To all you aviator types

[Aim to maim]

Happy 102nd anniversary of the dawn of manned powered flight.
(The Wright Brothers, Kitty Hawk, NC, 17 December 1903)

[Rocky Raab]

Thank you, kind sir!

I hope you enjoy my book: it's chock-full of aviator stuff.

(I mailed it to you today. If you DO enjoy it, please post a review on the lulu.com website.)

[Aim to maim]

Originally posted by Rocky Raab
(I mailed it to you today. If you DO enjoy it, please post a review on the lulu.com website.)

At the risk of sounding like dialogue from an old aviator movie, Roger, Wilco. Thanks for the quick turnaround.

[muledeer]

What you mean is a 'Ten four rog with a Wilco cover":D
muledeer

[BILLY D.]

hey muldeer

that reminds me. were you in vietnam in '68. did you have to go to phu cat and recertify any load crews?

we had a strange little incident there one time.

[muledeer]

68,69, and part of 70. I extended so I ended up spending 18 months in country. Went TDY to several bases but never to Phu Cat. Tell me about the "strange little incident".
muledeer

[BILLY D.]

there were roughly a wing of lead sleds at phu cat two guard outfits the 416 and the 612th tfs. somewhere up north a bunch of grunts were held down by victor charlie and were getting the crap pounded out of them. they called for close air support. our guys were more than happy to supply them all the napalm and hard bombs we had. everything on the ramp got loaded to the gills. we loaded cbu's, rokcets, napalm. and hard bombs, veeeeeeeeery quickly. well you know the competitiveness between load crews and between squadrons.

operations was screaming for aircraft and munitions. at this time frame aircraft were refueled in fuel pits and not in the revetments, so when we got the aircraft there was nothing else to do except back it into the revetment, do a shut down and get the stick actuator back to debriefing.

depending on how much 20mm he used we were turning aircraft around in less tha 20 minutes. sound a little quick? 7th afhq thought so also. somebody must have had their calculator and pencil and some time on their hands and figured out there is noooooo way you can turn aircraft around that quick by the book. so we got decertified for not follwing the book. i can personally tell you every time we loaded i used the check list. i knelt on it every time i locked the bomb rack.

remember the stick actuator? when he was sitting in debriefing and they told him his aircraft was ready and waiting i hear he exclaimed "wtf".

anyway, 7th af decertified us and sent a representives up to review our loading proceedures.

after all the hoopla la my commander wrote beau coup letters of counciling. and we were all absolved by the base commander. seems we saved a lot of grunts that day and the base was submitted for a outstanding unit citation.

as to my references to stick actuators i highly respect and revere them. i seen what those guys had to fly through during a mission. they got body parts bigger than a basketball.

as for the letter of counciling i never seen it again after i signed it.

that was my first and only letter of counciling also the first time i was ever decertified in 27 years of service. when it comes to my bretheren getting killed or a check list guess which gets top priority? our loads were safe, there were no injuries on the load crew. the aircraft was 100% ready and safe.

oh the two guard outfits? turns out those guys ain't what we thought they were. they could load to. they know how to master a ue quick turn also.

would i do it again? you bet your sweet :eek: i would.

[muledeer]

I was the number 3 man on the load stand team. We worked on F-100's. We also did some quick turn arounds. No one ever questioned our load time or whether the munitions were loaded in a safe and reliable manner. Hey it's a war!! I'm surprised you were questioned for performing your job and saving lives. You should of asked them if they wanted see your team do it in 15 min. Most of my time was spent at Bien Hoa. Tdy to Phang Rang, Pleiku, Cam Ran Bay, Saigon, and Takili, Tailand.
muledeer

[Rocky Raab]

As a FAC in Binh Dinh province (just north of Phu Cat) I worked many F-100 flights on targets - sometimes on targets that were breathing nuoc mam vapors in our troops' faces.

I can state without fear of contradiction that when our guys were in that kind of contact, they didn't much care if you knelt on your bomb-load checklist, read it aloud or used it in the two-holer.

They just wanted stuff that went BANG, and they wanted lots of it delivered sooner than now.

On behalf of those guys, thanks to you Billy and muledeer!

[muledeer]

Nuoc mam!! PHEW :D
muledeer