TSgtRet

Action Taken.

This is particularly hard for me because I was a 20 year Navy brat before I joined the AF......I've seen almost 50 years of benefit deterioration.:mad:

Saw Season 13 Episode 3 of Top Gear on BBC America Monday night. In one segment James May comes to an airfield in the California desert to ride with Stunt and Rally driver Ken Block. I didn't catch the name of the airfield but it appeared to be an old military base (ammo igloos). In a couple of quick scenes there was what appeared to be a camo painted civilian Herk. Anyone know where this is and which aircraft?

I guess he couldn't slip out of this one.

Rg Glenn

As Richard Pryor once said: "none of us are going to get out of this alive".

Now maybe that airport he pork barrelled for his personal conveinience will revert to more normal operations and maybe even have to sell off some of their Rolls Royce hardware to generate some cash flow. One can only hope:rolleyes:

SF6 isn't really a dangerous gas, except that it is heavier than air. The only danger is if there is sparking in the waveguide, which causes a chemical change in it, making it dangerous.

You can inhale it and it will cause the opposite of helium, so you sound like Barry White. I saw the science guy do this on David Letterman.

BUT, you have to stand on your hands/head to get the gas out of your lungs.

OK Tiny, if we end up with a bunch of Barry White impersonators running around the flight line we know who to blame!

I remember changing those freon bottles a couple times.......didn't seem to be enough room for me and the bottle in the same space at the same time.

BTW: that suggestion I mentioned earlier in the thread was reviewed and "improved" by Bill Blaylock before I submitted it.

True story. SR-71 crew chief goes out to his acft. early morning. Start cart will not start. Opens cover, discovers one of the engines is missing. Sometime during the night someone removed the engine and made off with it. This caused a veerry big flap as the SR-71 ramp was, except for WSAs, one of the most secure areas anywhere.

Not surprised to see chrome valve covers. There was never any shortage of money in the 9th SRW. At one time they spent about 80% of SAC's TDY budget. An F150 wasn't good enough, they used El Camenos to chase down U-2 outriggers. Later traded them on Cameros.

Yes they went from El Caminos to Mustangs to Z28s and last I heard they were using the Aussie Holden-based GTO. Here's some links:

http://www.sspmustang.org/features/USAF_SSP.htm

http://karakullake.blogspot.com/2009/05/u2-spy-plane-chase-cars.html

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/tuners/112_0506_camarou2chaser/index.html

I submitted several over the years and had 1 approved (made $50.00). It was for a stand to support the radome when changing the APQ 122 antenna on the AWADS birds. It resembled a stepladder with no steps and a trough at the top. Submitted an AFTO 22 with it but don't remember which T.O. it was put into. This was 1974ish as I remember. The reason I only got $50.00 was it represented no monetary savings but anything safety related got $50.00 at the time.

When I was at Castle I ran the program for AMS (1984/85) and as I remember most people were pretty disappointed with the program because so many good ideas were turned down.

Tiny, when I first got to Pope as a newly minted 3 level I got to "help" on doing some of the installations. The biggest thing I remember about it was that it was one more thing to get in the way under the radome.

Yeah the name changes are really confusing......I remember calling a base and asking for CBPO Customer Service.......you could actually hear the "deer in the headlights look". At this time a conversation followed and the resulted in my getting the (I think) Personnel Flight.

That's like when I went in it was "Race Relations" then "Social Actions" and just before I left I think it was "Equal Opportunity and Treatment".

At least when Gen Creech took over all he did was change the blue signs brown.

Does anyone have or know where I can get a copy of this "interview"? I had a copy but it "vanished" when I PCSd from Germany. For those not in the know; it's a supposed interview of an F-4C pilot, in Vietnam and an American newsman with an Air Force PR man present to translate the Captains answers into the "company line". Always enjoyed it and I'm sure many younger troops would too.

Thanks in advance.

I saw it too. Not bad, but they kind of glossed over the early gunship history; missed the fact entirely that the original testbed was a Convair (civilian C-131) and they didn't mention the 119 gunships. Some really good footage of the early ones (A model with the APS 42 nose).

When I watch shows on the Military Channel I sometimes get the feeling they've been edited down to fit the hour time slot and the editor doesn't always pay attention to the subject matter.

Man those are some memory's, it was always a blast driving from the Al Yamamma to the base, you could drive like you always wanted too!

Traffic signs and lights are more of a suggestion and traffic circles - well lets not go there:D

Dan

Saudi Microsecond: Time elapsed from green light to first horn honk.

(Still got your Casio "AWACS" watch?)

Sounds just like Ryadh when I was there with ELF 1. Only thing that was left out was any accident you're in is your fault because you're the American and if you weren't there the accident wouldn't have happened!

Oh sure, how the hell else would one remove and install a 2'x3'x18" antenna while trying to hold onto the ladder!

Tiny, this falls into the same catagory as the tool kits we were issued at Pope before the chit system came into being:

Drive Punch, 1 ea

Center Punch, 1 ea

Chisel 1 ea

But no hammer (but there was a pretty hefty cresent wrench).

And I helped change one of those VOR antennas once....because someone damaged it with a deicer at a TDY location.

Grissom is also a fine example of how the local govt. did not care, nor want a military presence in their locality.

Kurt

I have to concur on that. I'm a Navy brat and we were stationed at NAS Glenview, Ill from 59 to 67. Well the only thing that still exists today is the control tower and the front of Base Ops and the corners of the attached hangars (Ops is a bookstore and one of the hangars is a Von Maur, I think). The whole area is now an "upper" shopping and residential area. In fact, when BRAC approached the mayor of Glenview in the late 90s and asked if she had any input on the closing she said "Go ahead and close it, I don't care". Since I lived there from age 5 to 13 this is like having your childhood hometown erased from the map.

If you go to this site: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/index.htm , there is an excellent write up on Glenview, in fact there are writeups on over 1,000 airfields that have "gone away"; excellent site.

I drove down to Kokomo yesterday on company business and was passing Grissom on my way back so I thought I would stop and look around. It's called the Grissom Aeroplex. The museum was closed but took a few pics over the fence. I was stationed there early 76 to Jun 77; back when it was SAC. Base housing is now "Villages at Eagles Point" or something like that. They put siding over the stucco and closed most of the carports into garages and sold old Capehart housing as condos! Found my old house, didn't look too bad, but in general the place is a slum....cars parked in yards, doors hanging off, trashcans in front of the houses and just generally unkept. The Air Reserve "base" is basically the old maintenance/DCM area. I remember living there and the guy in the pickup measuring your grass and turning it in to your squadron commander if it was too tall! Now it's all just dingy and run down... You really can't go back again.:(

Recall getting a few head bites in the "hell hole" working on radar pressurization problems.

Also remember skinning up my hand pretty good trying to R&R the APX 72 rt unit on a red ball with the aircraft rigged with the center seats and a load of 82nd Airborne....not intended to be changed one handed!

We had them on F-4s too; called them "Phantom Bites". The one that I recall best (worst) is finding that I, the centerline tank and the fin of an AIM 7 could not occupy the same space at the same time during an alert launch....had a huge red welt on my left side for a week.

Did the rote twice out of Pope 74 & 75. Remember another pub between the base and the town down one of the side roads think it was called "The Rose and Crown". Remember the ghost stories about Hardstand 27 (or whatever it is now) where Paul Meyer took off from.

Helped open Fairford 79-82 so made a few trips over to Mildenhall to pick people up at the terminal. Sounds like the exchange rate is MUCH better than when I was there (2.41 to the pound). Always loved England when I was there; wish I could afford to retire there.

When I was in SAC we were told that the fuselage was smaller and the wings were a different length (can't remember which was longer/shorter) and that there was one 135 in the fleet that had a 707 wing on it. The planes at Wright-Patt with the big noses were the ARIA aircraft. When I was there 89-92 I was told some were 135 airframes and some were 707; you could tell the difference by the crew entry point (bottom or side).

We couldn't really do too much avionics wise. Maybe have them dry out dessicant for the RADAR with a blow dryer. Or send them to sheet metal to have some 28VDC fuses cut out of aluminum.

On the F4s in Thailand, we'd have to check out Mode 4 by coding the box in the CNI bay, which was in the NLG area. We'd tell them they should speak into the CNI bay voice tube in front of the seat to let us know when the caution light went out. It was, of course, the urinal tube.

F4s again- Always told the newbies that if they were setiing in the ejection seat, if the seat started moving, they needed to get out fast because it was getting ready to fire.

After a few minutes, I'd reach down and hit the toggle switch to adjust the seat, then get the hell out of the way...

On the C141, there was a small door on the floor at the nav station. I'd send a guy down to the avionics bay where the toilet was to check on something. After they was down there, I'd open the door and grab their shoulder and scream. Usually, I got to hear a bang from their head hitting the cockpit floor board above them.

Now Tiny, you never "wrapped " any capacitors?

At Bergstrom (RF4Cs) we used to have the newbie cook hot dogs in shield box of the FLR (APQ 99) hot mock up in shop (they would heat up if you left them there long enough).

On the same line as your F4 CNI intercom; We had T-33s at Keflavik to be our "bad guys".....told the newbies that megaphone down near the floor was the backup intercom.

On B52s the downward ejection seats had spring loaded ankle restraints, sooner or later the new guy would inadvertantly trip them and get caught in them....it was your job to act scared to death because they were about to blow themselves into the ramp.....I've seen some guys sit there for 20 minutes not moving an inch until you "could get egress out to help them" (if I remember correctly, all you did was push your leg back out of them).

That ground is the 115VAC common. no wonder it was causing issues. The largest connector on the antenna does contain all the signals needs for antenna stab. If the gyro seems to spin up now and everything works with that connector removed, then my guess is another bad antenna.

It's sure a good thing the USAF decided to get rid of the back shops, or you could just pull it and take it in for a bench check. That would be too damn simple.

OMG are they still doing "POMO"? I figured that would have died off long ago! Biggest thing we noted was getting a guy that had only ever been in either AGS or CRS and being assigned to the opposite at his new base. Add to that the experience with the individual units you pick up on the bench being applied on the flightline when troubleshooting something like this.

Not Herk Humor per se but do the oldtimers (myself included) remember when they first put super glue on bench stock?

At Pope we had a Radar shop chief that was very predictable: each morning he'd walk in the shop, pick his coffee mug (bucket) off his desk and proceed to the 55 gallon percolator then in use. He had a nice sheet of plexi on his desk with everything in the world under it. One morning he grabbed his cup and took the whole top of the desk with him. He was only steamed for a bit and really took it pretty well, though after that the shop bench stock monitor had to keep the glue under lock and key so grave shift couldn't get to it. (Couldn't have been us swing shifters, we never did anything wrong....or if you asked the other shifts we never did anything, period).

Hmmm don't know that one. I was at Zwei (85-89) and remember a place on Ramstein called "Chicken Every Sundae". Also remember getting lots of parts for my Ford van from the MWR junkyard. And really remember all the cars with the spotlights inside on 40 Mark Strasse outside Vogelweh (you tend to remember things like that when they are pointed out by a VERY observant 5 year old daughter).

PS, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Also, we would send guys to supply to get a BA1100N.

Thats manufactured by the same company building the new Air Force bomber...B oneRD and the Navy version; GU eleven

The crash site is actually southwest from Moldyhole, as if he was headed for the Azores.

You're correct on the direction; however he was stilll precariously close to France. I've been doing some digging through all of the accounts and it still seems likely they had to bring him down for safety sake/international relations. We'll probably never know.

Let's see, can of vacuum (can smashed flat), brass magnet, 30' of flight line and at Keesler in the Triangle a 7/16 inch bay cutter (the adjustable one was always checked out). For the electronics types, the buffer in our bay had a wooden box around the cord containing....you guessed it, the "buffer amplifier".

My Dad used to tell the story of his Navy training when his CPO sent the new guys to find "Charlie Noble" (the slang for the stove pipe on the galley). No matter where they went on base "Charlie Noble" had just left, etc. The new guys in the know went and found a quiet spot and took a nap.