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Post by oswald on Jul 3, 2017 8:51:08 GMT 9
Jim detected some boredom in the forum so I thought I would add something that maybe some of you might relate to. Many years ago now but I haven't forgotten, I had to take an emergency leave. It was in the early summer of 1967. My supervisors got with their supervisors and arranged for a T-39 to take me from Richards Gebaur Afb to Selfridge Afb. My dad drove from Muskegon to St. Clemmons to get me. My grandfather on my mothers side of the family was dying and it was the first and only time I got to fly in one of those. I was grateful for the opportunity.
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Post by Jim on Jul 3, 2017 10:32:12 GMT 9
Thanks, old Ironfist!!!!!!! Military hop, April 1954 style!!!! 21t Ftr Bmbr Wg, George AFB, Cal. heading to Lakeland , Fla. to get married. Wing C-47 was going to Tinker AFB, Okla.... Rode right seat for about 3 hours..... Crew was 2 pilots, flying crew chief and radio operator. Other passenger was a pilot who was going to pickup an F-86 to fly back to George. Caught a Troop Carrier Command C-119 heading for Donaldson AFB, S. Carolina. Made an emergency landing at McGee Tyson AFB, Tenn. because of a # 2 engine fire warning light problem... After about 3 hours,the flight engineer found a broken wire. Back airborne and heading for Donaldson, landing at 0200 hours after 2 1/2 hours of uneventful flight. Transit Alert Sgt. took me out to the main gate. Air Policeman said he didn't think that I would have much luck getting ride out to the main highway that would take me eastward to US Highway 301. After about 15 minutes of nobody leaving the base, the Sgt. of the guard pulled up in a pickup and took me out to the highway. Two different farmers gave me rides for a few miles and let me off out in the middle of nowhere. Spooky to say the least!!!!!!!! Finally a schoolteacher picked me up and took me the last 20 miles to 301 and bought me breakfast. Fifteen minutes later a young couple picked me up and asked me where I was going. When I told them Lakeland, they said so are we!!!!!!! I kept their 4 year boy occupied and they bought me lunch and took me right to my folks front door. Six days later got married. Some one gave me a commercial plane ticket to Los Angeles, Cal. and I took a Greyhound Bus to Victorville.. Notice that all abbreviations are 1954 style??? The MUCH Older Sarge
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Post by LBer1568 on Jul 3, 2017 11:55:25 GMT 9
Jim detected some boredom in the forum so I thought I would add something that maybe some of you might relate to. Many years ago now but I haven't forgotten, I had to take an emergency leave. It was in the early summer of 1967. My supervisors got with their supervisors and arranged for a T-39 to take me from Richards Gebaur Afb to Selfridge Afb. My dad drove from Muskegon to St. Clemmons to get me. My grandfather on my mothers side of the family was dying and it was the first and only time I got to fly in one of those. I was grateful for the opportunity. I joined in Apr 1963 and got a call in August from Red Cross that my father had passed away. Red Cross got me an airline ticket from Denver to Columbus OH and gave me $50 cash. In return I had to fill out allotment papers for them to take $50 a month from my $90 pay for 6 months. They said the allotment would end automatically. I got home and back fine and struggled to survive on the $40 each month. Being at tech school we had to get our uniforms done at cleaners and get haircut once a week. Needless to say I had no free money to spend. So after the 6 months I expected a nice rise in paycheck. But when I got to front of line I only got the $40. TI paymaster told me to make appointment at finance. Finance told me Red Cross did that quite often and that I had to stop allotment and that it was too late to stop next months deduction, but to wait and then ask Red Cross for refund. So after another month I went to Red Cross. They told me I was told that I would have to manually stop allotment, even though I had paperwork showing that it was supposed to stop automatically. Re Cross said there was no way to get refund of donations. That's what they called it, a donation. In todays world we spend more than the $100, but back then it was difficult to swallow they loss. Red Cross still sends me requests for donations and I still send to Salvation Army. Now my trip from Denver to McGuire in April 1964 started with the E-4 who resided in the private room in our dorm. He was from Tenn and let me drive from Denver to St Louis, then he woke up and drove me to Indy. He dropped me at Greyhound station and I caught next bus eastbound to London Oh, closest to my Mom's. After a two week leave I got my brother to drive me to East side of Columbus (30 miles) and I put up my thumb on old Rt 40. Interstate 70 wasn't finished yet. It took me 4-5 rides to get to McGuire. Last ride was from Trenton NJ and was from a Lt Col. Turns out it was Guy Hurst Jr, our soon to be new Commander of 539th FIS. He used to joke with me about being a hobo when I would recover his MA-1 system on return from flight. He returned to sixes after spending two tours in SEA. Came back to Tyndall as a brand new BGen. He ended up being one of ADC Division Commanders, but still stayed current in six. Lorin
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Bullhunter
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Post by Bullhunter on Jul 3, 2017 16:03:24 GMT 9
It was 1986 and my wife and I were taking a 2 week vacation to Hawaii. Looking for a flight to Hickam AFB. One showed up on the schedule and I took leave. CAT III just about a sure seat. We cot to McChord's terminal to find out it was a C-130 not a C-141. Once onboard the C-130 my wife looked around for the bathroom. She asked the Flight Engineer or Loadmaster where it was. He said that it was out off order and closed, but there was a toilet right there. She said where? He pointed to a pallet with a shower curtain around it setting in the middle of the cargo compartment. She shook her head and her eyes got big. The she said, I can't use that you can see peoples feet when they are on the toilet. The aircrew man and I just looked at each other and smiled. He then said, Well OK mam, but its a 9 1/2 hour flight. She used it a few times during the flight. Space-A , I say the A stands for Adventure not Avaliable.
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Post by LBer1568 on Jul 4, 2017 1:13:08 GMT 9
Not really a hop topic, but filling back seats. As MA-1 jeep at 539th FIS I was in FTD for 6 months after arrival. I was presented with Award for highest scoring Jeep in FTD. Reward was a back seat ride in T-33 as target. As I remember we had 3-4 T-33 and they were our primary targets. In order to get ride you had to go through Short class on Bailouts, ride the parachute trainer and go to altitude chamber. Why the altitude chamber I will never know, T-33 didn't go very high as target. Anyways I got my first ride and enjoyed it, even though it was sort of long. But after that I got calls from Ops asking if I wanted to keep pilots company. I got about 10 rides, and enjoyed them all. But I had my training. When I transferred to Tyndall I was asked about why I had training and I told them I was great company on T-33. So I got calls then as well. Never interfered with my work. So when the MA-1 got new TACAN, UHF, etc I was one of the lucky MA-1 guys to fly back seat and check out Comm/Nav updates. It was very busy as we had to go through a large checklist and a lot of Freq's. We had a real Comm/Nav guy on ground with portable TACAN trainer so we could check various freqs as trough checkout. Each flight was also a FCF as they had done a lot to airframe as well as A/A refueling at same time. I never got tired of flying as a guest in back seat. Never got to ride in T-38, even though we had quite a few as Instructor training was at Tyndall. The neat thing about FCF is the high speed run at end. Got Mach 2 pin from Ops. I wish I could find it hidden away in a box somewhere. Lorin
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Bullhunter
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Post by Bullhunter on Jul 7, 2017 4:44:08 GMT 9
On another vacation flying back from Incerlick, Turkey we caught a flight on a C-5. Landed at Gander Canada for fuel and when the pilot hit the brakes an emergany exits door fell in on a Army troop. Crew chief fixed it and after fueling and a meal in the Passenger terminal we flew to Dover, DE. We spent the night at Billeting and the next day we caught a flight to McChord. It was a C-17. We took off and all was good and we reached cruise altitude, all of us that had sleeping mats laid them out. I laid down and went to sleep. I hadn't been asleep very long and the lights came on and the loadmaster was waking everyone up. We were told that the master caution computer failed. We were also told the aircraft could fly without it but if any non-active duty or dependents were onboard they were required to abort. We were then advised we had several options of places to land, and that the pilot chose Detroit Airport as it would be easy for us travelers to get easy airplane tickets to our desired places. Was nice of him to consider that. Now six passengers chipped in together and rented a van to travel back to Dover, DE and try again. Detroit in just about half way across the country and they decided to go back. I just could not understand that. Well, as they say, "stupid is as stupid does." As for Belinda and I we had thousands of air-miles save up. This is always our Plan-B. We spent the night and caught a flight into Seattle. A friend picked us up and drove us to McChord where our vehicle was. When traveling space-a you always need a plan-b for back-up. Pictures taken on the ramp at Detroit Airport.
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Bullhunter
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Post by Bullhunter on Jul 7, 2017 7:23:19 GMT 9
Now here is a retired military couple waiting for their name to be called for a flight flying CAT VI.
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Post by oswald on Jul 7, 2017 9:29:21 GMT 9
couple of dead beats
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