TSgtRet

After looking at the documentation and having talked to folks that were stationed at Lakenheath at the time I have to buy into the "shootdown" scenario: He was headed Southeast (therefore headed over populated areas of Europe), was somewhat mentally unbalanced and had limited ability as a pilot. Probably was the safest outcome for all concerned. As for who did the deed.....

There is a yahoo group dedicaated to this event (can't access it from my work computer) the group name is the tail number of the aircraft. Happened in 69 while Langley was on rote to Bravo Squadron. Crew Chief was having marital problems and wanted to go home. Gist of the story is that he was able to get the aircraft refueled on a fabrication, then started and took off before the expiditer or security could stop him. After he was airborne he was patched through to his wife at Langley on the HF. Eventually the a/c crashed in the English Channel; debris washed ashore in France. As for the shoot down there are stories on both sides of the argument (shoot down vs crash). Regardless, the plane went down. If you believe in the supenatural, the hardstand that he left from is supposed to be haunted. I f you can find a copy of the late Martin Caiden's book "Ghosts of the Air" I believe there is a chapter in there about this incident.

I was in 6th grade at James Rd School in Columbus, Ohio. They released us early and since I was on "Safety Patrol" was one of the last to walk home. We all knew it was important and sad but when you're 11/12 years old things don't always carry the importance they deserve. Remember watching the news on my Grandparents B&W tv.

Bill Blalock had his office (closet) back in the corner of the front shop. On one occasion he helped me design a radome stand to prop the radome into a more vertical postion (for AWADS antenna removal). This was prompted after we nearly got a radar troop badly injured when the CC on an AWADS bird operated the ramp while the radome was propped up on the rail of a stand. (Think I got some suggestion money from the stand when the AFTO 22 was was approved for the radome stand). Bill was never too busy to help out a new 3 level with a problem, regardless of the system. He taught me a few shortcuts on the old ARN 21. He also helped me change a SKE antenna pedestal when there were no 5 levels available to go with to the line (I remember that smelly, brown, sealant to this day!). Sorry to hear he's gone though I shouldn't be suprised as I'm 57.

When I was at Pope (73-75), in the Radar Shop, I remember 7885 was a law unto itself because it was the AWADS test bed/initial aircraft. Anyone know the subsequent history on her?

Here's my patch board as hangs on the wall of my office (sorry about the glare). [ATTACH]640[/ATTACH]

From my time in SAC on 135s I seem to remember being told the 135 was smaller in diameter and had shorter wings. (There was supposed to be a 135 in the fleet that had one 707 wing due to an "expedient repair"). As far as the (insert number) fasteners and awkward servicing, as a Radar troop I used to hate changing the APN 69, RT 204 in the tail compartment.....it was on a shelf up near the top of the fuselage, on the other side of the control cables and think it weighed 77 lbs and was shaped like an unweildy trashcan; after you got it out of there you had to lower it through the access panel you almost didn't fit through.

I remember when I was at Keflavik, Det 14 had signs everywhere: "It's all Dangerous".

Not a haunted Herk specifically but we've all heard about hardstand 27 (don't know it's number now) at Mildenhall. It was the starting point for the Langley crew chief in '69 that ended up crashing (shot down, etc) in the Channel off the French coast. After that there were strange occurances with any a/c parked there. My personal one was on grave shift one night. I and a Doppler troop were working on the a/c when the MD-3 crapped out and everything shut down. We came down off the flight deck and were heading toward the power unit when it restarted and everything on the a/c powered back up without either of us returning to the flight deck to switch things back on. We were the only ones at the aircraft (no crew chief). Other folks I knew had different things happen. Last I heard they didn't park planes there anymore, just AGE.

Though not strictly on thread, when I was at Keflavik with the F-4Cs and Es, we always had 2 planes on hot alert. If they had to launch it had to to be fast.... the checklist said to button the leading edge and back corners of any access panel used during launch. (Anyone that has worked Phantoms knows McDouglas owned stock in the fastener industry). This was just another example of expedient ops, in this case in a role (ADC Alert) it was never intended to fill.

When I was stationed at Pope, I seem to remember one of our aircraft that was TDY to Mildenhall was involved in a taxi accident in Turkey. It tore up a wing, I think, and there was a lot of red tape generated about it between the U.S. and Turkey. I remember it took a lllooonnnggg time to get resolved. Anyone have any info?

One other write up that sticks in my mind from Mildenhall (wish I could remember the tail #). We had a Mode C reading incorrect altitude (10,000 ft+ error) on the ground control radar. An instrument troop and I lugged our testers out to the aircraft (this was about 2100 or so and as I remember this was one of the more remote Bravo Squadron hardstands). Hooked them up and sure enough, when his tester was pumped up to 15,000 we were only showing 5,000 on the mode c; same type of error throughout the range. R squared the APX 72, retested, same thing. Started shooting wires and found an open on one of the bits. Of course that's a wire bundle that goes over the top of the nose wheel well before it reaches the instrument panel. After a long discussion with the OMS Line Chief and a call through Command Post back to Pope, we were told to do an "expedient fix". We ended up running a replacement wire from the RT, down through the "hell hole" and up along the pilot's side window wire bundle and into the instrument panel from there. Took us about 9 hours, start to finish. No further trouble on that rote and don't know what the final outcome was on that aircraft as I PCS'd to Grissom about 6 months later. I do know that it continued to fly with that fix while I was there.

Not an unusual write up per se: When I was TDY to Mildenhall from Pope back in '73 we had a night where we were "slammed"....everything that flew that day was broke for us and all had to fly tomorrow and there were only 3 Radar troops. One of the lesser write ups was a DME no lock on #2 tacan. Well since we were busy you can guess the corrective action: "R square #1 and #2 Rt 220s". Yes, we swapped them and went on to the "more" broke planes. That aircraft had a DME write up the next day but it was on #1 tacan so we didn't buy a repeat. Don't know if it was the smartest thing ever done; I can only plead that the 3 of us were a 3 level airman, and 2 5 levels, one a freshly minted 5 level A1C and the other a new buck sergeant (and I will not say which one I was:rolleyes:).

Many moons ago (it was on microfiche then, not computer) I remember that someone found an inflatable doll...wonder if THAT is still in there?

Yeah forgot about the "gold or silver". I remember the giant Lavoie (?) O Scopes. We had an instructor early in B.E.D. that left charged capacitors on his table...the leads were bent in such a way.....well you get it:eek: I remember moving from the un-airconditioned to airconditioned dorms on the triangle (that's when they added the "kick out" panel in the room windows). I also remember in "SETS" (Dolan Hall) being told "you'll never see any of this once you get out in the field". They were refering to: APN 59, ARN 6, ARN 14, ARN 21, APX 64, APN 70 and SCR 718. Do you think they were just misinformed? ;)

Any Keesler Triangle Alumni remember: Hurricane Watch 7/16 Bay Cutter (there was also an adjustable version) The wooden box around the buffer cord that contained the (wait for it) "Buffer Amplifier" Building a "Pinger Detector" "Biloxi Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Violet Gives Willingly" for resistor color bands The giant PSM 6 in B.E.D. And, yes, the brass magnets, 50 ft of flightline, buckets of vacuum and prop wash, etc

Reading things on here has prompted a memory or 3. Just before I retired in 92 I was told I was going to get a briefing, it was outlined like this: You will go to the base commanders office, upon arrival you will be greeted by an E8 admin type, his/her name tag reads "T H E Y" at this point you find out who was giving out all that misinformation over the years (They said this...). Next you will greeted by a SSgt in an OMS/AGS hat.....yes you finally met "the regular crew chief". Finally you are taken in to the base commanders office, whereupon he draws back a large curtain revealing a wall sized mural.....he turns to you and says:"This is the BIG PICTURE!" At this point they hand you your retirement orders and send you on your way. I'm sure there were lots of versions and variations.

There are so many! The one that comes to mind was "IFF inop in OFF mode". The corrective action (which we heard about later) was :"Yes it is". Not quite the same thing but in a similar vein: During some kind of combined airlift exercise at Pope, we had a Red Ball on an E that had just landed. Write up was "unable to turn Radar off". It was a Guard crew flying one of Popes AWADS birds and they didn't know about the detent on the mode switch. They were afraid they would damage something by just killing power.

When I was stationed at Wright-Patt 89-92 and shortly after I retired it was always neat to drive down to the far end of the old Wright Field hangar line and look at what was in the "junk pile". This was museum stuff that was awaiting restoration/parting out/waiting to be traded to another museum. I remember an HB-17 whaleboat, used German V2 engines, remains of a crashed B-1 and an RF-84 just to mention the stuff that sticks in my mind. I remember that some of things they used to get were ex "planes on a stick" that some town or other didn't want anymore....those were always pretty sad.

Concur on that; I was there 77-78 on my unaccompaned short tour. Interesting place as long as you didn't get downwind of "Kef Katy" (fish processing plant) when they were operating. Kef was one of the best kept secrets around.

I can hear Clarkson now badmouthing it....of course this time he's be justified in his "American Carbage" bashing!

Wasn't DET 14 at Keflavik part of the 67th? If so I worked on your 130s and the Jollys when I was in the 57th FIS Jun 77-Jun 78. Apparently they didn't assign any avionics types to the Det and we did all the work as transient acft. They didn't even have Air Force vehicles; used Navy "loaner" trucks.

In 20 years can't think of any "bad" TDYs; best ones were Bravo Squadron at Mildenhall from Pope in 73 and 74, Red Flag at Nellis from Bergstrom in 79 (had to live down in Vegas for 30 days because there was no room on base....tough!); guess the least enjoyable was Ryadh from RAF Fairford for ELF 1 in 80 & 81 (though we had it better than the guys did in 92...they took over a hotel for us to live in and the King picked up the tab on everything....all your TDY pay was yours).

I remember being zapped by a PFN I discharged myself while working on an RT289. I was at Castle and it was a humid day in the shop, reached up to move the handle on an o-scope out of the way and when I touched the handle the PFN arced out, hit me in the lower, left gut and came out my left index finger at the handle. Burned a pinhole in my fatigue shirt and t shirt, small burn on my stomach and a big red welt on the finger. A great way to remember a piece of equipment.

Was at Pope in the Radar shop from 73 to 75. Worked on the AWADS and 59 birds. I remember the "AWADS test bed 130" was 63 7885, anyone know what happened to it? I remember this aircraft because the AWADS installations were just a bit different than the rest.