Jeffysan

Ohhhh, those were the days...........SOF-I, Mod 90, Project 46, Quiet Knight.

Clawson L. Messer, age 73, took his final flight at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 4, 2010. His last battle was with lung cancer and he fought the good fight. He was surrounded by his two sons, loving wife of 49 years and other family. Chief Master Sgt. Messer retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1984 after proudly serving for 30 years. His last assignment was at Hurlburt Field with the 8th Special Operations Squadron as Chief Loadmaster and Superintendent of Operations. He delivered the Daily News from 1988 to 2003 and was awarded Carrier of the Year. He was a man who loved his family and friends. He liked to fish, hunt, was a Boy Scout leader, coached Little League baseball and won the county championship in North Carolina. C.L. enjoyed playing golf and made a hole in one twice, 12 months apart. C.L. was preceded in death by his mother and father, Wilbert and Venie Messer; and his older brother, Albert Messer. He is survived by his wife and golf partner, Jewell Stanley Messer; two sons, Bill Messer and wife Kimberly Messer of Gulf Breeze, Fla., and Mark Messer; six grandchildren, Matthew Chambliss, Garret Mullins, Kyle Messer, Lauren Messer, Graham Messer and Margaret Messer; one sister, Doris Flowers and husband Daniel; one brother, M.D. Messer and wife Gertrude of Dunn, N.C.; and numerous nephews, nieces and cousins. The family will receive friends for a time of visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Twin Cities Cremation Services and Funeral Home, 1405 John Sims Pkwy E., Niceville, Fla. Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7, at Twin Cities Funeral Home with the Rev. David DuVall officiating. Interment will take place at 10:15 a.m. Friday, Jan. 8, at Barrancas National Cemetery. The family would like to thank all the friends and neighbors for their support and prayers throughout this time. Also, thanks to Emerald Coast Oncology staff and doctors for their great care during this time. A special thanks to Dr. Eric Sandwith, who gave C.L. some extra time with us. Expressions of sympathy and memories may be shared at www.twincitiescremationsfunerals.com. __________________

While we're picking fly sh*t out of pepper..... I believe the 1st & 7th patches actually read 1st Special Operations Sq &/or 7th Special Operations Sq on the lower banners.

Me too, Casey. I'd like the camo version, please. Send me a PM & I'll provide whatever delivery info & reimbursement you need.

For Herks? Look up Robt H Hill in Marietta, GA - retired LMT pilot & FAA plt/FE check airman; [email protected].

Don't know that I got this right, but didn't we lose a Herk some yrs ago while demonstrating a 2-engine emergency escape from low level? Could this be that incident?

Just to be technically correct. UARRSI instls on the ABCCC fleet predate the Iran hostage rescue mission. About half the fleet of 7 acft had it when the embassy fell & the decision was made to do the mission. The ABCCC birds were used because of the -15s, UARRSI, & (sans the capsule) the entire cargo comp was avbl for the mission.

The acft are 35yr-old junk with 5-10hrs flt time on them. They've literally been sitting in the back yard for over 35yrs. Delapidated, delaminated, detiorated & neglected beyond use - all of them total losses.

They were the acft assigned to the Berlin For Lunch Bunch.

Did an ARRS tour @ Kadena in the early 80s. We had a LM named MSgt Ron Worounos (sp?). As I recall, he was ID'd as the LM who jumped because one of the army jumpers spit on him... or something like that. The story has it since he didn't go out on the static line, we was on the ground waiting for the jumper to land. And as the saying goes, "That's when the fight started." Supposedly happened in the 70s @ POB with the 82nd.

LAC# for this one? Also heard they had one land short in the last few weeks & will write it off. Wonder what the #s were on it as well.

From Skip Davenport back on pg 1 of this string: Talon Model -- I got this link for the 7thSOS web site it looks like they also make other Herk models too. https://www.asianimportsinc.com/prod_info.asp?ID=1344 A word to the wise, think twice before ordering a model airplane from Asian Imports. Although they make a good product, they leave a lot to be desired in straightforward dealing with the customer. They showed me pics of the finished product two weeks ago & it still hasn't shipped. Not only that, they won't tell me when it will ship. All I can get from them is doubletalk. More details when if/when I get the issue resolved.

You bet!! Did my part to support the local economy. My wallet still vibrates thinking about the good times had there 80-86. Business man's lunch was $5.40. 40 cents was for the beer.

Has to be after summer '89 - Bubba's retirement. I showed up @ the Det Jul '89.

If I remember right, we buried a Talon in the outback. That would be Flame's little incident back in '83, Stuck In The Glue At Ningaloo. Buried 7785 up to the whl wells. Nailed the ldg 1st brick on ctr line, but the dirt rwy wouldn't hold the weight. Took 'em a few days of digging & a heavy equip salvage co to get her out.

How does a guy stand while posing for his portrait resting his elbow on the wingtip of a Herk? Interesting story - ask The Flame.

The frig inside started many of us on the road to being life-long fat boys.

HCs (most now Shadows) had it - Talons never did. Had a tour in ARRS back in the early 80s. ODS was a big pain in the pooper - for ops & mx.

Yeah, same guy. He left the 8th @ HRT & went up to fly the ASET bird @ DUKE. Happened late 80s or early 90s.

Skip - Haven't seen or heard of Mike Pies or Gary Manley in 100 years of more. Do you know what they're up to these days?

Before my time in Talons/Big Safari, but I believe putting Credible Sport together was a four-way deal; USAF (Det 4 & HRT), LAS-Ontario, Lockheed-Marietta & WR-ALC. Maybe we can get John Lewis to weigh in here.

A few good deals stick in my mind: (1) Got to do 4 Cobra Golds in a row (living @ Pattaya Beach) while stationed @ RPMK. (2) Once waited a week or more @ Mildenhall for a main tank scavage pump for a '62 E model. Saw lots of London. (3) Spent 10 glorious days @ the Outrigger West (Wakiki Beach) waiting on a new elevator torque tube for a P model. (4) Stayed 2 wks in a former cat house (converted to a B& at Ft Worth while doing the init testing on the USCG EC-130V Delphi bird. Cat house, er uh, B&B was located in the Stock Yards area - walking distance to Billy Bob's.

Not to mention the how and why an aircrew could make a decision to leave the CC behind in a hostile environment. Bet those guys weren't on his Christmas card list after that.

Yes. Watching them (plts) trying to induce flutter was interesting as well. Flutter is far beyond Vmax on a Herk it\'s not much of a concern, but certainly a consideration when doing structural mods. Soomething which must be tested. Saw a movie one time of flutter on a C-141. Literally took the acft apart.

Yessir. It was called Project Delphi, acft MDS - EC-130V. That was us Det 4 folks. Chuck Louie was the A/C, Jim Dees the CP, Mike \"Navigadar\" Gaydar was the Nav, & Emmit Miles & Al Schwartz were the scanners. The USCG test mgmt folks were kind of skittish about the 1st flt - made GD string a rope thru tiedown rings fm FS245 to the end of the ramp (hand over hand escape device should the thing terminally nose over - no kidding, they really did) & required us to wear parachutes thru the init stab/ctl cks (1st hr or so of 1st flt). Every thing went just fine. As I recall, we flew 3-4 sorties to complete the aero certs then turned it back over to USCG for systems OT&E. It was all E-2 Hawkeye stuff - radome, consoles, computers, msn equip, et al. Had to be, the didn\'t have funding for new. Heard there was supposed to be about 6 acft total, but a new commandant came on board & wanted more emphasis on boats. Still have the wooden model GD gave to us.