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
i would.