come back and leave with the jacket and he knew for a fact the guy had a Luger. Since discretion is the better part of stupidity, we made a strategic withdrawal to the train station. Allies, yeah, right! I did get to meet several very nice Germans, especially the, ahem, "ladies". There's a place in Nuremburg called "The Wall" where many of them congregate (and copulate). I loved the "cultural" exchange.

Army "food"; The only thing more vile than Army food is Marine chow. I think they call it that because it looks and tastes like doggie chow. I went TDY to El Toro Marine Air Station and we ate in what they laughingly refer to as a chow hall. AF garbage tastes better than that crap. No wonder those "jarheads" were so lean and mean. They couldn't hold the food down! Norton AFB was a major embarkation point for Marines leaving for 'Nam and they'd usually eat a meal at our chow hall which won the AF "Best" award several times. We had wall-to-wall carpeting, Muzac, civilian employees to bus tables, choice of 3 entrees and a seperate line for burgers, dogs and fries as well as Coke and milk dispensers. Those leathernecks would come in their and you could hear their collectivejaws drop in astonishment. And, man, did they eat!! Naturally! It was the first "real" food they had since they enlisted!