Call Signs

[ol-IEWO]

I think call signs and naming ceremonies are actually a fairly recent thing, relatively speaking. I was talking to our OG the other day and he said that naming ceremonies (as a standard) didn't really come about until after Desert Storm. Can any of you old farts verify this?

I was flying F-4's until '79 (makes me an old fart) and there was no naming ceremony in any of the squadron's I flew with. A few guys had nicknames but that happens with any group of guys. I got the impression it started in the AF after "Top Gun." I recently visited D-M and learned that new A-10 pilots get their nickname a couple of weeks prior to graduating. It's subject to be changed at their first operational squadron, so I was told.

[sigmanugary]

To get back on track about the Callsign deal. Just for clarification, if anyone wanted to know the way callsigns work for ABMers here goes.....we get "named" at Tyndall when we step up to controlling fighters in our last phase of training. Generally, these callsigns don't carry over to your next assignment, unless the c/s is really funny. While we wait in purgatory (the time between being "ABMs" and "winged ABMs", this involves more training and then finally our flying phase) most of use are basically without callsigns. After we get winged and roll over to our line sq it differs...some squadrons will do the whole FNG thing for a while then you get a proper callsign later. We only have a c/s night about once to twice a year so many guys don't get named until they are about to pin on or already are young Capts. Most guys who stay weapons(the controllers...AWOs and SD) use their callsigns but the guys who upgrade to ASO or ECO (survelliance or electronic combat) tend to not use them at all (generally speaking). All the comments on here by various guys about "culture" seems to me to be spot on from some of the experiences I've had (flags and whatnot). But we (AWACers) have many sub-cultures(flight deck dudes, techs, weapons, survelliance, etc) on our jet...thus many different traditions and customs. The point of this if you guys are still with me is that not all AWACS dudes run around throwing threat BRAAS with their elbows or wearing ascots on their heads playing crud. Some of us ABMs are just more "ate up" then others...

HUAA

BTW I don't know the standard practice for JSTARS dudes but I do know that CRC types (ABMs and enlisted WDs) all rock callsigns.

Edited June 20, 2008 by Toro

[Butters]

Back to the Call Sign discussion.

At what point are some forced to give up there call sign for a more politically correct one. I know for a fact Lt General Loyd “Chip” Utterback was Tits when he was at Kunsan. Not sure if TITS would have gone over real well as the 13 AF/CC. Then of course you have Neda Bickerstaff, Kenny Lingus, and so on.

[Toro]

At what point are some forced to give up there call sign for a more politically correct one. I know for a fact Lt General Loyd “Chip” Utterback was Tits when he was at Kunsan. Not sure if TITS would have gone over real well as the 13 AF/CC. Then of course you have Neda Bickerstaff, Kenny Lingus, and so on.

These days I've heard of it as low as the Sq/CC level. My previous DO - callsign "Rudeboy" was told he would have to be replotted to be considered for Sq/CC. Everybody thought it was ridiculous, especially since it's a pretty tame call sign compared to some. Fortunately this didn't hold and he is now a Sq/CC.

1. Saying container and cranium and pointing with your elbows is retarded. Maybe a few light gray squadrons still do that, but I think those traditions live on mostly in AETC for entertainment. In the rest of the CAF, that stuff is dying out along with the O'Club...

Disagree, going strong in the dark grey community as well.

4. Fighter squadrons naming their casual LTs...wtf? Hopefully it was something very informal and very degrading. Roll calls and naming ceremonies should be reserved only for winged persons. Exception: UPT classes.

Disagree again. We've named every casual dude we've had - they may not have wings, but those guys were every bit a part of the squadron as us. They busted their asses at work, sometimes put in as many hours as us, went TDY with us (and were almost always tagged as DD), drank in the bar and partied in town with us, and even flew back seat rides with us.

[Skitzo]

The 9th BS (Bats) names their casuals Guano 1, 2, 3 etc. sort of like an FNG system for casuals.

[Guest RabidWombat]

Greetings from "an undisclosed location in southwest asia" i bet you can all guess where i am....

How bout

DASH - Dumb A$$ Sh@t Himself

Or a couple of IPs from T-6's at moody

LLAM - Looks Like A Mexican (Self-explanatory)

Hung - forgot to unplug his g-suit when exiting his t-38 in UPT, and hung himself. Story goes, maintainers had to pick him up and unplug it for him

Im a herk guy over at the big D in tx, i bought a turd ferguson patch, and Turd just kinda stuck. Or as the DO thinks my name is... Lt Ferguson.

Hot House - Former intel lady from my casual squadron

Magnum - Chief pilot at the squadron looks like Tom Selleck (spelling) from magnum pi

drive fast, smoke in bed,

RW

[LockheedFix]

A female flight doc at Lakenheath, Dr. Dick, went by "Senor".