Mt.crewchief Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 I wonder what the starting pay is?? I found this clipping between some pages in my "Pocket Guide to Okinawa" booklet that was given to us upon arrival at Naha! Ken http://herkybirds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=132&stc=1&d=1237089639 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cobra935o Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Call the 800 number and see! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip Davenport Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 I wonder how much the clipping is worth? Maybe you should take it to the Antiques Road Show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEFEGeorge Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Watch for some feminists..... The clipping was listed under "Male Help Wanted." :eek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 I think I took one of those jobs in 1973 (LSi) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mt.crewchief Posted March 17, 2009 Author Share Posted March 17, 2009 Ray, tell us more about that! Sounds interesting! There was a guy from my hometown that worked in Thailand during the Viet Nam era, as a civilian. I also met a guy years after I got out that worked at the Dyna Electron hanger at Naha! Same time I was there, but I didn't know any of them! I think I cut that clipping out of the Billings Gazette after I got out in 1971. Should I have applied??? Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC130LOAD1 Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 You'll get an "interesting" voice recording if you call that number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 I was already working for LSi in early 73. My crew was helping to close McCoy AFB at the time. We were there ostensibly to inspect and repair hundreds and hundreds of F-100 drop tanks. They were in such bad shape that all we did was condemn them and crate them up for storage. We left Orlando and went to the Guard unit in Montgomery and spent about three months re-potting all of the wiring bundles on F-4s, where they passed through the pressure bulkheads. We removed all of the radios, seats, plumbing, vari-ramp panels and made forms for the potting compound with styrofoam coffee cups. The hardest part of the job was cleaning the reverted potting compound out of the wires - it was nasty! In the fall of 73 I had the opportunity to go to Saigon with LSi, so I thought about it for 10 seconds and away I went. When I first got to Saigon I worked in the Nguyen Ming Chieu Villa, writing C-130 tech orders. The Vietnamese had no technical language. I was basically waiting for security clearance to work at Tan Son Nhut. When I was cleared, I working in training for the VNAF 5th AD. I taught C-130 maintenance in the classroom, bascially the crew chief course. The students were very bright and almost all them spoke excellent English. Each instructor had an interpreter because of the no technical language thing. It worked pretty well because we were flexible, which USAF was not. While I was there, I hung around Air America long enough to get my A & P through their training office. For 1973-74 the money was pretty darn good, around $14K. There were a few other contractors there during that time frame; Northrop, Dynacorp and Lockheed and maybe a couple of others (CRS). It was quite a shock to have been there as a GI when we had 540,000 Americans running around and when I left in 1974 (I could see where the country was headed) there were maybe 1,000 Americans in-country. I lived in the Ghia Dinh District on Cach Mang Street in a three-story house. Toward the end, I could sit on the roof of my house and watch the war. I could see part of the runways from the roof and at night I could watch the A-37s take off and climb to maybe 5,000 feet and then roll in on Ben Cat, drop ordnance, come back to Tan Son Nhut and repeat as necessary. All night long, an AC-119 orbited over the city. Stealing gasoline seemed to be the national sport. VNAF mechanics would pogo the sumps of A-1s or whatever recip was laying around, including President Thieu's aircraft, and believe it or not they usually put it in plastic bags! VNAF conducted an open locker inspection in the hangar that my classroom was in and there was enough avgas in the lockers to blow up the flight line. An AC-119 came in one morning and the engineer walked to the back and was filling a container with fuel from the APU with predictable results - naturally the aircraft burned to the ground in front of our hangar. Rounds cooked off for about two hours. The fire dept couldn't even fight the fire. I still have a 20-mm shell that came through the blackboard in my classroom. I never did hear what happened to the crew as far as punishment. When we had a discipline problem the VNAF student became ARVN and went to Quang Tri. After one or two problems the word got around - none of them wanted to be in the army. when I left in the summer of 74, the streets of Saigon were dangerous. The "Cowboys" (deserters) roamed the streets at night and had nothing to lose. Some of them had walked all the way from Da Nang. It was time to go - so I left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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