Flarebird

I was just checking in to see if anyone is using the site. I got an email that I couldn't download about another Batfest, this one to be held in LasVegas.

Ralph

Giz, The devil thing reminded me of something from the past. Back in 1976 I had my first heart attack. Someone asked a TSGT that worked for me, " Do you think Sergeant Krach will be back?". My Sergeant said, "Hell yes he'll be back, the Lord don't want him and the Devil is afraid he'll take over'. LOL

Home Depot and Popeye's Chicken also. Some times I smile and say "Am I getting the family discount?" You'd be surprised how often they say "Are you a Vet?" and I get 10% off. Here in Mississippi it pays the sales tax.

Hi Fellow Herky Jerkers,

I'm really happy to be back. I never really went anywhere except to the hospitals and to the Happy Hunting Grounds 4 times.

Briefly, I've had some nasty surgeries, The 5 way coronary bypass, the partial foot amputation for gangerene, and 4 fatal heart attacks resulting in an ICD implant. The little machine in my chest is doing the trick and I'm almost my old self again. I was somewhat of a specialty in the hospital because when they prepped me for the surgery they found out that I had been dead 3 times at home. We thougt that I was passing out and my wife revived me all 3 times by pouring ice water on me and beating on my chest and back. I will be the first one to say "Ignorance is bliss". Had she known that I had died she probably wouldn't have reacted like she did. So..... I'm still Lucky Ol' Ralph and I'm happy to see many of the old Bat's are still here.

12 flares at 4 second intervals,.......... Drop, Drop, Drop!

By the time that I went for hearing aids I could hardly understand any voices of young women (waitresses) and my Grand children and great grandchildren sounded like chip monks. Also I only got a few words correct in the spoken word portion of the test. I do know this after 25+ years of dealing with the VA. An awful lot of the exam results will vary with the examiner and the hospital location. Ralph

Ritchie, You will probably get the new RIC, Receiver In Canal, types. Man, they are nice. I've been getting my aids from the VA since About 93 and these new ones are state of the art and about $7000.00 a pair. They are really nice in that they don't feel like ear plugs. A friend that got his new ones after me even got a wrist watch that he can use to change the volume as needed. Good Luck, Ralph

PS: The VA seems to be getting much better about getting quality prosthetics.

Hey Guy's I want to pass on as a way to prove "in country" service. If you have your medical records, copy a page that shows a visit to an in country dispensary. I sent one page and was instantly approved for Agent Orange qualification. If you have almost any type of cancer it will be "service connected". What the Agent Orange qualification does is help expedite any claims that require proof of "in country" service. It really does speed things up!

Pat Hatch, if you read this, I Think you will probably get an in service connection disability award for your hearing. If I remember correctly you did not stay in the AF to retire, so you will just get a tax free monetary award on a monthly schedule. Things seem to move slowly at first but once your foot is in the door with all of your qualifying bona fide's, claims and service/visits speed up. Ralph

Jim,

Tell me what you want, and send me the shipping address. I'll pack it, mail it and email you how much money to send. Or you can guess the postage and send me a check. I've been mailing them out in the brown bubble envelopes.

My email is [email protected], write me there and I'll send my address.

Ralph

Hi All,

I have some Blindbat items left from Batfest III. They are all high quality items. I have embroidered patches, pins, and coins. The pins are perfect for wear on hats or as a tie pin.

The coins are $5.00 each, the pins and patches are $3.00 each. I also have two types of coin protectors, exact size and white border for an additional $1.00 each.

Postage will vary with the weight and distance but I have successfully sent them in the brown bubble packs.

Let me know what you want.

Ralph

I thought the crew was for taking us for a ride so we could get combat pay and a tax break. LOL Ralph

Bob, Did you send Casey the whole list. I have copies of the whole list from when we worked on it. Mine starts with 2 Sept 1958 and goes through 1 Apr 1997. It's 16 pages long.

Ralph

Glenn, 3135 was at Naha in 1964. I got to Naha in Nov 63 and I worked on her right after I got there. The snubbies had the AN/APS 42 for a search radar and we had to take the components to Kadena's com/nav shop to work on them. Ralph

I can remember being in the tent at Danang and hearing Herks come and go. You could hear them shut down 1 & 4 to taxi, that would be an A model. The B's and E's would go to ground idle to taxi. I live two blocks west of Keesler so I still see and hear the J's day and night. Ralph

I'm trying to upload a crew photo of 477.

Here's a little more "history" for old -477. Major Chet Schroer was the last pilot to land 477. He had flown a BB mission the night before she was shot down. I remember Chet at Batfest II talking about that. He gave me a big 24X36 inch picture of 477 flying over Okinawa. He had it framed and it hung on his wall for years. In 2005 he sent it to me to give to Tom Brotherman (Tom Mitchells son). I contacted Brotherman and he apparently didn't want it because he never answered my e mails. Right now there are plans for Batfest IV to be held at Wright Pat in 2012. I think I'll take the picture up there and they can put it with the BB display. I hope that they have a BB display, Sam McGowan said something awhile back about them starting one. Ralph

Hi Pat, I've been getting my hearing aids at the VA for about the last 15 years. They don't particularly care why your hearing is bad. Recently I got the new RIC, (Receiver In Canal) types that are in the 5-6 thousand dollar range. They are really great, easy to wear, batteries last longer, no ear sweating, and you can hear around them. They are not like wearing ear plugs. Don Powell got some after I did and he also was issued a wrist watch the can control the hearing aids, borderline magic.

Ralph

In the Comm/Nav shop at Naha we always had trouble with the F-102's. They had a cannon plug that would get wet from humidity and when the pilot or C/C started the plane it would squawk mode III 7/7 which was the emergency code. They always called for a parrot check whenever power was applied on the ground. As soon as the canopy was closed and the a/c took over the cannon plug would dry out and the SIF would function properly.

No amount of potting compound ever fixed the problem. We used a UPX-7 hooked to an "o" scope in the shop. Naha 63-67 How's that for a memory! LOL Ralph

If you are looking for info on E flight 21st TCS go to Google and \"google\" E Flight. It was never called Eagle Flight. At the time of it\'s conception the phonetic for E was Easy, then later on it became Echo. Ralph

Vince, There are a few E Flt Cat Z\'s and Flt crew that always attend the Blindbat reunions. The Cat Z\'s were the original flarekickers during 64,65 and until the move to Ubon in 66. We have our own board at Topica but it\'s been fairly quiet for a while. When we have a reunion it really crackles. The Category Z functional account code was done away with in July 1966.

Ralph

That looks like a copy of the patch that I posted to the old Herky board. When I scanned it years ago the white part turned yellow. That was the E Flight patch from the 21st TCS when it was at Naha. I also sent in the E flght patch that was worn on fatigues and the flight suit/jacket. Here\'s what it looked like.For a while we had a \"Sorry Bout That\" arch that was sewn above the Habu patch. Ralph [img size=420]http://herkybirds.com/images/fbfiles/images/Krach_E_Flight_Radar_patch.JPG

Ho,HO,

I\'m 75 and when I had my 5 coronary bypasses 4 years ago the Doc gave me 15 more years, 4 down 11 to go LOL. I started out in the Army in 1949, switched to the AF in 1961 and retired in 1978.

Life is Goood!

Ralph aka Flarebird

HI Bob,

Casey is going to load the avatars into this system. Man, that guy is a glutton for work. (Thank God) I never heard of this system before but it seems to be the easiest one that I\'ve ever used. It\'s really user friendly. I hope more of the Bats come over and use it.

Ralph

:P Casey, I like the new format and it seems easy to use. That\'s important to me. I started a new HB Group called Blindbats but it hasn\'t loaded yet. Will you have the avatars again when things get loaded?

I really appreciate all the work that you are putting into this site.

Thanks, Ralph