TSgtRet

My thoughts are with you Dan. I lost both of my parents and my little brother to cancer (my brother already was in a home due to MS and a stroke). No matter how "ready" you are for it, it still sucks. Just filed for the "Big B" last week and the associated crap that goes with it is a real downer. Yep the year is off to a fine, stumbling, start! Dan I don't know if I could do one of those marathon trips like we used to do when we PCSd, too many sore places that didn't exist back then.

This is one of my favorite movies and as I was watching it again the other night I wondered if they still used it in any of the NCO Leadership or Academy courses? I know they were using it when I was still in but perhaps it's too "dated" for use now.

Software? When I was working the APN-59D on the 130s and 135s the running joke was they (Sperry) had taken the 59, switched it to solid state components........and made it 75lbs heavier; that was considered progress. I shudder to think what adding software to the 59 would do!

When I was at Fairford when we first reopened it, we had a 54 model tanker that had been modded as the TAC flying command post. Lots of the interior fittings we ex-707 airliner stuff the crew chief said came off the airliners at D-M. This would have been 1980ish.

Dan, the way things are here in Northern Indiana you'll be tagged as "that liberal from Florida". Last "Indiana Liberal" I met was somewhere just to the right of Gengis Khan. Seriously, looks like it will be fun and you can always run up to Great Lakes for a major commisary, etc run (closer to that than you are to Wright Patt).

Reminds me of a book my Grandfather had on "How To Speak Southern". The ones I remember are: Chivalay- Car made by General Motors Owes- (was) An expensive Chivalay Grudge- Where you keep your Chivalay Raffle- That thing you use to keep Yankees away from your Grudge Faints- Enclosure around the "place" There were a bunch more just can't remember them.

This reminds me of the sign which hung in my Grandmother's kitchen for years (it now hangs in my oldest daughter's). "The opinions expressed by the husband in this household may not be those of the management"

When I was at Pope the "Bunnies" returned from Thailand....the word was the Wing Commander hit the roof. Repainted in short order as I remember

When I was TDY to Mildenhall in 74 the PCS shop had ordered an APN 69 RT (RT 204?) for a tanker. When it arrived they plugged it in to the mock up for a quick ops check....nothing happened. It was fresh from depot in the foil "bag"...when they pulled the chassis out of the can it had a couple red bricks safety wire to the frame in place of some missing modules to give it the right weight; QC and the OSI got involved...never did hear the outcome!

You forgot the "Wrigleys Fuse": That foil device that, when wrapped around a blown fuse and reinserted, allows you to find the failling component and let all of the trapped smoke out of the offending equipment. Suitable substitutes include safety wire and scews/bolts depending upon the configuration of the fuse holder.

I'm a Blue Oval guy too, but as it was explained to us by a RSAAF officer, both Ford and Coke dealt with the "enemy state of Israel" and therefore weren't allowed in the country. They provided us with a Saudi AF Clark tug for moving AGE on the flightline; they had Ford flathead 6 cyl engines in them. On the ID plate "Ford" had been sanded off and "Clark" was hand punched into the plate. At that same time Lincoln was producing the Mark V Continental and the Saudis wanted them, so they were shipped into Kuwait, had all of the Ford and Lincoln badging removed and were brought in as "Cadillac" Mark Vs!

Yep, I visited the King Faisal Research Hospital more than once! I don't think the cooks at the Al Yamama ever fully grasped the fact that pancakes were supposed to be "light". While I was there they sent us a second Demineralized Water servicing truck for the 135s from Barksdale......when they opened the doors on the 141 the Saudis said "close it up and take it out of here"....it was a Ford!

My "household manager" has worked at Wal Mart for 11 years. It's a smaller town Wallyworld so they don't get some of the more extreme people that you see in the pictures; however they get enough traffic to show the shallowness of the gene pool, particularly on the "grave shift".

Thanks, 534 was a bit of a hangar queen at Kef so suppose it's only right it should be on static display. The pic is what it looked like in Aug of 76

Jeez, Dan. Do you still have your "AWACKER WATCH" (the Casio with the calculator)? When we were down there it seemed like every AWACs troop had one of those watches! Didn't you feel secure with the teenage Saudi AF Security Guards and the "Rat Patrol" Toyota Land Cruisers on the flight line?:rolleyes:

Those are GREAT, particularly USAFE! Reminds me of something that happened at Pope right after I got there (73?). We were going to have a fatgues w/field jacket open ranks in AMS. Of course everyone was rushing around to make sure everything was up to snuff. The first shirt had just walked past the guy in front of me when he stopped, looked closely at the the guy's jacket and said something very "abrupt" in his ear. Seems the guy had just come back from a Thailand rote and had brought back some of the locally produced patches. Well his wife didn't look closely and the TAC patch on his field jacket read "Traveling Air Circus". Fortunately, all the shirt told him was "change it by tomorrow". Guess it was a small thing compared to the tailor-made, cigarette sleeve pocket, script USAF, fatigues then common around the squadron!

Dan, That reminded me of one of my ELF 1 rotations down there out of Fairford. We had a transportation troop diplomatically expelled....seems he was driving to the civilian airport to pick up a pax when he was cut off in the orderly Ryadh traffic....he responded in true American sign language....unfortunately the other driver was a Saudi AF captain...........

When I worked at a new car dealership in Springfield, Ohio they had a propane cannon. When it was switched on it randomly "fired" a big bang every so often.....not a 105 mind you but sufficient to move the birds....see bird poop is a bad thing on brand new cars as well as aircraft.

Not to hijack the thread, Shadoif, but could you let me know the tail number of the F-4C they have there? We sent it to Selfridge from Keflavik when we transitioned from Cs to Es in 78 and I didn't know which one they kept for the museum. Thanks

I know the feeling he's talking about; you knew where you stood..... if there was a problem you knew everyone dealt with it equally....good or bad. When I lived in Dayton and now, when I travel back there, I always make a point to stop at the museum and just take it all in. On reflection even the bad times were better than the "good times" are now. The writer was quite correct; people in "the real world" will never know that special bond that those have served share..........

Geez, that triggers a Pope memory. This was during the time right after the TS1843s were installed. We had a UHF and o-scope set up and when the aircraft were preflighting they would call us for a "parrot check". We would ask them to squaw mode 3, code 7600 and would check for the proper display on the scope. After the check we tell them to return the system to standby until required for flight. I even rmember the scope was one of the old Lavoie, round face, boat anchors. Never knew why we called it a "parrot check" until now.

I remember a story about a Radar troop hooking up a "non-standard" radar pressurization tester behind a circuit breaker panel, damaging a LOX kine and torching the whole starbord side of a Herk at Dyess back in the 70s.

Here I always thought is was to give the MC-130s a little extra clearance when using their "Tree Following Radar" :rolleyes:

My ex was a WAF (yeah, I know, not a "PC" term but in 1973 they were still called that) when we were stationed at Pope. The office she worked in was visited by Gen Holm; she came in and sat down on a desk and proceeded to ask the females in the office their thoughts and opinions. She was quite a lady and I was sorry to hear of her passing.