History Friday

[polcat]

I wonder if the AC-130J will have the same armament as the AC-130U.

[Cap-10]

Col (ret) Ralph Parr flew west on 7 Dec 2012...he flew 5 combat tours in four different aircraft (P-38, F-80, F-86, F-4) spanning 3 wars (WW II, Korea, and Vietnam), was a double ace and when he retired had flown over 6,000 hours in fighter aircraft and earned more than 60 decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, 10 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 41 Air Medals.

The River Rat Pack in San Antonio, as well as the O Club at Randolph are named in his honor.

Nickel on the grass to this FIGHTER PILOT Warrior!!!

https://www.af.mil/information/heritage/spotlight.asp?id=123161009

Cheers,

Cap-10

[MKopack]

I have several friends in the San Antonio Pack that have known Col. Parr for many years, only wish I'd had the opportunity myself. His flight west was only preceded by a few weeks by his good friend, and fellow double ace Major General “Boots” Blesse.

Somewhere up there I'll bet there are a pair of Sabres flying over MiG Alley once again...

[Breckey]

Stumbled upon this photo today. Anybody know the story behind it?

[pirate]

Stumbled upon this photo today. Anybody know the story behind it?

Iraq 2003. The -60s and PJs are from the 301st the pilot is and A-10 guy.

[Guest]

https://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=28713

[Guest one]

https://www.defense.g...e.aspx?ID=28713

Wow. He was back in the cockpit in 48 hours. That is badass.

[KState_Poke22]

https://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=28713

"I really don't know what that is, but I think I need it" Awesome quote, I can't believe I didn't hear about this at the time.

[Royal]

That's the best story I've read in a while; killer stuff. Thanks for the picture and article.

[Guest]

This ain't no puss game.

[Right Seat Driver]

https://www.defense.g...e.aspx?ID=28713

The engine cowling is on display in Battle Creek now.

[MKopack]

Sadly it has now been confirmed that Noell Rather, a USAF Veteran F-105 pilot with 100 missions over North Vietnam, was lost today along with his passenger Fisher Floyd, in the crash of his Aero L-29 Delfin in Texas. A nickle in the grass and my condolences to their friends and families.

https://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/small-plane-crashed-in-rural-kaufman-county.html/

[B52gator]

Col (ret) Ralph Parr flew west on 7 Dec 2012...he flew 5 combat tours in four different aircraft (P-38, F-80, F-86, F-4) spanning 3 wars (WW II, Korea, and Vietnam), was a double ace and when he retired had flown over 6,000 hours in fighter aircraft and earned more than 60 decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, 10 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 41 Air Medals.

The River Rat Pack in San Antonio, as well as the O Club at Randolph are named in his honor.

Nickel on the grass to this FIGHTER PILOT Warrior!!!

https://www.af.mil/in...sp?id=123161009

Cheers,

Cap-10

When I was at Randolph a awhile back, he would sometimes come to the Auger on Friday nights, wearing his flight suit, and he was usually good for buying a round or two.

Had the pleasure of chatting him up a few times, very nice guy. I was a lowly 2 Lt Nav Student, so it was nice of him just to take the time and talk with me.

[budderbar]

Why A German Pilot Escorted An American Bomber To Safety During World War II

https://jalopnik.com/...ng-world-war-ii

...Things went from bad to worse for Brown and his crew. Falling behind the formation, Ye Olde Pub weathered merciless attacks from 15 German fighters. The bomber's machine guns got one of them, but the damage they sustained was immense. The tail gunner was killed and four were injured, including Brown, who caught a bullet fragment in his right shoulder. The only defensive guns left in service were the top turret and the nose gun, and the bomber's hydraulics and oxygen systems had also been knocked out. The plane went into a spiral, plummeting earthward.

What happened next is according to the memory of Brown, who told interviewers years later that his mind was a bit hazy at the time; his shoulder was bleeding and he needed oxygen.

"I either spiraled or spun and came out of the spin just above the ground. My only conscience memory was of dodging trees but I had nightmares for years and years about dodging buildings and then trees. I think the Germans thought that we had spun in and crashed."

Ye Olde Pub was spared further harassment by enemy fighters. Somehow, he and the co-pilot managed to get the plane flying level again at about 1,000 feet of elevation.

On the way out to the sea, Ye Olde Pub passed a German airfield. Lt. Franz Stigler, a Luftwaffe fighter pilot just in from shooting down two B-17s, saw Ye Olde Pub limp by. Naturally, he scrambled to give chase. But what he saw arrested any aggression he may have had. As he told interviewers in 1991, he was aghast at the amount of damage the bomber had sustained. Its nose cone was missing, it had several gaping holes in the fuselage. He could see crew members giving first aid to the wounded, and most of the plane's guns hung limp, unmanned as they were.

"I saw his gunner lying in the back profusely bleeding….. so, I couldn't shoot. I tried to get him to land in Germany and he didn't react at all. So, I figured, well, turn him to Sweden, because his airplane was so shot up; I never saw anything flying so shot up."

Stigler kept his distance, always staying out of the line of fire of the two guns still in service, but managed to fly within 20 feet of the bullet riddled B-17. He tried to contact Brown with hand signals. His message was simple: Land your plane in Germany and surrender or fly to Sweden. That heap will never make it back to England.

A bewildered Brown stared back through his side window, not believing what he was seeing. He had already counted himself as a casualty numerous times. But this strange German pilot kept gesturing at him. There was no way he was going to land the plane, but the pilot stayed with him, keeping other attackers off until they reached the North Sea. When it was clear that Brown wasn't staying in Germany, Stigler saluted, peeled off, and flew out of Ye Olde Pub's nightmarish day.

[Dead Last]

I wonder if the AC-130J will have the same armament as the AC-130U.

Nope... It's going to look very similar to what is going on the AC-130W.

cheers

[HU&W]

https://www.seattlepi...ess-4190379.php

ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN, Maine (AP) — Flying low over snowy terrain on a Cold War training mission, Lt. Col. Dan Bulli's massive B-52 bomber hit turbulence that shook the plane so violently that he couldn't read the gauges. Pulling back on the yoke and pushing forward on the throttle, he tried to fly out of the severe wind. Then there was a loud bang.

Moving at about 325 mph, the unarmed bomber banked, nose down, toward the unforgiving winter wilderness below. Unable to control the plane, Bulli signaled for the crew to eject.

They had seconds to save themselves.

Today, the B-52 Stratofortress is a legendary aircraft, one of the longest-serving in U.S. military history, even flying missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The planes will remain in service for years to come. But it would not have become the workhorse it is without one disastrous flight 50 years ago next week, and a similar one six days later in New Mexico, that helped to underscore a deadly structural weakness.

"When you're flying combat aircraft, you're pushing your aircraft to the edge" to simulate combat, said Jeff Underwood, historian for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio. "It's very dangerous and the air crew knows it."

The fateful flight originated on Jan. 24, 1963, at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts. The crew was learning to use terrain avoidance radar, designed to help the pilot fly at treetop level to deliver a nuclear strike. Radar advances by the Soviets forced the aircraft with a 185-foot wingspan to fly low to the ground to evade detection, causing unexpected structural fatigue, Underwood said.

The crew had a choice of two routes, one over Maine and the other over North Carolina.

Maine was selected because of better weather.

Bulli, now 90, was an experienced pilot with 9,000 flight hours, responsible for overseeing proficiency of other B-52 pilots and crews.

Others, including two instructors, joined the flight. Gerald Adler, a navigator, took the seat of the electronic warfare officer, one of only three on the plane that ejects upward during an emergency, along with the pilot and co-pilot. Remaining crew had to eject downward or bail out.

The flight started out as routine. Powered by eight jet engines and capable of carrying up to 70,000 pounds of conventional munitions, the B-52 approached rural Greenville, 150 miles from Portland. Gusts coming off the 3,000- to 4,000-foot-high mountains buffeted the plane with moderate turbulence, Bulli recalled.

Eventually, the turbulence became extreme.

"The instrument panel was vibrating so badly that I couldn't read the dials. I couldn't interpret the radar returns because it was juggling so bad. It was the worst turbulence I had ever encountered," the pilot said.

After hearing what sounded like an explosion — he later learned the vertical stabilizer had broken off — Bulli had just seconds to determine whether the plane was still flyable. Unable to control the aircraft, he ordered the crew to bail.

The B-52 crashed into a mountainside, killing six crew members who couldn't escape. A seventh, the co-pilot, died after slamming into a tree.

Bulli shot his ejection seat into the air, bursting through the escape hatch. He smashed his foot on the instrument panel but cleared the aircraft. His parachute snagged a tree, and he ended up dangling 30 feet above the ground.

Adler's parachute failed to deploy because he remained strapped in his ejection seat, and he tumbled through the air before crashing through trees and into the deep snow, which slowed his impact enough to save his life.

The harsh landing broke ribs and fractured Adler's skull. But worst of all, it crushed his survival kit, leaving no access to the sleeping bag to protect himself from the cold. He pulled out the unused parachute and wrapped himself in it. Bulli eventually lowered himself to the ground, dug a hole in the snow, and climbed into his sleeping bag.

The two survivors remember a strange sense of quiet, interrupted only by wind whistling over the mountainside. Neither remembers the sound of the plane hitting the mountain.

Not knowing the fate of the others, or each other, Adler and Bulli settled in for a frigid night in shoulder-high snow. As darkness descended, the temperature plummeted, eventually reaching more than 20 below.

Their fight for survival wasn't over.

For 20 hours, they waited.

The region where the plane crashed remains wilderness, part of the vast North Woods that inspired naturalist Henry David Thoreau. Rescuers had to use helicopters, snowshoes and primitive snowmobiles to reach the wreckage.

"This is still the last frontier east of the Mississippi. There are fewer people living in Piscataquis County per square mile than anywhere east of the Mississippi," said Greenville police Chief Jeff Pomerleau.

Eventually, the survivors were found. Adler had severe frostbite. He was unconscious for five days and eventually his leg was amputated because of gangrene. All told, he spent 14 months in a hospital.

Later, he left the Air Force as a captain to start a new life as lawyer and a city councilman in California.

After recovering, Bulli continued to fly B-52s. At one point, he returned to Maine to serve atLoring Air Force Base. He retired as a colonel from the Air Force in Nebraska, where he lives.

Coming at the height of the Cold War, the flight showed that risks and sacrifices even outside of combat were significant. The crash left nine children without fathers and six women without husbands, Adler said.

"People who're killed in peacetime are often forgotten. Memorial Day events often forget them. Veterans Day events often forget them," said Adler, 81, who lives outside Davis, Calif.

But the crashes in Maine and New Mexico helped to make the B-52 the reliable aircraft it is today by revealing a fatal weakness in an aircraft that wasn't designed for low-level flying: The vertical stabilizer snapped off under certain conditions.

Fifty years after the crash, much of the debris remains on Elephant Mountain. Torn pieces of riveted metal. Wing chunks with hydraulic tubes dangling. Parts of the fuselage. Bundles of wire. Wheels and strut assemblies. The 40-foot-tall vertical stabilizer remains where it landed, 1½ miles from the other wreckage.

About 10 miles away, at the clubhouse for the Moosehead Riders snowmobile club, newspaper clippings, Bulli's parachute and Adler's ejection seat are on display. The club has held ceremonies for 20 years at the site and will hold this year's on Saturday, ahead of the anniversary. Pomerleau has taken over organizing the remembrances from another club member, Pete Pratt, who helped keep memory of the flight alive for years.

Pratt has been to the crash site a hundred times, but it's still an emotional experience. Tears welled in his eyes on a recent visit.

"It's a very solemn place," said Pomerleau, who joined Pratt at the site. "You think of the families, the wives who lost their husbands, the kids who lost their fathers, the grandchildren who heard the stories. There's so much to absorb."

[AnimalMother]

9000 hours?! Good lord. I guess that was before computers though, no CBTs and email to waste all your time.

[MKopack]

I love seeing a military unit that celebrates its heritage. Anyone recognize the Major's name on the canopy rail of the VFA-214 Commander's bird? (Seen by my Dad at the Mesa Gateway airport in AZ a week ago...)

[338skybolt]

I'm currently in Greenville, SC for a few days on a work assignment. The plant I'm working at has signs displaying Donaldson Air Force Base adjacent to it. I had never heard of it so did a brief Google search. Turns out it had an interesting bombing and airlift history in WWII and Korea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson_Air_Force_Base

[Sketch]

I love seeing a military unit that celebrates its heritage. Anyone recognize the Major's name on the canopy rail of the VFA-214 Commander's bird? (Seen by my Dad at the Mesa Gateway airport in AZ a week ago...)

VMA-214 (as with most Marine VMF Sq's) stay true to their heritage and celebrate it constantly (as told to me by a Black Sheep Harrier pilot). I love how even today they still have an F4U on their squadron patch. As an example, check out these photos from their '11 reunion, especially their bar and heritage flight. https://www.3wiredesi.../untitled2.html

[MKopack]

I'm currently in Greenville, SC for a few days on a work assignment. The plant I'm working at has signs displaying Donaldson Air Force Base adjacent to it. I had never heard of it so did a brief Google search. Turns out it had an interesting bombing and airlift history in WWII and Korea: https://en.wikipedia...._Air_Force_Base

I spent about four years with Lockheed Martin doing KC-10, P-3 and C-130 work at Donaldson in the late 90's. A lot of history at the base, but not a lot physically remains (although a lot of the buildings are obviously Air Force). Had a good friend that grew up just off base during WWII - his family rented rooms to B-25 student pilots, many of whom he kept in contact with once they went overseas. Some incredible stories.

Greenville was also the home of Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr., USAF (15 September 1927 – 27 October 1962) the only person lost to enemy fire during the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 was downed. There is an F-86 on display as a memorial to him in Cleveland Park in Greenville.

[MKopack]

Twenty-two years ago today.

[JarheadBoom]

I love seeing a military unit that celebrates its heritage.

In a wonderful break from the normal WTF?-ness that is McGuire, my SQ will be wearing our original patch later this year and next year, in honor of our upcoming 70th anniversary. Sure, it's a little thing, but I'm looking forward to thumbing my nose at the anti-heritage crowd while rocking some squadron history.

[nsplayr]

My squadron had a heritage patch that was more or less exactly like the original worn by our predecessors. We would rock it every Friday and never heard anything but compliments from other people on base including members of other squadrons, other squadron/group leadership, retirees, etc.

We were told no mas about 9 months ago from somewhere on high. Such a shame...glad other units are still able to rock their heritage.

[SocialD]

My squadron had a heritage patch that was more or less exactly like the original worn by our predecessors. We would rock it every Friday and never heard anything but compliments from other people on base including members of other squadrons, other squadron/group leadership, retirees, etc.

We were told no mas about 9 months ago from somewhere on high. Such a shame...glad other units are still able to rock their heritage.

Heritage...What is this heritage you speak of?