Just another week at The SCAB (Read 527 times)

A long time ago in a galaxy far away......

Whoops, wrong story line.

Well, it was a long time ago, but not in a galaxy far away. It was at Sioux City Air Base, Iowa, lovingly known as The SCAB.

As time went by at The SCAB, it seemed the Air Force couldn't make up it's mind what and how it wanted fighter squadrons operated and configured. In July 1957, the non-flying parts of the 13th FIS and the 14th FIS were combined in one giant mess called, 53rd CAMRON, Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.  I'm sure it was something that Gen. Le May pushed from Offutt on to AFHQ and stuck it to ADC, in order to conform to SAC standards. So, all of us were put in this giant mess and no one knew what was going on. Didn't take too long and we were back in our old squadron areas, taking care of our own airplanes, instead of being dispatched like plumbers from a shop to whatever plane needed us.

While still in CAMRON, we all moved to the Black Hanger. It was a very large WW2 hanger that would hold several B24s or B17s. It would also hold an entire squadron of Saber Dogs. Shops on two floors on both sides of the hanger and lots of offices and we even had a snack bar.

Typical of ADC, there was an exercise going on and every door of the hanger had a guard, complete with the regulation M1 Carbine.  It was cold, of course, weren't all exercises to be in Winter, and the guards were inside the hanger, sitting by their respective doors.

Everything was going along well, when things changed, dramatically.

Things were quiet in the hanger, when the unmistakable report of a .30 explosion hit our ears. Everyone hit the floor and waited. No more noise, just some yelling. I won't repeat the words, but the words came from a +20 year Master Sergeant. The words were aimed at the guard on the Southeast door. The entrance door through the large hanger door. The guard was stammering, slobbering, crying and may have wet his pants by this time.

Yep. He had fired one round from the M1. That round entered the wall of the Maintenance Office and went over the desk of the Maintenance Superintendent. Needless to say, that MSgt. was more than a bit upset. The round went through the office and hit a beam that flattened it to coin shape and size.

The MSgt yanked the gun from the guard and probably would have hit him over the head with it, but someone took it from him. The clip was ejected and, guess what, it was full. Hmmmm? Seems no one had cleared the weapon and no one checked it before it was handed to the guard. Needless to say the guard didn't check the weapon and there he was playing hero with a loaded carbine, with a round in the chamber.

End of story? Well, not quite.

Fast forward a few days and, again, back in the Black Hanger. Lots of maintenance going on on our fleet of Saber Dogs.

Just a normal day. Or was it?

The Black Hanger was so big that it took a very unusual noise to make everyone take notice. What happened next had us all taking notice.

As the maintenance went on, all of a sudden there was a very loud bang. It got all of us down on the concrete floor, again. It sounded like someone had taken a shot with a 12 gauge shot gun. As a matter of fact, that's just about what took place,

One of our intrepid electronics specialists was in the cockpit of a Saber Dog, doing some maintenance and checking out some systems. BLAM! He was out of the cockpit so fast, he may not have used the ladder. Scared? Not just him, but he was the most scared.

Somehow in his power on checks he hit the destroy switch for the IFF radio. That meant he had to break the copper safety wire and lift the red cover to push the switch up. It worked. The shotgun cartridge in the IFF black box went off as advertised and did what it was supposed to do. It destroyed the inside of the IFF black box and puffed out the sides like it was a marshmallow. Needless to say the guy who hit the switch was a bit upset, and worried. He just knew he would be hung out to dry. Nope.

Seems the crew chief, of course, forgot to pull the circuit breaker for the IFF Destruct Switch. But,nothing happened to him. Seems the Maintenance Office didn't tell him the plane was coming in for radio checks. So, everyone got off Scot Free. Except, of course the IFF Black Box. It became Exhibit One in the Electronics shop for what happens when the CB is not pulled and the safety wire is broken and the switch thrown.

It was just one of those weeks at The SCAB.