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BRlang

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BRlang last won the day on September 4 2018

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core_pfieldgroups_2

  • First Name
    Billy
  • Last Name
    Lang
  • core_pfield_13
    Travel, play the guitar and fight the VA

core_pfieldgroups_3

  • core_pfield_11
    Tupelo High school graduate 1968
    Joined USAF Dec 1968
    Sewart AFB 1969-April 1970
    CCK AFB 1970- 1971....118 combat missions
    LRAFB 1971- Dec 1972
    Joined Federal Express May 1st 1973...
    Opened MSY Ramp and transcend from Falcon Jet to first B-727
    to operate in New Orleans in Summer of 1981.
    transfered to Savannah and launched the last Falcon flight at FedEx and introduced the first B-727 to the Savannah market.
    Moved to Northwest Arkansas and managed three FedEx locations from 1985 til May 31st 2013 when I retired. I was the 4th most senior employee in FedEx at my retirement EE#518. Spent 40 years and a month and not only helped start a company but an industry.

    I might be one of the few that took loadmaster skills to my new job. Weight times arm always equals moment even in civilian life.
  • core_pfield_12
    Northwest Arkansas
  • Occupation
    Retired after 40 years at FedEx

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  1. I wish I had a nickel for every time I said this
  2. This worked for me a few times...Have A/C hold brakes..throttle up a bit. Load unlocks the pallets. Release brakes and it all ends up on the ground and off you go..We didn't need no stinking loader
  3. I have had a hearing appeal filed since December of 2014. Back in the spring I got a letter inviting me to move my appeal out of the black hole to the RAMP program. With some hesitation I returned the form and moved into RAMP. It did speed some things up. On August 6th I got a notification that I was being reviewed. They sent me to a civilian Audiologist for a second opinion. Something told me to grab a few documents. I took my entry flight physical test with perfect 19 year old hearing and my last flight physical right before I got out. The last hearing test showed a large drop in my hearing. I also brought information of an explosion on board that killed 3 Cambodians and blew me off the ramp. I think that is when the ringing started. I had included all these documents with my original claim. They sent him a file but none of this was included. After doing my hearing test and seeing the stuff I brought he said I can't believe they made you appeal. Well in late January a bunch of money showed up in my bank account and I got a letter awarding me 10%. Had I left my file at home I am not sure I would have won......But the RAMP program did get my appeal back in the works. Had I not made the move it could have bee a few more years before it could be reviewed. The RAMP program was part of the VA overhaul. They can actually fire people for screwing up or poor performance..
  4. I once tried to pee off the ramp after a leaflet drop over Laos....It's cold as hell back there.. No parka or coat just a Nomex fit suit...
  5. When I arrived at CCK us newbies were not allowed to go to the dirty dozen strip without an "instructor". Had to make sure you knew the ropes
  6. While there was only 5 of us on the crew it took thousands to get is in and keep us in the air. I want to thank all the Crew Chiefs that made sure we had a good airplane each day. They stayed as log as it took to get the airplane back in the "Green". Thanks to all the MX guys that fixed the planes we "broke". The fuelers that topped us off. The list goes on forever. For ever one of us that had wings there was 50,000 to support us. I especially want to thank the great Pilots that brought me home every night. I was 19 and thought these guys were old men..Most were in their late 20s. Happy veterans day to all of you.
  7. Thanks, don't have appeal won yet but at least I got to someone that would look at all my stuff. He said the VA sent him my file to review but they did not include my Flight Physicals or info on the explosion... I guess they just overlooked the three most valuable pieces of my evidence. Don't know if they overlooked this stuff or didn't want a civilian Doctor to see it. Something told me to grab that file on the way to see him...
  8. I'm not sure where this post belongs as the VA claims threads are no longer on the site. Until a few months ago the word RAMP was where we parked the airplane or what I lowered to load rolling stock. I never parked on a Tarmac and never used that word until I heard it on CNN. At FedEx it was still a Ramp. I have had a hearing claim in the Black Hole since late 2014. No one could give me any information as to the progress or when I might get a decision. It was in the appeals process. In the Spring I got a letter from the VA inviting me to move my appeal out of the "legacy" appeals process and into the new RAMP (Rapid Appeals Modernization Process) system. My first thought was if it is good for them it must be bad for me. They claim in this process you could get an answer in less than 6 months. After some investigation and some deep thought, I "Opted in" as they say. They sent me a letter that they had "closed" my appeal on the legacy program and re-entered it into the RAMP program. My first thought was back in the black hole. I did this on June 8th. To my surprise I got a call to schedule a hearing test with a Civillian Audiologist less than 4 weeks after I moved into the new program. I did the test and shared my entry Flight Physical hearing results and my last physical results with the Doctor. I also shared an aircraft explosion that blew into the cargo compartment. He shook his head and told me that this should never have gone to appeal and the VA shoulder have approved it on the first filling. In the first filing the VA doctor did not discuss any of my noise exposure and was not interested in anything but testing my ears. The civilian doctor said his report would state that " Military Combat Noise Exposure was more likely than not" to have caused my decline in hearing and the ringing. That is a legal term used by the VA. They also have a new website where you can actually track the claims in real time with a committed completion date. This was all part of the law that Trump signed last year to start fixing the VA. This was a long winded way to say that the VA actual came up with a better way to track and complete claims. If you get offered the opportunity to enter an appeal in the "RAMP" program I suggest you do it.
  9. That is an amazing story. I got out of SEA in late 1971. It was pretty calm at that time. Mostly flying MAX PAX and general runs. Very few dirt strips in our missions. I thought we had the war won. Actually we did until politics made us quit. Not long after I got back to LRAFB maybe early spring, I was asked to Crew a ferry flight back to CCK to deliver a plane from the 62nd. They need aircraft. I guess many were getting shot up then. Right after we got back from CCK they asked for volunteers to come back 90 day TDY to take a bunch of planes back and fly the line for a couple of months. It took me less than a second to say no. I knew why they needed planes and crews and I wanted no part of it. I was short, only 6 months to go...I am still amazed that He kept this plane from cart wheeling and killing everybody. He was 28 years old. Most of my Acs were under 30. I saw them as old men as I was 20. I hope he gets the CMH as we never got one in the C-130 groups.
  10. That plane appears to be out of CG. Looks like the tail skid struck the runway. That could be the result of a load shift aft. Out of CG nose heavy is recoverable. Tail heavy is not usually recoverable. Looks like it rotated on its on and you cans see them struggle to make it fly. Nose heavy is recoverable to a certain point as long as you have a few thousand feet in front of you. I know as I loaded a 12% MAC right after I got checked out in Viet Nam. Dumbest thing I did in all my flights. Luckly we had another 2,000 feet in front of us. At rotate speed the nose wouldn't come up... I had a great pilot, Maj Cherry, he added speed to the approach and landed with no issues. There is no place to hide in a C130. Loaded three pallets (30,000lbs) of 175 rounds. Locked in the first pallet 2 locks too far forward and the next two right behind it.
  11. I got a call from Ken Rice. He was in the freight side of 2nd Aerial Port at Sewart. many of us Loadmasters did time in Aerial Port before PCS to SEA to fly the line. I was in 2APS before I went to CCK to the 345th. I returned to 2APS at LRAFB after CCK. Other than rigging loads they kept us Aerial Port Loadmaster so we could do the 10 Hr over water missions or 5 hours of touch and goes. 2 Aerial Port is having a reunion in Smyrna TN on Sept 14th-16th. If you know any old Aerial Port folks pass it along. Contact Ken Rice for information. Cel 563-343-5985.
  12. I didn't have the documentation but did get it from Records Center in STL. My point is that it is up to you to use the documentation and present it with explanations that make it convincible to the reviewer why you were in Viet Nam and what you did while there. Some people send in the documents with no narrative as to what they show and mean. It appears that sometime they look harder for reasons to deny you than to give you an approval. I am still amazed that the VA approved my Agent Orange claims and my disability without any thing from the Airforce. It was nice to get the letter from Randolph but the VA didn't even see it.
  13. Thanks, I was trying to identify the unit that moved a buddy of mine off Duong Dong after they shut down the radar post there. I couldn't get the tail number. Heck, Sonny it might have been your bird. Here is one of our CCK birds landed long and stuck in the sand
  14. Can anyone recall which Squadron in SEA had YJ above the tail number
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