homerec130

Here is what was posted in today's AFA Daily Report: Fairchild Airmen Killed in KC-135 Crash in Kyrgyzstan Three airmen from the 93rd Air Refueling Squadron at Fairchild AFB, Wash., lost their lives in last week's crash of a KC-135 tanker near Chon-Aryk, Kyrgyzstan, announced Fairchild officials. Killed in the May 3 mishap were: Capt. Victoria A. Pinckney, 27, of Palmdale, Calif.: Capt. Mark T. Voss, 27, of Boerne, Tex.; and TSgt. Herman Mackey III, 30, of Bakersfield, Calif., according to the May 5 release from Fairchild's 92nd Air Refueling Wing. "We're a strong family here and it's truly heart wrenching when members of this family make the ultimate sacrifice for their nation," said Col. Brian Newberry, wing commander. He added, "These airmen leave behind an incredible legacy of service and honor in protecting our nation and the world. They show what we all know: freedom is not free." The cause of the mishap is under investigation. The crash occurred shortly after the KC-135 took off from the Transit Center at Manas, which is near Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. Manas is a major air hub for sustaining coalition operations in Afghanistan. The Fairchild crew and the KC-135 were deployed to Manas. Homer

65-0962 was an old Compass Call bird. I took it into theater for Desert Shield. After the 43rd ECS was deactivated and their airplanes came to DM we had to demod a couple of frames. 962 was the first one they did. It was delivered to the old 7 ACCS ay Biloxi with the intent of making it an ABCCC bird. However, it had to go back through their depot and they found it was supposedly bent in three directions so they couldn't get a capsule in it. It ended up coming back to DM when the 7th moved and it found its way back to the EC-130H side of the house as a pro bird. Homer EC-130H IN

Once had a tanker co-pilot that marked the nose gear hubcap for a beer wheel. Couldn't figure out why he was always buying. The boom and I would be the first of the airplane and would rotate the hubcap so he would buy. Lts are so much fun. Homer

EC-130H Compass Call has some birds with pods outboard of the outboards, but no external tanks. Paul A. \"Homer\" Simpson USAF (Ret) EC-130 H IN, E-3A/B/C EN, KC-135 A/Q EN

The best one that I ever saw in the Herc happened on the ground. I was pulling SOF out in the SOF truck trying to help a crew get off the ground. The mission had \"Ops Late\" written all over it. Crew decided to do the engine runup in the chocks (normal procedure as our ramp was a christmas tree. While they were doing the run up I saw two birds chasing each other. They both tried to fly thru the prop arc. One made it, the other was severed cleanly in two. Told the crew to shut down engines as they had just taken a bird strike. Got the old you\'re kidding when I got up on the flight deck. We found both parts of the second bird as well as where a chunk of the prop had been taken out. Needless to say, the crew didn\'t fly that day and maint had to do a blend job on the prop.