Fly High!
Here is an excellent United States Air Force story from Carrie.
A US Air Force C-141 is scheduled to leave Thule Air Base, Greenland , at midnight. During the pilot's preflight check, he discovers that the latrine holding tank is still full from the last flight. So a message is sent to the base, and an airman who was off duty is called out to take care of it.
The young man finally gets to the air base and makes his way to the aircraft, only to find that the latrine pump truck has been left outdoors and is frozen solid, so he must find another one in the hangar, which takes even more time. He returns to the aircraft and is less than enthusiastic about what he has to do. Nevertheless, he goes about the pumping job deliberately and carefully (and slowly) so as to not risk criticism later.
As he's leaving the plane, the pilot stops him and says, "Son, your attitude and performance has caused this flight to be late, and I'm going to personally see to it that you are not just reprimanded, but punished."
Shivering in the cold, his task finished, he takes a deep breath, stands up tall and says, "Sir, with all due respect, I'm not your son; I'm an Airman in the United States Air Force. I've been in Thule , Greenland for 11 months without any leave, and reindeer are beginning to look pretty good to me. I have one stripe; it's two-thirty in the morning, the temperature is 40 degrees below zero, and my job here is to pump shit from your aircraft......
Now just exactly what form of punishment did you have in mind?"
posted by Tramp at
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
7 Comments:
This is a GREAT story not only because it's FUNNY but cause I was a USAF Maintence man on C-141s during the 1960s thankfully not in Greemland but Washington state near Seattle....Great way to start a Wednesday morning at 5:30am....THANKS
Welcome aboard the Riverbank!
A couple of thank you's are in order.
Thank you for reading.
And a BIG THANK YOU for your service to our country.
United States servicemen are the greatest people in the world!
Carrie,
My Dad spent 4 years at Thule Air Force Base
with the Army's Signal Corps. from 1954 to 1958.
He said their drill instructor promised them a Hula
Girl behind every tree. Needless to say he never saw a tree in those 4 years. He did take up photography in his spare time and got some really beautiful shots of the area there.
Jim
Your Dad is a Vet?
And he was stationed on an air base???
Why wasn't I informed of this???
The things I would like to talk to him about!
I don't believe he was actually on the base.
It was right after the Korean War, but still during the "cold war".
The Signal Corps. of the US Army was there because
there weren't any communications satelites flying
around in space yet. They received and relayed messages from one continent to the next. They monitored any foriegn communications they could.
Meanwhile, the Air Force had all kinds of cool stuff going on. They were burying provisions under the ice in case of a nuclear attack, flying missions to spy on the Soviets and their defenses.
Although, the Army wasn't usually aware of what the Air Force was doing when it came to the more secret type stuff.
He spent 4 of the longest, darkest, and coldest years
of his life there. He did get his ham radio license after
he got out of the Army and that was something he enjoyed doing for many years after that.
He has photo's of snowdrifts as high as some skyscrapers and some incredible sunset pictures
that are absolutley beautiful.
Any type of vehicle that ran on deisel fuel could not
be turned off or it would be next to impossible to
re-start in the cold. The only time they shut them down was for service and it was still a challenge to get them going again.
I'm sure he would be more than happy to share some
of his stories with you. Next time you see him, just bring it up.
I love stories from the servicemen. They never do anything the easy way, or in a small way.
One of my favorites is from my wife's father (that would be your wife's father also!).
He once told me of a time they were bringing an aircraft carrier into San Diego Bay. Those carriers are not that nimble. Ordinarily they are towed into a bay or harbor. But a tow was not available and wouldn’t be for some time. These men had been at sea for quite a while and were very much looking forward to shore leave, to understate the obvious. They were not going to wait. Some even spoke of jumping ship and swimming ashore.
Well, this captain was a clever sort. He had the men bring the F-16 fighter jets up on deck and line them up facing each other sideways all along the ship. With the pilots in their tied down jets, he gave instructions on the radio to each pilot to throttle up or down their engine, so as to steer the big boat with precision, and brought that big lady home as slick as could be. With those jets shoving that ship around, he could go forward, backward or sideways. He could even spin it like a ballerina if he wanted.
These men are taught to improvise and improvise they do. This guy had the most expensive (and the loudest) bow thrusters anyone had ever seen!
And I wish I had seen it.
Hey, those are some good stories.
I'm putting them up front!
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