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Crew Chiefs, ever asked for a favor?


PACAF
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Hey Crew Chiefs, any stories about doing favors for flight crews?

We were one our way from McClellan to Hickam when I heard Maj._____

our nav make a comment that his kids lived on one of the islands and it had been four years since he had seen them. He asked the AC if there was anyway we could "break" the acft and give hiim a chance to visit them. This mission was just an out and back. Honestly, this was on of my least favorite crews. Hearing this kind of touch me, and being on headset, I told him I thought that could be arranged. When we touched down I asked the AC to feather one of the engines and write it up for a runaway engine. He did and after parking I called for a B-5 stand, put it up to the engine and popped the side cowl. I told the maint. truck that the pin for the coordinator was missing on the fuel control shaft. Long story short, with the pin in my pocket, the part was ordered several times, but the wrong part came in. After ten days the "correct part came in" , I refueled and LOXed the aft and we returned to McClellan. I must say that every day someone from the crew would come by and take me downtown to eat. After returning home I found I was treated very well by most all crews. However, the smile on Maj._______'s face was reward enough for me.

Any other stories you would like to share?

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Well...hmmmm.....thank you C130CC....sometimes you try to.......... oh, never mind, ..........Actually I served from 1970 to 1993, when I retired. I tried to do something for a fellow airman and to this moment I'm not ashamed of doing that. Maybe it was a different Air Force then, I don't know. But we are all here for comradarie and I don't see any reason to be nasty or put anyone down. Congradualtions on making Tsgt.

Edited by PACAF
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MMMM not sure how to take this one, but as it was co-ordinated between the ops crew and the CC, I guess don't bother me too much.

Probably not something I wouldn't have done but then again my Juju was bad enough I usually got extended stays pretty frequently (usually in Lajes grrrrrr).

Just too often I have seen stuff like this happen, Ops gets a "good deal" and while the ops guys are out drinking the Mx guys are trying to find a problem that doesn't exist.

Just like Pilots or FE's that Screw something up and instead of saying "my fault" they write it up as a malfunction, and once again MX gets the shaft trying to find a problem that don't exist.

At least you all worked together on it.

Dan

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Well....everyone was in on it, and as for me, the maint. guy, was just a few extra inspecitions and a LOX service. Didn't mind though, not after seeing that Nav's face when he came back from seeing his kids. You're correct about the frustrations of bogus write ups. CND a write up just never set well with me and I worried about the crew on the flights after that. Pretty stressful to say the least. I was one of those CCs that was always afraid of missing something and having someone's life on my conscience for the rest of my life. Always hated putting something in the "K", but had to on some things. One thing I always did and that was to brief the next crew if I had to CND a write up. Ok, call me corny, but I was never afraid to ride on my acft for sure.........

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Well...hmmmm.....thank you C130CC....sometimes you try to.......... oh, never mind, ..........Actually I served from 1970 to 1993, when I retired. I tried to do something for a fellow airman and to this moment I'm not ashamed of doing that. Maybe it was a different Air Force then, I don't know. But we are all here for comradarie and I don't see any reason to be nasty or put anyone down. Congradualtions on making Tsgt.

So you were fine with spending the governments and ultimately the tax payers money so you and the rest of the crew could hang out in Hawaii for a couple extra days?

And I suppose they didn't need you at home station for any reason? You were easily missed?

That's total BS and you know it. If it were your money it would be a different story I reckon? Don't get me wrong, if there is a way to help anyone out, I try, but I'm not going to lie and deceive to make someone else happy.

Edited by C130CC
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As I said, a different time. I can assure you my home station knew about it, and they had no problem with it. My acft was ready for any mission should one have come down. Wow, you are really coming off in attack mode there. Back in those days, military helped military.......sometimes we put our rears on the line for another GI, not sure if today's guys will understand that. Supervisors protected their troops, Commnanders too. The whole crew was ok with it and I called back to McClellan and told our NCOIC what was going on. Many times I have worked a straight 72 or 84 hours, no break, not left the acft, just to get it back in commission. In those days, a CC did it all, very seldom did a specialist come out to the acft and if they did , yep, CC was right there the whole time. 41st ARRS maintained one of th highest realiability rates in the Air Force. Too many times to count did the CC work 36 hours straight then climbed on the aircraft and acted as a scanner for a twelve hour mission, RTB, and worked another ten hours getting the acft to go on the next mission......We didn't get off the acft and say my twelve hours is over, going to get rest and be back later. Like I said, a different time, a different military way of life. I did my duty above and beyond and do not appreciate you attacking me in this matter. There is no sense in it. Relax, please, you are serving now, so it looks like the old timers did ok before you came along to take up the reins for us. Again, congrats on making Tsgt. Have a nice day.

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After reading all of the posts and replies to Pacaf's thread, I have mixed feelings about doing favors! I was asked several times to break the airplane by the flight crews at a few of the nicer places I got to go to!! I thought about it several times and had some ways planned to do it, but never did! Every time that I sat on my airplane with nothing to eat and no body to talk to for hours while the flight crew went shopping at the airport or downtown convinced me not to ever do it!! If I could have gone with them maybe it would have made a difference in my thinking, but who was going to refuel the airplane and fix their write-ups?

But, I am not saying that I wouldn't have done what Pacaf did. I think it makes a lot of difference who is involved and what is at stake! And he is right, those were different times!!

Pacaf, thanks (I guess), for refreshing my memory on the many many hours we spent on the airplanes without a break! Several times I would get back from a CRB input, and go out on a Frag. mission the next day to Korea or somewhere like that and not even know where we were going!

Pacaf, you did good---no matter what anybody else says!!!!!

Ken

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I never had anything like this come up, of course I enlisted in 2000, so by the time I was flying we were at war. I never did any out and backs, all my flights were actual missions and we didn't have the luxury of being able to break. Though I heard from the older guys about how they did this on occasion. I really never saw a problem as long as it was just a training mission or flying around. As for the Nav seeing his kids, I have a buddy who hasn't seen his son in four years because he's deployed so much. The last time he had a chance they sent him to depot to pick up a plane and back to the desert the day after he got back. So I can see how a "break down" as long as it wasn't a critical mission wouldn't be that big a deal. But nowadays it's getting harder and harder to break for real. Every time I actually did break home station wanted proof that we weren't just breaking for fun.

Though from my experience, taking care of each other is starting to go away in the AF.

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Just what does this guy mean when he says something like this?I for one think that whatever he is saying is VULGAR!

Kurt,

That's right! How could you, as an officer no less, post such a "VULGAR" statement. Oh yeah, that's right -- an officer never lies. A lieutenant told me that so it must be true.

I think you may have offended Miss Loren Cooper's delicate feelings. Actually, I think he's pulling everyone's leg here and the joke may be on whoever falls for this crap.

Don R.

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I know all the mildenhall Rote`s I went on and we would go on those 5 day and 7 day Turkey trots, Everytime we got to Ahtens the acft. would break for 2 to 3 days????.Strange!!!

(And that all I have got say about that)

Never had that Trouble in SEA:confused:

And it was a Diffent time back then.

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You know guys I have feelings too.If people dont want to take me seriously then fine.I am a nice person and a nice fellow.It hurts me deeply when people treat me this way.My therapist agrees and my doctor has me on an anti-depressant so I can handle most situations and peoplr that are mean and VULGAR to me.I love airplanes and aviation and have a right to respected.The Herybirds web site means alot to me sinc e the P-3 orion web site are nothing but a bunch of perverted bullys that brung me in and made me feel good then slammed me and made a joke out of me.All I ever did was wanted to know why the engines were mounted the way the navy does it on the P-3 and they started harasssing me and made sexual VULGAR suggestiens.I was offended.I am very very sorry about my past and apolgise to everone I offended in the past.There are people on this site I respect and it wood be a good idea for alot of people to act like them.I love the Hercules and spend alot of money going to air show in order to be around them.I absoluteley cry when I think about the Hercules and how I messed up in life by not getting to be a part of its life.So please be nice and relax and we can all get along just fine.If anyone knows how I can contact Chief Master Sargent Sweeny please let me know and I will apologise to him.

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lorencooper, Seems I remember something about Sweeny (or maybe it was someone else) not wanting to hear anything from you. It would be very ill advised if you were to contact him by any other means except here. And if you cant roll with the punches..... C-YA!

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Loren with your history on this site I would suggest that you act like the person you claim to be and quit whineing and bad mouthing people, even those on other sites. We don't want to hear it. You have a bad rep and no cred so take it easy, go slow and slowly people will warm up to you, if you truely have grown up. Bob Woods

PS It was Lockheed that decided which engine/prop to use on the Herk and the Electra

Edited by BobWoods
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