spec13fe

Bob' I found the following on Aviation Safety Network site. A 1329 = 4824; crashed Dec 20, 2001. Also A 1322 = 4898; crashed Nov 11, 1985. A 1324 = 4927; Crashed Oct 5, 1991. T 1307 = 3599; Crashed Sep 1, 1964. Mike

Found these names and date on the old board. March 14,1980 C130H 74-2064 AC Capt Richard J. Wagner CP Maj. Michael L. Jones ( Was coming back into C130's after a tour as a T38 IP) Nav LtCol Benjamin H. Barnette Jr. FE SSgt Patrick L. Cypher LM SRA George K. Moreau CC A1C Howard K. Watkins Mike

The aircrew was from the 773 TAS, Dyess. We were on Rote to Mildenhall and they were the Turkey trot crew. When I left on terminal leave in May 1980 the accident report had not came out. Will have to dig up the crew names. The FE was SSgt Pat Cypher, CP was Major Micky Jones, can't remember the rest of the crews names, know the Nav was a LtCol, who was the FOL commander , because the regular Nav had gone DNIF that morning. The Crew Chief was a 2 or 3 stripper name Watkins. Mike

Was that grease pencil in a K2B flightsuit??? My house girl use to give me hell because I got black marks on the pencil pocket and she couldn't get them out. Mike

Did several rotes to Mildenhall, the one that stands out was in 73(?) during the fuel shortage, flew one time on a local and one turkey trot in 60+ days, lot of beer drinking lol. Once we were in the barracks next to the old NCO club, had a rope and pullys with a basket, connected to window sill right behind the bar, write your order attach the money, let it down it would tap the window the bartender would get your beers, pull up the basket, drink away . Mike

I was told once a long time ago, that when the E-8, E,9 ranks where dreamed up all services where suppose to do away with the WO ranks, but the USAF for some reason was the only service that did away with them. Mike

Tiny, I was an airman no nothing back then, but I think that time in grade was for the fisrt SMS's to Chiefs maybe 2 or 3 promotion cycles then it changed. Mike

Am I wrong ? But I seem to remember a windmill and buddy start where part of the AC upgrade program back in the old days. I remember pulling and pading a starter in Turkey while on ROTE and I don't remember anyone even asking, we did it to get the bird home and I do remember an "attaboy" from the ops officer, of course one "oh shit" whipped out all "attaboys". Still got my crooked starter/generator wrench that my first instructor and I made at the hobby shop. I think when I went to Gunships 500 hours was minimun time for FE's, which isn't much, just enough to be dangerous. Mike

Maybe Japan, Tachi ?

Sorry to hear of Wally's passing. I flew several times with Wally at Yokota, He was a good Loadmaster. May he rest in peace. Mike Thompson

Got an email with some pictures of a C17, looked like a gear up landing at Bagram anyone have any info? Mike

When I was an FE at Yokota had a lot of trouble getting a local off , but take her out of country and get all ok flights. Almost as if it knew!!!! Mike

When I was in the Gunships many moons ago the FE filled out the form F we used the "canned" form F, good for 3 months, the only time anything changed them was when a bird went to depot. Was my extra duty for the first 5 months I was in Thialand. Had to fill them out for all the planes and then take them to wing stan eval for there blessing. When we picked up the SVN A model and flew them to Guam when Nam fell, they all had the slip stick in them, so made it easy to do the W&B. Mike

Will my computer fall on my face, and wake me up like the book did when I layed down to read it??? Mike

Made many TDY's some good some bad. One that stands out was in 1979 to Majors Field, Greenville,Tx. for an open house (think it was operated by LTV then) We were the Thunderbird support aircraft and we got all the "bennies" the poolside rooms at the motel and 3 cars for the crew, Zeros had one, Load and I had one, and the crew chief had one. I can't remember the city PR guys name but he had been a C130 Nav so he took care of us. Mike

Memorial and Reception services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, November 15th, 2008, at VFW Post 7674 - 213 NW Carol Ave; Fort Walton Beach, FL. In Lieu of flowers, request donations in memory of Gary be made to: Spectre Association Inc. PO Box 707 Mary Esther, FL 32569-0707. The fund assists family members of fallen Spectres. Mike

Gary passed away Nov 4, 2008 at Crestwood,Fl. He was one of the AC130A initial cadre FE\'s and long time gunship IFE at Hulbert. Anticipated Meroral services date is Saturday afternoon at VFW Post 7674, 213 NW Carol Ave. Ft Walton Beach,Fl. (Will update when I find out more.) Mike

For sure I\'m one of the old guys. First TDY was from Barksdale to Goose Bay with a KC97. Crew shut one down for low oil so we landed at Dow AFB filled the oil tank and on to Goose. This was in Jan of 1959. First C130 TDY was a crew of rookies newly upgraded AC and I was a new FE,(had flow once around the flagpole by myself) load was newbie with an old Nav (Lt Col) to \"babysit\" us a the Ops officer said. Was one of the old leave Friday be back Sunday put X number of hours on airframe missions. Think it was something like 12 hours to dock input on Monday, remember we parked on wash rack when we got home. Dyess to Patterson, ron, Patterson to Travis to DM ron, DM back to Dyess. Mike

Ricky has a couple of herky pictures of his trip, on his web site . Mike

Nasties/smelly one I saw was at Dyess on a KC135 landed late Friday night with a bird in the leading edge.Was a Dock imput Monday so no post flight insp. It set on wash rack all weekend in 90+degree weather. Mike

Think Dan has been drinking with grandpa! Mike

George, Thanks,very nice of our kids. Mike

Just before I retired at Dyess many moons ago (in the MAC era) had a young Lt. order Koolaid instead of coffee.( I didn\'t drink coffee so didn\'t bother me). Just so happened the vice wing king was flying with us and shortly after Takeoff he ask the load to get him a cup of coffee.When the load told him we didn\'t have coffee all \"old Billy hell\" broke loose, nomally I never felt sorry for a Lt. but that day the old sarge even felt sorry for him. Mike

The gunships had a heat shield over the tailpipes,this could have made the nacelles look longer to some people. Mike

May you and yours have a Merry Christmas be safe. Mike & Ann Thompson