History Friday

[Prosuper]

I came across this for all you SAC guys who flew KC-135A's in late 60's and early 70's. NKAWTG.

[MKopack]

42 Years ago tonight, John L. Levitow (November 1, 1945-November 8, 2000), an AC-47 Spooky loadmaster for the 3rd Special Operations Squadron, lifted off in his gunship on a mission over Vietnam. By the end of the mission he would be a legend that will live forever in Air Force History.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Air Force, 3d Special Operations Squadron. place and date: Long Binh Army post, Republic of Vietnam, 24 February 1969. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Born: 1 November 1945, Hartford, Conn.

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Levitow (then A1C), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission in support of Long Binh Army post. Sgt. Levitow's aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole 2 feet in diameter through the wing and fragments made over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants of the cargo compartment were wounded and helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage. The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat. Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over 40 fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the opened cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare. The aircraft was partially out of control and the flare was rolling wildly from side to side. Sgt. Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood from his many wounds and he partial loss of feeling in his right leg. Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sgt. Levitow, by his selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction. Sgt. Levitow's gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmen, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

[M2]

Twenty years ago today, the ground portion of DESERT STORM kicked off...

Gulf War ground offensive begins

Brief Description: After six weeks of intensive bombing against Iraq and its armed forces, U.S.-led coalition forces launch a ground invasion of Kuwait and Iraq.

On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, its tiny oil-rich neighbor, and within hours had occupied most strategic positions in the country. One week later, Operation Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia,began as U.S. forces massed in the Persian Gulf. Three months later, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991.

At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, a massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire in television footage transmitted live via satellite from Baghdad and elsewhere.

Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in a massive air war against Iraq's military and civil infrastructure, encountering little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force. Iraqi ground forces were also helpless during this stage of the war, and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel, and thus other Arab nations, to enter the conflict; however, at the request of the United States, Israel remained out of the war.

On February 24, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq's outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated, and a majority of Iraq's armed forces had either been destroyed or had surrendered or retreated to Iraq. On February 28, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms. One hundred and twenty-five American soldiers were killed in the Persian Gulf War, with another 21 regarded as missing in action.

to all who served!

Cheers! M2

[GKinnear]

I think if you squint you can see Rainman getting his plug.

No in all seriousness this had to be between '72 and '78 based on the first and last flights of the jets involved. Thought it was worth a look.

[Prosuper]

I think if you squint you can see Rainman getting his plug.

No in all seriousness this had to be between '72 and '78 based on the first and last flights of the jets involved. Thought it was worth a look.

Wow a A-10 that actually had to slow down to AR or a Tanker perfectly suited to AR A-10's. Remember a few A-10 drags across the pond in a KC-135A on how much airspeed we had to bleed to AR hogs then visa versa when I crewed KC-135Q's on how much slower the SR-71 had to go when we were in a shallow dive to pick up airspeed. Great picture!

Edited March 29, 2011 by Prosuper

[Royal]

Here's a nice, succinct summation of the history behind the creation of the A-10 and how it was directly spawned from Col Boyd and Pierre Sprey's involvement in the "military reform movement." Which, not so incidentally, is also why it's such a beast of an aircraft. Quoted from the Boyd biography Mind of War by Grant Hammond:

...What exposed Boyd to the need to study war in its historical context was the experience he had with Pierre Sprey while working on the plans for the A-10 Thunderbolt II, the Air Force's close air support attack plane. The A-10 is not even painted like an Air Force plane; it wears the mottled green, brown, and black of Army camouflage. In that sense, it looks more like a tank, not a jet aircraft. It is slow, ugly, and somewhat awkward. Its primary mission in life is to kill tanks. It is armored and rugged in order to survive heavy ground fire at low leven in lethal battle field environments. Developed in the early 1970s, it was the first product of competitive fly-offs, selected in January 1973, two years before the F-16

The A-10 was a pet project of Pierre Sprey's, although Sprey maintains that Boyd's trade-off analyses, energy maneuverability theory, and views on warfare in general were as influential in its development as Sprey's expertise on ground attack. Slow and not very maneuverable, it was the product of careful research on how best to kill tanks and support ground troops. The A-10 has a titanium-armored area to protect the pilot and a high loiter time to provide on call fire support with laser guided bombs and Maverick missiles. It also has its own gun, the GAU-8, a seven barrel, rotary 30-mm cannon using spent uranium cores for armor penetration.

Back to boyd and how the A-10 caused him to study military history. The reformers managed to get access to experts in close air support and armor operations, the Germains of WWII. As a part of the contract for the ammunition developed for the GAU-8 gun, several former Nazi officers were brought clandestinely from Germany in the early 1970s to CIA safe houses on Maryland's eastern shore. Boyd, Sprey, and others interviewed Stuka pilots and German armor commanders. They wanted to know the time a pilot required to fine, target, and kill a tank from the air without being shot down and other tactical information that would prove useful in designing the A-10 and its gun, armor, and ordnance. Encouraged by the badering of Pierre Sprey, Boyd began to investigate German military tactics and strategy in WWII.

Edit: grammar

Edited April 16, 2011 by Royal

[Breckey]

I had an instructor at the Zoo who worked on the A-X program as a developmental engineer assigned to the A-10. During the course of the year he would indulge us with stories of the flyoff and how the A-10 ended up winning the competition.

For example, the slats inboard of the landing gear and the strakes along the wing root were a direct result of hot gas ingestion resulting in flameouts of the engines. They first started modifying the airframe with the strakes, when that didn't work the engineers put the slats on and other modifications as well until the problem went away.

The one story that he repeatedly told that I doubt would ever fly in today regarded tests to determine the amount of FOD that the engines would ingest on an unimproved airfield. Since the A-9 had intakes at the wing roots, the engineers thought that the hazard for FOD was pretty high. To determine the susceptibility of each airframe, they parked each aircraft over a smattering of corn flakes on the tarmac. Each aircraft was run up and lo-and-behold, the A-9 sucked up the cornflakes off the ground like a 3 year old. The A-10's cereal remained in its place, unmoved by the mighty power of the TF-34's.

He claims that that test helped cement A-10's place as the A-X competition winner.

[SurelySerious]

I had an instructor at the Zoo who worked on the A-X program as a developmental engineer assigned to the A-10. During the course of the year he would indulge us with stories of the flyoff and how the A-10 ended up winning the competition.

For example, the slats inboard of the landing gear and the strakes along the wing root were a direct result of hot gas ingestion resulting in flameouts of the engines. They first started modifying the airframe with the strakes, when that didn't work the engineers put the slats on and other modifications as well until the problem went away.

The one story that he repeatedly told that I doubt would ever fly in today regarded tests to determine the amount of FOD that the engines would ingest on an unimproved airfield. Since the A-9 had intakes at the wing roots, the engineers thought that the hazard for FOD was pretty high. To determine the susceptibility of each airframe, they parked each aircraft over a smattering of corn flakes on the tarmac. Each aircraft was run up and lo-and-behold, the A-9 sucked up the cornflakes off the ground like a 3 year old. The A-10's cereal remained in its place, unmoved by the mighty power of the TF-34's.

He claims that that test helped cement A-10's place as the A-X competition winner.

Dr. Yechout, great guy, and he loved telling those stories.

I say we made a great choice... it could have been

Close relative of

And people think the A-10 is ugly.

[Royal]

Those must've been the days. I wonder what we would've gotten with the F-22/YF-23 and F-35 if we had a similar procurement program today.

[MKopack]

Frank Buzze

Colonel, USAF, Ret.

January 14, 1923 - August 19, 2001

Pilot Ready To Fly Again--Lt Frank C. Buzze, 2255 Milton Ave. Syracuse, NY, grins as he assures the Flight Surgeon that only the airplane suffered in his crash landing. Damaged by ground fire, the North American F-51 "Mustang" was brought in for a skillful landing by Lt Buzze after a strafing and bombing mission over enemy lines. It was the second mishap for the 27 year old pilot that day. On his first mission, several hours earlier, a 50 caliber tracer bullet entered the bottom of his aircraft, coming to rest against a metal pressure container in a seat life raft pack on which Buzze was sitting. The unperturbed pilot went on to fly a third mission the same day, returning without incident. Said Buzze, "My luck's getting better." He has flown 25 missions on rocket, machine gun and bombing strikes against the North Koreans in F-51 "Mustangs" from this air strip a few miles behind the front lines.

Date Shot: 8/4/1950 VIRIN: HF-SN-98-07263

Via: https://www.18thfwa.org/naturalCauses/frankBuzze/frankBuzzeFS.html

Frank Buzze completed 100 successful combat missions in F-51 Mustangs over Korea, flew another exciting fighter-bomber combat tour in F-100s over Vietnam, then went on to complete a long and successful Air Force career before settling into a well-earned retirement in Florida as a full Colonel.

Following is an extract of the description of a day in the life of a fighter pilot in Vietnam by John Wheeler on May 14, 1967 for the San Antonio, TX, Express-News.

(AP) Da Nang, South Vietnam

“As the sleek fighter rolled in for another strafing pass, its doom already was a fact. The neat row of machine gun bullet holes marked the points where steel-jacketed slugs had punched through to the vital innards of the American Jet.

One by one, red lights winked on, an uncompromising announcement of the plane’s death throes. “Flight Control Fail” “Fire Warning” then “Aft Section Overheat.” Colonel Frank C. Buzze of Solvay N. Y, felt the stick between his knees freeze-up. Then as more warning lights snapped on, Buzze heard his wing man radio “You’re on fire Dusty 71” Buzze, pushed his radio transmit button and called back, “Roger, Dusty 71 - punching out”.

He pre-armed, then fired his ejection seat. He was tumbling through space above a Communist strong point along North Vietnam’s supply line into the South. The peaceful looking jungle below was crawling with enemy troops. Their natural hostility for American airmen had not been diminished by the bombing and strafing attacks just carried out by Buzze’s flight of Super Sabers. At this point in any other war, Col. Buzze would have been almost certain of being captured or killed. He certainly could not have expected the scores of warplanes which saturated the countryside around him to hold off the enemy troops.

Although there were helicopter rescues during the Korean War, there has never been anything like the “Jolly Green Giants”. The ‘Jolly Greens’ as they are called with near reverence by US combat pilots, had rescued more than 500 downed crewmen in North Vietnam, Laos and South Vietnam. The cost to members of the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron had been about 40 killed, wounded or missing. About 10 choppers had been lost. Hundreds of medals have been hung on the chests of the rescue team members. Others had been pinned on the American flag-draped coffins bound for the United States.

“Jet Pilots, a pretty individualistic lot, will argue about almost anything” one squadron commander said. “But the sure way to start a fight is for someone to bad mouth the Jolly Greens”. No one does.

Colonel Buzze wasn’t thinking of rescue as his parachute opened, even though alert aircraft were already flashing news of his fate. At Da Nang, a HH3C chopper and a flight of A1E Skyraiders were already being launched. The shock of the chute opening had ripped two panels out of the orange nylon canopy when it blossomed over his head, and Buzze was worried about getting onto the ground alive. As he neared the ground, bullets began whizzing by his head as the Communist soldiers opened fire. More panels ripped away and Buzze dropped heavily into a bamboo thicket. One of the first things he heard were many voices shouting what appeared to be commands. Then the firing died down.

Armed with only a pistol and a hunting knife, Buzze began moving away from the voices, hoping to find an area where the Jolly Greens could pick him up. Buzze accepted as fact that one would come. Minutes later the Skyraiders arrived and Buzze flashed a mirror signal through an opening in the jungle canopy. A Skyraider pilot spotted the mirror’s flash and wiggled his wings to let Buzze know that he had been seen. The Skyraiders began rolling in one by one to ‘sanitize’ the area… dropping napalm and anti-personnel bombs around Buzze and shooting up the area with 20mm shells. The attack was in the nick of time, for Buzze heard the searching enemy troops closing in from all directions. Minutes later the unmistakable noise of helicopter’s thumping blades announced the arrival of Jolly Green 56. The pilot in the camouflaged helicopter spotted a pen gun flare fired by Buzze, and stopped right over the downed colonel. The Communist troops opened up with everything they had.

Another helicopter was already on the way with more fighter-bombers racing ahead of it. They tried to keep a box of fire around Buzze to screen him from the enemy troops. But some of the enemy troops were already inside the box with him. As one crashed through the jungle close by, Buzze dove under some fallen bamboo to hide. The soldier came within a few feet and called out in broken English “American Pilot, me Communist soldier”. The searcher missed seeing his quarry and moved on down the hill. Buzze began working his way up the hill. He scrambled from hiding place to hiding place during the bomb and rocket passes. A second Jolly Green whirled into position. But again the firing was too intense. Finally it was forced to go back to Da Nang.

“Rescue from the air seemed impossible.” Buzze remembers thinking. It appeared sense­less to expose any further rescue crews to the terrible gunfire. Jolly Green 56 took it for several minutes while the crew tried to get a rescue line down to Buzze. But they had to abandon the try and turned back toward Da Nang. Capt. Angelo Pullara, of Lubbock, TX, the pilot, was dead and Capt. Jerrold D. Ward, the co-pilot was wounded. Jolly Green 56 had done the best it could - and more. Buzze started thinking about holing up until night and then trying to walk out”. But he had no water and concentration of enemy in the dense jungle were formidable foes.

More aircraft joined the ‘Sanitation Brigade’ as others ran out of bombs and rockets or approached “Bingo”, the point where they had only enough fuel to get home. For Buzze and his would-be captors, the violent drama went from a nearly unbearable peak to still higher levels as the minutes turned into hours. But for the pilots, isolated in their cockpits, there was almost a ho-hum tone in their radio conversations.

The forward air controller (FAC) - said in a monotone: “He should be just under us now. Paste that ridge line again, please” A Skyraider pilot replied with: “Okay, we’re attacking the gun positions now.” The Rescue commander: “Uh, Roger.” And from another pilot: “Twenty-five Charlies (Communist troops) at 10 o’clock.” He might have been ordering a beer for all the emotion in his voice.

The FAC said: “I have the pilot in sight. But the Jolly Greens can’t get to him right now.” An F-100 pilot came on with: “Okay, two bombs apiece on this run.” Control said: “Please don’t send another Chopper into the area until we sterilize it some more. The pilot has left the ridge and is 100 yards down on the north side into the valley where we were putting the napalm.” “Okay, use more nape and wipe ‘em out good”. Another call: “Okay, Saber 82, get right down on those trees so you don’t miss and hit the pilot”. “I can’t see the pilot flashing his mirror any more. He probably is in another footrace with the troops.”

Control came back with: “No more strikes until we find him again. He may have been ‘scarfed up’ (captured).” Agonizing minutes of uncertainty and then another monotone: “There were two flashes below the ridge, near the smoke.” “I’ve got the pilot in sight. This from Jolly Green 37, the third rescue helicopter. “Uh, Roger, can you get him?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I think it’s pretty safe. The area’s bombed out.” Jolly Green 37, commanded by Capt Robert L. Powell of Framingham, MA. with his co-pilot, Maj. Powell Moore, scanned the area below for enemy while mechanic SSgt John Rogerson and para-rescueman Airman David Slinger got ready for the rescue attempt.

Command: “Want to give it a try?” “I’m trying right now”. A few minutes and Jolly Green 37 added: “I think we’ve got a good chance if you work over the area real well.”

Fighters again began rolling in to saturate the ground around Buzze with everything they had. “Hit west of the chopper and north of the smoke. Jolly Green’s getting fire.” The tension was building in everyone’s voice now.

“This is Jolly Green 37. I’m going to try for a pick-up now.” Then, from control: “If we don’t make it this time, I recommend that we discontinue.” The voice was flat.

“I’m hit. I’m hit - Hits, hits, hits.“ This from Jolly Green 37 who was being raked by automatic weapons fire as he lowered the rescue seat into the jungle. Despite the fire, he stayed over the colonel. “Come on, baby,” someone radioed in encour­age­ment. “Put some fire on the north side of the chopper. I saw some rifle flashes there.”

Then the triumphant shout, “We got the boy!” The airwaves were jammed immediately with “Yippees” “Yahoos” and cries of “Good Work!” were exchanged between the choppers, the Skyraiders, fighter-bombers and control.

Buzze recalled later that as the rescue seat was being winched up to the chopper, “I took off on a wild ride before I knew it. I was at the chopper’s door and whisked inside safe, happy and relieved.” “But most of all I was humbled by the raw courage, self sacrifice, and determination shown by every one of those who fought to get me out.”

Frank Buzze was offered the big shot of whiskey reserved for all rescued airmen. It was four hours and twenty minutes since all those red lights had flashed on in Buzze’s F-100 cockpit.

Edited August 18, 2011 by MKopack

[snoopyeast]

https://www.airspacem...html?c=y&page=1

Mind If I Borrow It?

The day an Air Force mechanic commandeered a North American F-86.

Edited October 22, 2011 by snoopyeast

[Guest]

The good old days...

[MKopack]

The good old days...

Great find!

By 1995, the A-10 will be twenty years old, and USAF will have to think about providing for the next generation of close air support air­craft.

Guess that didn't really work out. Wish they'd stored the production line...

Edited November 2, 2011 by MKopack

[MKopack]

I read that the Air Force officially retired the BDU uniform that I wore during my time on the flightline, and I started thinking what else has changed since then... My recruiter's office has closed and moved as has the MEPS station in Syracuse. My basic training squadron from Lackland AFB, the 3707th, is gone. My tech school squadron, the 3778th is gone as well. In Basic we were amongst the last flights to be issued the old green fatigues. Hated them and switched to BDU's as soon as we could. They've retired the then current dress uniform a couple of times, so that's out as well.

I was assigned to the now disestablished Tactical Air Command, at MacDill AFB, which was "realigned" after our 56th TTW was moved to Luke AFB. Within the 56th though I was assigned to the 63rd TFTS which was deactivated. I worked on the flightline on our now retired F-16A/B aircraft that were built by General Dynamics who sold their aircraft division to Lockheed (which was renamed to Lockheed Martin). On my one TDY for a hurricane, we deployed to the now closed Dobbins AFB on a now retired (and scrapped) C-141 Starlifter. We shared the ramp with the Georgia ANG's F-15A Eagles and a Navy squadron, also evacuated, made up of A-4's, A-7's and A-3's, all of which have been retired...

After I left Florida, I flew to my new assignment in Spain on Trans World Airlines, which no longer exists, to my new assignment at the now closed Torrejon AB where I was assigned to the now disestablished 401st TFW and the 613th and 614th TFS's that are also gone. The 401st, by the way, was the sole flying wing in the 16th Air Force which is gone as well. I deployed with the 401st TFW(P) to a provisional airbase at the Doha International Airport in Qatar where our address was APO New York 09869. The unit and the APO address shut down when we left, and I believe the airbase and the airport have since. During my time there I carried my trusty M16A1 (triangle handguard, full auto, no three round burst, 1968 build date) and steel helmet while wearing my "chocolate chip" pattern BDU's and black jungle boots.

Was happy to get back from the Gulf, so I took some leave. Flew to the UK on British Caledonian Airlines, which like TWA, no longer exists and watched the Concorde launch each day out over London. Traveled to France on the now retired Hoverspeed hovercraft (cool ride) and spent a lot of Francs (along with all of the Lira in Italy and the Pesetas in Spain). The Paris Air Show was the European debut of the "new" F-117 Stealth fighter...

Although I enjoyed my time in the Air Force along with my job as an AFSC 431X1 (which they got rid of) and then a 452X4 (which went soon after the 431...), I made the decision to move on, and I left the USAF as an E-4 Non Commissioned Officer (which now requires E-5). Yes, I was a "Buck" Sergeant, a rank which, you guessed it, no longer exists.

Any wonder I feel old sometimes?

Edited November 3, 2011 by MKopack

[Day Man]

jesus, dude...you have a great memory.

[338skybolt]

...trip down memory lane...

Mike, we must have been in at the same time - '86 to '94 for me as an EW troop on RJ's. Got issued the same green fatigues and subsequent chocolate-chip BDU's for Desert Shield in Aug. '90. Also got out as a buck sergeant. Amazing to read the "reflective belt" thread to compare and contrast it to the philosophy back then.

Edited to add "compare" as some things, negative as they may be, never change. Still not sure why my AFSC changed 3x in 8 yrs., but not my job title or description.

Edited November 2, 2011 by 338skybolt

[Steve Davies]

Mike

Your memories brought back some memories for me, too - British Calendonian, Hoverspeed etc.!

[MKopack]

jesus, dude...you have a great memory.

My "career" was short, but fun.

Who knows, must have been all the booze. Our First Shirt used to roll a keg over to the dorms for holiday weekends and our building made Animal House look like Sesame Street. Most of us flightline guys had a weekly appointment with our flying squadron's IP's at a local establishment on Wednesday nights as well. Nickle wings and nickle beer, built up more than morale. Serviced a lot of LOX on Thursdays.

I have noticed that over the years I remember the good times a lot more than the bad ones.

Amazing to read the "reflective belt" thread to compare and contrast it to the philosophy back then.

No doubt. It must have been one of the first nights on the flightline that our OIC pulled everyone aside that was wearing their disco belts and said, "What are you thinking, this isn't an exercise..." It wasn't just that though either, basically the entire book was opened up to allow us to do what "made sense". A couple of us thought we had a better way to Phase jets, approached the Colonel about it and he said grab the QA guy, plus our commanders and he'd be back in an hour. We laid it out for them, they bought it, and an hour later the plan was in place. Most everything was allowed unless something official actually prohibited it - and most of that was negotiable...

Your memories brought back some memories for me, too - British Calendonian, Hoverspeed etc.!

Steve, I was taking a cab in Dover from the train station down into town as a hovercraft headed out. First thought was "What the hell is that?" and secondly, "I'm going to ride that thing". It was loud, it was fast, and it left a trail of spray a half a mile long, 70+mph on an awful windy, rainy day, blasting across the channel bouncing from wavetop to wavetop shaking like a C-130 missing a blade on each prop.

Even better was sitting in the pub the night before as an old timer told me about early-wartime life in Dover and his later experiences maintaining Spitfires in the UK and on the continent as the war progressed.

Edited November 2, 2011 by MKopack

[afnav]

Wow, MK! Great recap, and some very familiar references.

Basic Training: 3711 BMTS

Tech School: 3392 STUS

My flight was one of the first to be issued the 'flat toe', speed-laced combat boots. They were very prone to salt marks, which brought a surprising amount of sympathy from the TIs. I flew from San Antonio to Biloxi on TWA. I was the first people to purchase BDUs at Keesler (only worn off-duty), which helped me 'blend in' with the permanent party folks at the club. I was a 328X0, which was Rivet Workforced into 455X2 after I got to Barksdale. My KC-10s shared the flightline with B-52Gs, KC-135As and T-37s in the ACE program. The A-model was the loudest plane on the line to me. We flew to Ellington and Richards-Gebaur a lot, both of which are closing or closed. ATC was less Mickey Mouse than Big Blue writ large now, which is heartbreaking. I cherished my SAC and Journeyman Technician patches. I outprocessed in the middle of Desert Shield as an E-4 sergeant, after I searched the entire squadron to find someone to sign my paperwork. There was only one KC-10 on the flightline, and it was broken.

I look at books about the Air Force from the late 80s, and it's amazing how much it has shrunk.

[Learjetter]

Found this on another message board...thought it good enough to repost here. I don't know the author, or poster, personally, but have no reason to doubt the veracity of either...anyway, enjoy another yarn about "the good old days"...

How The O-2s Really Got There

It's 1967 or maybe early 1968, I forget, and the Air Force has bought a mess of Cessna Super Skymasters and called them O-2s. The Cessna factory at Wichita, Kansas is pumping them out at a pretty good clip and your problem is to figure out how to get them to Vietnam where they are needed. Your choices are:

1. Fly them to the West coast and turn them over to the Army for transport by cargo ship.

2. Take the wings off them and stuff them three at a time into the belly of C-124s and fly them over.

3. Fly them over under their own power with no C-124 attached.

Question: Which method was used? Right! Every single one of those puppies was hand-flown across the Big P to Vietnam. That sounds like it might have been a Mickey Mouse operation. Believe me, it wasn't that good.

Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) was running that show and their knowledge stopped somewhat short of knowing anything about ferrying air planes. The Air Force had a perfectly good organization called the 44th Aircraft Delivery Group which operated world wide and managed the ferrying of all aircraft; except the O-2s.

AFSC contracted with some outfit in San Francisco to deliver the planes to Saigon. The contractor hired a bunch of civilian pilots who couldn't find honest work elsewhere. Since the O-2s were technically "public" aircraft (as opposed to civil aircraft) no pilot's license was necessary to fly one and I'm not sure that all of the pilots had licenses. Some of them were pretty good, but the rest of them were the most god-awful collection of unqualified scruffy-looking alcoholics you ever saw. The dregs of the flying profession.

The deal worked like this. The pilots were given a plane ticket to Wichita where they got a quickie checkout in the O-2 if they needed one. Then they launched in bunches of four and headed for Hamilton AFB on the west coast of California. Enroute, they were instructed to carefully monitor and record their oil consumption, which, of course, they did not do. That type of pilot does not monitor and record oil consumption.

At Hamilton, the Air Force removed all the seats except the left front one. The seats were shipped to Vietnam by air, which is what should have happened to the rest of the plane, too. Extra fuel tanks were installed in the vacant floor space fol lowed by the pilot himself. He had to crawl over the co-pilot tank to get to the left seat. Next, they installed an oil tank on top of the co-pilot tank followed by a small emergency HF radio on top of that. Now, the pilot was truly locked in. To get out, he could either wait for someone to remove the radio and oil tank or crawl out the emergency escape window on the left side.

Takeoff must have been something to watch. With all that fuel, the planes were way over max gross weight. They had no single engine capability at all for about the first five hours of flight. If either engine hiccupped, the pilot went swimming.

<!--The route was Hawaii (Hickam), Midway, Wake Island, Guam (Anderson), Philippines (Clark) and Saigon (Tan Son Nhut.) The Hamilton-Hickam leg was by far the longest; nominally about thirteen hours. The O-2s were carrying fuel for about fourteen and a half hours of flight.

Navigation was strictly dead reckoning. The pilots took up a heading based on wind calculations and flew out their ETA hoping to be lost within range of a Hawaiian radio station. They had no long range navigation equipment.

The fuel tanks were disposable and were dropped off as they were no longer needed. The fuel pumps were not disposable and the pilots were instructed to bring them back along with their dirty underwear and the HF radio. The trip was supposed to take about a week and each pilot carried an airline ticket from Saigon to Wichita to go back and pick up another plane. For this, the pilots were paid $800 per trip with the flight leader getting $1,000. They planned on averaging three trips a month and getting rich doing it.

How come I know so much about this? Well, I was the Director of Safety at Hickam AFB and every single one of over 300 O-2s passed through my domain and created almost constant headaches. Before this all started, I had no idea what an O-2 even looked like much less any knowledge of the overall ferrying scheme.

The trouble started with the very first flight and began with the extra oil tank. The reason for determining oil consumption on the Wichita-Hamilton leg was to know how much oil to add during the really long legs. There were no oil quantity gauges. Shortly after takeoff from Hamilton, boredom set in and the pilots would give the oil tank wobble pump a jab or two and squirt some more oil into the engines.

The O-2 didn't need that much oil. All this did was overservice the engines which resulted in fluctuating oil pres sure. The pilots didn't like that at all, so they added more oil which led to more pressure fluctuation. Meanwhile, they were totally lost and not getting much closer to Hawaii. Time for the old MAYDAY call on the HF radio.

When that call came in, the Coast Guard in Hawaii was running a very interesting seminar on sea rescue in downtown Honolulu. I was attending which is how I found out that we had an O-2 problem. The Coast Guard shut down the seminar and launched their C-130 and a pair of cutters to find the O-2s; which they did.

They herded them to the nearest runway which happened to be the Marine Corps Air Station at Kanehoe on the Northeast side of Oahu. I drove over the mountains to Kanehoe to find out what the hell this was all about. That's when I saw my first O-2; actually my first four O-2s. Aside from being ugly, they were all soaked with oil over flowing from both engines and they didn't have ten gallons of gas among them. One had flamed out taxiing in from landing. They had been airborne for 14 hours and 45 minutes. The Coast Guard was really pissed when they learned the full story and was making noises about sending someone a bill for the rescue effort. I must say, I agreed with them.

That silliness continued for three or four weeks with every single flight of O-2s getting into some sort of trouble. At Hickam, the O-2 pilots were fairly easy to find. Most of the time they were draped over the bar at the O-Club; a situation which was attracting the attention of the Officers Wives Club; always a dangerous thing to do.

I went to PACAF Headquarters and told them what was going on and they were absolutely appalled. Civilian misfits ferrying Air Force airplanes across the Pacific to a combat zone? No way!

Between us, we began firing off messages to get this idiocy stopped. AFSC couldn't understand what the problem was and probably still doesn't. Hamilton AFB was taking a lot of heat for participating and allowing them to launch at all. I was agitating about the stupidity of this through all the safety channels. I think I may have mentioned that when the inevitable accident occurred, they better hope it was out of my area. If I had to investigate it, they were definitely not going to like the report. I was prepared to write most of the report right then before the accident even happened.

AFSC backed down and agreed to let the 44th Aircraft Delivery Group run the operation. The 44th wasn't too happy about that because the civilian pilots didn't seem to take instructions very well. Nevertheless, that brought some organization to the festivities which included things like mission planning, briefings, weather analysis, flight following and escort. The O-2s weren't allowed to fly unless accompanied by a C-47 or C-7 Caribou who could fly at their speed and handle the navigation. That wasn't much of a problem as there were two or three of those planes being ferried each week to Vietnam.

That procedure eliminated most of my problems and things settled down to a routine. The delivery rate to Vietnam was slowed somewhat, but I think more total planes actually got there because of it. During the entire process, only two planes were lost. One ditched due to engine failure on the Wake-Guam leg. The pilot managed to get out of the plane and bobbed around in his life jacket until picked up by a Japanese cargo ship. The other crashed in the Philippines killing the pilot. I never knew the circumstances.

We had, of course, the occasional problem at Hickam. I remember one pilot who landed nose gear first and managed to snap the gear off completely and ding the front propeller. I went out to see what had happened and got a load of bullshit and a strong whiff of gin from the pilot. The plane (he claimed) was nose heavy on landing and the elevator trim was inoperative. He couldn't get the nose up. Furthermore, his transmitter was out and he couldn't tell anyone about his problems. I checked the plane and found the elevator trimmed full nose down, but the trim switch and trim tab worked just fine. Just to the left of the trim switch, I noticed that the micro phone toggle switch was actually bent backwards. After several hours of martinis, the pilot was trying to trim using the mic switch. He trimmed the plane full nose down while trying to talk to the control tower on the trim switch. Case closed.

None of these accidents consumed any of my time. I had learned another quirk in the AFSC way of doing business. Appearances aside, the aircraft were not Air Force aircraft and wouldn't be until they arrived in Saigon and were formally delivered and accepted. Since they weren't, technically, Air Force air-craft; they couldn't have an Air Force accident. The planes weren't registered as civil aircraft, so they couldn't have a civil accident either. They were in regulatory limbo and any accidents were non-events. Nobody cared.

That suited me just fine. I had other things to do and I couldn't see how an investigation of stupidity would contribute anything to the Air Force safety program.

Incidentally, how do you suppose they got the O-2s out of Vietnam and back to the United States? They took the wings off, stuffed them three at a time into the belly of C-124s and flew them back. AFSC was not involved which, I later learned, tended to improve almost any operation.

[Guest]

Don't know where to put this but thought I would post it in case anyone in San Antonio wants to show up:

To the members of the Society of Combat Search and Rescue

On Friday, December 2, 2011, there will be a dedication of a building at Randolph Air Force Base (San Antonio, Texas) in memory of Ben Danielson. Ben Danielson was Boxer 22 Alpha for any of you who were “in country” between December 5 to 7, 1969. The Boxer 22 CSAR was the largest SAR conducted during the SEA conflict and might still be the largest SAR on record for any conflict. After nearly 3 days and 51 hours, Boxer 22 Bravo was rescued, but, unfortunately, Boxer 22 A was thought to have been killed by hostile forces between December 5^th and December 6^th.

Boxer 22 Alpha and Bravo were members of the 558^th Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam, at the time of the incident.

The 558^th is being reconstituted as a Training Squadron at Randolph. In memory of one of “their own”, they have decided to dedicate a training building after Ben Danielson (Boxer 22 Alpha).

The Society of Combat Search and Rescue did an extensive debrief of this mission several years ago at Nellis AFB. Subsequently, the then-infant son of Boxer 22 Alpha has grown up and become a Naval Aviator himself. The son, Lt. Commander Brian Danielson, travelled to Laos to assist with the search for his father’s remains and later organized a “repatriation ceremony” in their home town of Kenyon, Minnesota when the remains were positively identified.

Brian has asked that I inform the CSAR community that anyone who participated in the Boxer 22 mission on the dates above, including air crews, ground support crews (particularly from NKP) or anyone with a CSAR interest who would like to attend the ceremony please feel free to show up at the 558^th Squadron area by 1400 on Friday, December 2^nd.

This is NOT an official CSAR Symposium, but, following the dedication ceremonies, there will be a mission debrief by participants of the mission in a manner similar to the CSAR presentation.

This is admittedly very short notice, but it is what it is.

Best regards and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Edit to give some insight on a response I got from a friend I forwarded this email to:

Wow. I worked at AEX for several months for Boxer 22B, and had no clue about who that was, who HE was, the enormous historical significance of the mission, or anything at all about the mission.

Then one day Carl "Pivo" Pivarsky, Chief of Wing Wpns, called and said "you've got to come over here right now and see something."

I went over to Wing Weapons, and Pivo said "read this." It was the mission report for the whole Boxer 22 SAR. My jaw dropped when I read that 22B was Lt Col Woody Bergeron, my boss at Wing Stan/Eval.

I read absolutely incredulously about how Woody laid still while the bad guys walked all around him in the elephant grass, about how the Jollys had to abort the pickup due to withering fire. When the Jolly apologized and told him they'd be back at first light, they remarked how unbelievably calm he was--almost casual.

I can't remember if it was during the first failed attempt or the later successful one, but in debrief Woody commented how glad he was when the suppression strike bombs went off very near him--the Sandys had dropped CS around Woody, and he commented that the violent bomb explosions allowed him to cough without being heard. The NVA were that close. I seem to recall him calmly recounting hugging a tree to keep from getting blown out of his cover by the blast shock wave, and of getting hit by a CBU cannister...

The thing I'll never forget is that Woody just didn't "look the part." He reminded me more of a slightly disheveled college professor in a tweed jacket-- he wore his hair just barely inside the reg, with SEA-era sideburns, his flight suit collar was always flipped up on one side, with his scarf hanging out the back ("flagger data" style), one leg of his flight suit was always caught in his boot, and he smoked a pipe--always with this big devil-may-care grin on his face.

But after I read that report and how all the SARTAF was amazed at his calmness and even upbeat demeanor while he stared almost certain death in the face, I never looked at him the same.

When we brought him the report and asked him all wide-eyed, "sir, was that YOU??", he just shrugged it all off.

Ironically, we learned that Lt Col Noel Frisbee, the Vanguards' Opso at the time, was one of the Sandys during the epic rescue. He got all shot up and had to belly his Spad in. Neither of the two men had remembered their connection until we brought it up. Then Lt Col Frisbee dug up a Kodachrome photo of him proudly standing on the wing of his A-1, gear still up, and prop all bent back--and there in the foreground was Lt Woody Bergeron in fresh civies, with a camera around his neck, still at NKP not long after the pickup.

Woody retired to Blairsville, GA, not 2 hrs from where I live. When I went to UPS, turns out my sim partner lived in Blairsville, and Woody was his accountant. But I never looked him up. I think Lt Col Frisbee taught high school in Kansas after he didn't make sqdn/cc list (go figure) and retired...

Edited November 22, 2011 by Rainman A-10

[OL Patch]

As always, I'm speechless. What great Americans. My favorite line "he didn't make sqdn/cc list (go figure) and retired". No shit...go figure!

[ClearedHot]

I read that the Air Force officially retired the BDU uniform that I wore during my time on the flightline, and I started thinking what else has changed since then... My recruiter's office has closed and moved as has the MEPS station in Syracuse. My basic training squadron from Lackland AFB, the 3707th, is gone. My tech school squadron, the 3778th is gone as well. In Basic we were amongst the last flights to be issued the old green fatigues. Hated them and switched to BDU's as soon as we could. They've retired the then current dress uniform a couple of times, so that's out as well.

I was assigned to the now disestablished Tactical Air Command, at MacDill AFB, which was "realigned" after our 56th TTW was moved to Luke AFB. Within the 56th though I was assigned to the 63rd TFTS which was deactivated. I worked on the flightline on our now retired F-16A/B aircraft that were built by General Dynamics who sold their aircraft division to Lockheed (which was renamed to Lockheed Martin). On my one TDY for a hurricane, we deployed to the now closed Dobbins AFB on a now retired (and scrapped) C-141 Starlifter. We shared the ramp with the Georgia ANG's F-15A Eagles and a Navy squadron, also evacuated, made up of A-4's, A-7's and A-3's, all of which have been retired...

After I left Florida, I flew to my new assignment in Spain on Trans World Airlines, which no longer exists, to my new assignment at the now closed Torrejon AB where I was assigned to the now disestablished 401st TFW and the 613th and 614th TFS's that are also gone. The 401st, by the way, was the sole flying wing in the 16th Air Force which is gone as well. I deployed with the 401st TFW(P) to a provisional airbase at the Doha International Airport in Qatar where our address was APO New York 09869. The unit and the APO address shut down when we left, and I believe the airbase and the airport have since. During my time there I carried my trusty M16A1 (triangle handguard, full auto, no three round burst, 1968 build date) and steel helmet while wearing my "chocolate chip" pattern BDU's and black jungle boots.

Was happy to get back from the Gulf, so I took some leave. Flew to the UK on British Caledonian Airlines, which like TWA, no longer exists and watched the Concorde launch each day out over London. Traveled to France on the now retired Hoverspeed hovercraft (cool ride) and spent a lot of Francs (along with all of the Lira in Italy and the Pesetas in Spain). The Paris Air Show was the European debut of the "new" F-117 Stealth fighter...

Although I enjoyed my time in the Air Force along with my job as an AFSC 431X1 (which they got rid of) and then a 452X4 (which went soon after the 431...), I made the decision to move on, and I left the USAF as an E-4 Non Commissioned Officer (which now requires E-5). Yes, I was a "Buck" Sergeant, a rank which, you guessed it, no longer exists.

Any wonder I feel old sometimes?

Holy Grim Reaper...maybe you should have taken an assignment to the Pentagon so they could shut that down too!

Thanks for your service.

[HiFlyer]

Don't know where to put this but thought I would post it in case anyone in San Antonio wants to show up:

Ohhh...Boxer 22. I was there for that. I didn't directly participate in the SAR on-site, but my det would operate in our OV-10s about 40 miles southeast and act as a "traffic controller" feeding in-country aircraft in and collecting info when they left..Spads (A-1s) and Gunfighters (F-4s) from Danang, more F-4s from Phu Cat (Cobra ??) and Cam Ranh (Boxer), F-100s (Icon ??) from Tuy Hoa, and Marine A-4/F-4s from Chu Lai. An incredible couple of days!

[Guest]

As always, I'm speechless. What great Americans.

Amen.

It is good to remind ourselves every once in a while that our USAF heritage was forged by some brave and humble people.

My favorite line "he didn't make sqdn/cc list (go figure) and retired". No shit...go figure!

It is also good to remember that more things change the more they remain the same.