A new simplified procedure for our guest book. Just click on the "Add Your Message" button and fill out your name, e-mail, and message. The form will forward and be posted within 24 hours. This will preclude any further tampering with the code. The only disadvantage is that your message will not be posted immediately. There is no limit to the length of the messages, but please be reasonable. The last 30 messages will be kept.

The newest messages will be on the bottom

Due to the requests of many of our classmates, please restrict your
postings to navigator and pilot articles, military or humorous articles.

Please note : Political postings will no longer be accepted! Thank you.

December 3o, 2011
 

Subject: I was not the only guy who had his problems in the North Atlantic.

From Gary Olsen: Good Story Bill - Reminds me of many a day like that. I think the worst flying was the Atlantic.........I remember sitting for about 6 straight hours on the APS-42 giving the pilot heading changes to dodge some of those mighty thunderstorms that would build between Azores and Dover. I kind of kept a running mental image of where and in which direction and for how long I had the aircraft on certain headings - no time to get off the radar and take a fix - nothing worked anyway. But ! After 6 hours of DR (whenever I had a chance to try and figure what we'd been doing), when we broke out, I finally got a good celestial fix and we were 15 miles South of our DR position after that 6 hour (and sweaty) routine...........but that was NOT on any "cherry" flight.

Bill’s comment: The Travis and McChord AFB MATS troops were accustomed to flying the Pacific. They got their share of bad WX west of Hawaii, but it was not all as densely packed as in the Atlantic. You guys at Dover and McGuire AFB know what I am talking about. The first time I ran into Vic Fukai after Harlingen was early in the morning at Lajes. Vic and crew had just flown in from Dover. Oh yes, it was early spring. Poor Vic looked totally wasted. They had really taken a beating all night long. Welcome to the Atlantic Vic. He was in need of an order of steak and eggs, washed down by a bottle of Rose Mateuse.

By the mid-1980s I was flying wide body aircraft to Europe. Our WX radar would verify again the reasons for those miserable prop era transports flights through the seasonal weather fronts. The CB tops were not that high, but wow, those buggers were hard.

From George Lachinski, a former Double Gold Raunch Master to 61-09/B-4, regarding pressure pattern. “Most pilots have never heard about pressure pattern, it saved my goose going to Lajes one night, I was forced to use it in an electrical storm and in clouds with a C54 pilot hand flying , no autopilot, no Loran and no stars. I never forgot it because it taught me the value of it {pressure pattern} in the North Atlantic.” Good memories,

George Lachinski


Bill again: With respect to the McChord guys, they know all about heavy precipitation and icing flying up the coast of southeast Alaska and the Aleutian Chain. ADF navigation aids could be nearly worthless in the heavy precip flowing in from the Pacific. To the near east of the low altitude airways were the rugged Canadian Coastal Mountains. Navigation errors up there could be extremely costly.

Peter Siegrist’s comment: Flying way north could be a different experience. Flying to Shemya Island in the Aleutians one time, used outgoing winds to fly back to Anchorage after a quick off load and the winds were completely different. Things changed more quickly and dramatically up there. (Amen!)

This bit of text is all about transport flying. We eagerly welcome stories from other domains applicable to 61-09 members. Keep the cards and letters coming.

Bill Day

61-09 Clerk Typist Second Class

December 30, 2011

Once upon a time … there were Navigators.

Once upon a time, Norsemen set off in their ships; Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan set sail to explore unknown regions!
Once upon a time, aviators took to the air relying on simple tools … a compass and a sextant! And … DR!
Once upon a time Cadets memorized stars, studied HO-249s, and Air Almanacs … Once upon a time!

Today there are no more Navigators!

We, Navigators, are relics of the past!
Such a past should be shared with the youth in our lives! What wonders we can tell them!
Today … electronics, satellites, and GPS have doomed Navigators to antiquity!

There will never be another class of 61-09 Cadets!

There will never be another group of young men who set out into the unknown, hoping that they would find a destination, somewhere over the horizon!

There will never be … us … again!

Teach the young! We have a proud heritage!

Horrible Harry

December 30, 2011

Thank You, Terry Higgins!

As we enjoy our lives, we sometimes forget to say a simple “Thank You,” to those who contribute.

For all of us, who have never voiced those words, I say:

“Thanks, Terry … for maintaining the website, and enduring our silly banter!”

God Bless and have a wonderful 2012!

And, if you can … squelch Bill Day!


Horrible Harry

(Thank you Harry for your kind comments. However, that's a big negative on the squelch. Remember, Day was an airline pilot!)

December 30, 2011

I have a question for you former RIOs and WSOs. While engaged in combat ops., do you ever dare venture outside the coverage of our GCI sites, Airborne Command Aircraft, or some continuous ground link coverage. Is there ever a time when you are actually looking outside with a pilotage chart and finding your own way to the target area, or is everything radar vectors?

Bill Day

Answer to your questions: What combat operations? We never ventured past the confines of the good ole USA. The only combat operations we saw, was at the stag bar where we had to share it with the SAC weenies. We were constantly on alert to protect the women and children from the crazed Canadians of the North. They could cross at any moment, except on Mondays, because we stood down from alert on those days. In regard to a pilotage chart, I'm vaguely familiar with it, but if we lost Tacan lock, we had to declare an emergency! Hope this answers your questions.

Terry

December 30, 2011

Another interesting thought …

No Navigator ever commanded an aircraft.

But, the guys looking out the front windows, and everyone in the back always knew that the Navigator was the only person aboard who had the skills to “take them through the darkness” and get them home safely!

We, Navigators, never saw glory … we received very few “well dones,” but … we took our planes, our crews, our cargos, our passengers, and our bombs … and our disaster relief supplies and war-wounded … through the void where no one else could venture!

Unsung heroes?

No … just a bunch of guys who did their jobs! And … Damn! We did it right!


Harry Rogers

January 2, 2012

Having just read some current 'posts' on this site, I had to comment! YES, about 75% of my nav time was in the Pacific, but we did get our share of North Atlantic crossings and returns, and I personally made a number of trips far enough North AND South that I had to use "grid" to keep track of our location.

The Pacific may not have had the violent stormy weather associated with the Atlantic, but we did have many crossings in the trusty old C-124, while totally engulfed in layer upon layer of clouds, both above and below. Since the distances were so vast, there was NO navigation aids available other than DR. When this happened, you couldn't even depend on Ocean Station "November" for a fix, because they had not seen the sun, moon or stars for days and had no idea where they were either. They asked us for fixes about as often as we asked them!

At the latitudes we normally flew in the Pacific arena, pressure pattern was virtually useless, so we just motored along for eight to sometimes ten hours, never having seen the sky, hoping that we were going to be close enough to get a Tacan 'lock' and finally know where we really were! Not exactly "North Atlantic High Drama" but nerve racking and just as demanding nevertheless...! Those mid-ocean islands weren't very big, and finding them could never be taken for granted! On the old APS-42 or even the APN-59, thunderstorms looked just like islands, and of course that made the NDB useless as it pointed to those same thunderstorms.... Never much fun in my book!

Directing that big, long-winged RB-57F around the world was another story altogether, and that will be told in a different website entry....

Chris Neale
61-09 (B-3/6)=

January 3, 2012

Does anyone else remember our Morse Code lab at Harlingen?
I wonder if HF frequencies still hear Morse Code transmissions? Maybe short wave?
I struggled through memorizing those “dots and dashes,” in Cadets … and then, had to repeat the “agony” again in pilot training! Twice was too much!

Horrible Harry

January 3 ,2012

Harry,

You ask do we remember Morse Code class? I don’t because I tested out on the first day of class. That gave me 55 minutes of free time, the bane of every cadet. You heard that ugly story of my free time at the Dayton reunion. Regarding your question, “I wonder if HF frequencies still hear Morse Code transmissions?” Yes, you still hear a little CW today on the HF frequencies, however the remaining CW signals mostly come from high speed operators - nothing a 5 wpm aviator (or me) could copy. What you hear today is digital data bursts transmitted on HF frequencies. Digital data requires one fifth of the bandwidth required of voice transmission, is computer driven, and often broadcasted on multiple frequencies. For a while it looked like HF was going to die, but it has come back in a new protocol. The biggest advantage is price, each position report is about one fifth the cost of satellite communication. SATCOM is mostly the domain of the DOD and top end corporate operations.

Breck Smith (61-09) could give you an expert answer.

Probably the best use of our level of CW training was to identify navigation aids.

Bill

January 3, 2012

Memories …

Is anyone else still doing this?
Does anyone else still remember how to use them?
What the heck is a “compulsory reporting point?”

MEA ?????

Horrible Harry

January 3, 2012

BX Zippo Lighter

Does anyone else have a Bong Bunny insignia “Zippo” cigarette lighter?
I bought about six for family and friends … mine finally died of old age … but, I kept the insignia from it!
It is relocated to my reunion ball cap! Kool!

Disoriented Harry

January 4, 2012

(From an F-4 “Nose Gunner!)
Still have dividers, but don't remember ever using the E-6 something computer, I think it was called, Since UPT.
A compulsory reporting point is the Ops Officer's office to a fighter jock.
I guess it's somewhere in airspace to many-motor types who fly, I mean drone on …hopefully the same course for hours on end, taking turns at napping. Sometimes they miss a reporting point when all are sleeping.

MEA, not a clue. Mean enroute altitude? My ear aches?

Ron Crone

January 4, 2012

Runways Re-Aligned!

The shift in the magnetic North Pole has caused airports, world-wide, to realign their runways!
Everyone is repainting new numbers on the pavement! Think of what it is doing to VOR,Tacan, and ILS courses!
All of the airway Magnetic Courses have changed, and all of the approach plates have to be reprinted!
I’m sure someone else can add other ramifications that I haven’t considered!

Horrible Harry

January 4, 2012

Pressure Pattern saved my bacon many times.
But, Pressure Pattern was only as good as our ability to interpret the “lobe” on the dinky little radar altimeter!
I guess that AGL/Radar Altimeters are all digital today … and probably accurate within inches!

A quick giggle ….
When I flew Jolly Green Giant helicopters, we tested an automatic “hover coupler,” attached to the radar altimeter.
It worked fine … until we lowered the hoist for a rescue!
The radar altimeter “saw” the hoist and sensed we were “too low’ … and, sent us upward. When the hoist swung away, it sensed we were “too high!”

Talk about a wild roller coaster ride! The idea got “scrapped” real quick!


Harry Rogers

January 4, 2012

I DON'T THINK I'DA TOLD THAT STORY...........
Chris
 

All of us were adept at Sun Lines …

Has anyone but me ever taken a Sun Line with the DRIFTMETER?
Once upon a time, I took a Sun Line reading with our trusty SEXTANT … and, after I plotted and reported our position …
Being absolutely BORED … I went to the DRIFTMETER and took a reading off of the aircraft SHADOW …
Guess what! It came out the same as the SEXTANT shot!

Crazy Harry

Part 2

C.A.R.P. or Computed Air Release Point !

We MATS Navigators dropped a bazillion 82nd and 101st Paratroopers!
We computed the winds and determined “where the Green Light” would come on! Most Navigators stood behind the pilots’ seat and said: “NOW”
Most Navigators would “eyeball” their position for calling the troop drop; but, I discovered an accurate method of dropping the troopers!
I won the MATS CARP competition in 1966!
Usually, the “drop” was stop-watch timed from a “fix” just prior to the drop zone.
The DRIFTMETER had a “straight-down” detent …
So, rather than eyeball “over the fix,” I would go to the DRIFTMETER and run it forward to the “fix.”
As I scrolled the driftmeter back, and it hit the “detent” … I timed for the Green Light!”
I never put a trooper in the trees! The DRIFTMETER was fun!

Horrible Harry

Part 3

Driftmeters and Stopwatches …

To many of us “Low-Level” Navigators, the DRIFTMETER and our trusty STOPWATCH were invaluable tools!
Many of us crossed both “ponds” … below overcasts … with nothing more than Pressure Pattern, and the DRIFTMETER to give us a ground speed by timing off of the white caps on the seas! I actually found Europe!
It was all we had … and it was about as accurate as a shotgun at a turkey shoot!
But we learned to use everything available!

Horrible Harry

Part 4

Adventures of a Silly Navigator!
Once, I laid a chocolate bar atop the Loran set!
After I had just plotted a fix, a drop of melted chocolate dripped onto my chart.
I altered course to avoid the “obstacle,” and then I air plotted for fifteen minutes; and resumed course ….
When I turned my log and chart in … to the Chief Navigator … he busted his gut laughing over a course around a drop of Hershey Bar!
The story went all over the Wing, and …

Lt. Rogers got a hell of a lot of “flak” for being so stupid as to lay his chocolate bar on a “hot” instrument!

Crazy Harry

January 4, 2012

Harry that was a nice photo of the chart, E6B, and dividers. How about this one Old Bean? Essential items for a transport (as in trash hauler/troop carrier) navigator’s flight suit pockets. The most important items were in the left upper arm pocket. A mechanical pencil, a graphite wood pencil in case the previous failed, a ball point pen, a non-metallic tool for aligning the Loran receiver, and a small metal screw driver. In-side the zipper pocket a pack of cigarettes and matches. Now as required by regs. you carried the survival knife to be prepared to puncture the life raft. The wallet was probably kept in the left thigh pocket, easily accessible if you were right handed and filled with green if you could get it, or European military script. The lower left flight suit pocket was for charts and forms (opposite if you were left handed). In the lower right pocket was the E-6B ( the best was the small pilot’s E6B if you could ‘procure’ one) along with a small notebook for recording per diem info etc. The upper right chest pocket was for a handkerchief, Kleenex, or toilet paper if appropriate) and a small mirror for checking the N-1 compass on the C-124.

A good navigator also carried a world-wide navigation kit so heavy it almost required a fork lift to lift into the cockpit. In addition, in the flight bag you carried a couple bottles of dry roasted peanuts, your own 38 caliber pistol, and a Master Watch in a protective case. In the B-4 bag a good navigator stowed a corkscrew (priority item), water purification tables, soap for bathing, suntan lotion, personal hygienic barriers, and in some cases a bottle of Johnny Walker Black.

Last least I forget, on your dog tag chain was a G-I issue C-Ration can opener.

Now what did I miss?

Bill the Clerk Typist

January 4, 2012

Mr. Day, Sir …
You missed including the most important item of all!
Every “left sleeve” flight suit pocket sported a white, plastic spoon!
How could you stir your coffee, eat your can of Tuna Fish, or clean the wax out of your ears without it?

Horrible Harry

January 5, 2012

Reference Mr. Neale … ”I don’t think I’da told that story …”

50 Years ago, we were “young and dumb … and dumber!”
Now, we can sit back and laugh at all of the things that we got away with doing!
None of my 45-50 year old “mistakes” embarrass me, and they make for fun tales to the grandchildren!
I even got a lot of “flak” for missing “destination” in Africa, and making landfall in Europe! Ooops!
Once, I revised my arrival ETA on a radar image of a thunderstorm, a hundred miles short of an island destination!
Double Oooops!
Hell, it looked like Canton, Kiribati! Where???
As they used to say on “Laugh In,”
“Sock it to me … and look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls!”
Crazy Days … Exciting Days … Memorable Days!

Horrible Harry

Part 2

SAC Navs used their plastic spoons for other purposes … as did R.O.s
SAC Navs reported using their spoon to dig their way out of the crap piled on them;
R.O.s reported using the spoon to pick their noses out of sheer boredom!
Missile Officers broke their spoons opening their “secrets,” and “cried!”

Horrible

January 5, 2012

Not totally about navigators, but they were certainly major players in this historic episode:

Sleep tight tonight, your Air Force is on Guard.....
This aviation story dates back to 1956 and
involves some USAF aviators flying F-89D's.

Northrop F-89D Scorpion

The Battle of Palmdale

On the morning of 16 August 1956, Navy personnel at Point Mugu prepared an F6F-5K for its final mission. The aircraft had been painted overall high-visibility red. Red and yellow camera pods were mounted on the wingtips. Radio remote control systems were checked, and theHellcat took off at 11:34 a.m., climbing out over the Pacific Ocean. As ground controllers attempted to maneuver the drone toward the target area, it became apparent that it was not responding to radio commands. They had a runaway.
Ahead of the unguided drone lay thousands of square miles of ocean into which it could crash. Instead, the old Hellcat made a graceful climbing turn to the southeast, toward the city of Los Angeles. With the threat of a runaway aircraft approaching a major metropolitan area, the Navy called for help.
Five miles north of NAS Point Mugu, two F-89D Scorpion twin-jet interceptors of the 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron were scrambled from Oxnard Air Force Base. The crews were ordered to shoot down the rogue drone before it could cause any harm. Armed with wingtip-mounted rocket pods and no cannon, the Scorpion was typical of the Cold War approach to countering the "Red Menace." Each pod contained 52 Mighty Mouse 2.75-inch rockets. Salvo-launched, theMighty Mouse did not have to have precision guidance. Large numbers of rockets would be fired into approaching Soviet bomber formations to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Today, they would be used against a different kind of red menace.
At Oxnard AFB, 1Lt. Hans Einstein and his radar observer, 1Lt. C. D. Murray, leapt into their sleek F-89D. Simultaneously, 1Lt. Richard Hurliman and 1Lt. Walter Hale climbed into a second aircraft. The interceptors roared south after their target. The hunt was on.

Einstein and Hurliman caught up with the Hellcat at 30,000 feet, northeast of Los Angeles. It turned southwest, crossing over the city, then headed northwest. As the Hellcat circled lazily over Santa Paula, the interceptor crews waited impatiently. As soon as it passed over an unpopulated area, they would fire their rockets.
The interceptor crews discussed their options. There were two methods of attack using the fire control system, from a wings level attitude or while in a turn. Since the drone was almost continuously turning, they selected the second mode of attack. In repeated attempts, the rockets failed to fire during these maneuvers. This was later traced to a design fault.
The drone turned northeast, passing Fillmore and Frazier Park. It appeared to be heading toward the sparsely populated western end of the Antelope Valley. Suddenly, it turned southeast toward Los Angeles again. Time seemed to be running out. Einstein and Hurliman decided to abandon the automatic modes, and fire manually. Although the aircraft had been delivered with gun sights, they had been removed a month earlier. After all, why would a pilot need a gun sight to fire unguided rockets with an automatic fire control system

The interceptors made their first attack run as the Hellcat crossed the mountains near Castaic. Murray and Hale set their intervalometers to "ripple fire" the rockets in three salvos. The first crew lined up their target and fired, missing their target completely. The second interceptor unleashed a salvo that passed just below the drone. Rockets blazed through the sky and then plunged earthward to spark brush fires seven miles north of Castaic. They decimated 150 acres above the old Ridge Route near Bouquet Canyon.
A second salvo from the two jets also missed the drone, raining rockets near the town of Newhall. One bounced across the ground, leaving a string of fires in its wake between the Oak of the Golden Dream Park and the Placerita Canyon oilfield. The fires ignited several oil sumps and burned 100 acres of brush. For a while the blazes raged out of control, threatening the nearby Bermite Powder Company explosives plant. The rockets also ignited a fire in the vicinity of Soledad Canyon, west of Mt. Gleason, burning over 350 acres of heavy brush.

Meanwhile, the errant drone meandered north toward Palmdale. TheScorpion crews readjusted their intervalometers and each fired a final salvo, expending their remaining rockets. Again, the obsolete, unpiloted, unguided, unarmed, propeller-driven drone evaded the state-of-the-art jet interceptors. In all, the jet crews fired 208 rockets without scoring a single hit.
The afternoon calm was shattered as Mighty Mouse rockets fell on downtown Palmdale. Edna Carlson was at home with her six-year-old son William when a chunk of shrapnel burst through her front window, bounced off the ceiling, pierced a wall, and finally came to rest in a pantry cupboard. Another fragment passed through J. R. Hingle's garage and home, nearly hitting Mrs. Lilly Willingham as she sat on the couch. A Leona Valley teenager, Larry Kempton, was driving west on Palmdale Boulevard with his mother in the passenger seat when a rocket exploded on the street in front of him. Fragments blew out his left front tire, and put numerous holes in the radiator, hood, windshield, and even the firewall. Miraculously, no one was injured by any of the falling rockets. Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams later recovered 13 duds in the vicinity of Palmdale. It took 500 firefighters two days to bring the brush fires under control.
Oblivious to the destruction in its wake, the drone passed over the town. Its engine sputtered and died as the fuel supply dwindled. The red Hellcat descended in a loose spiral toward an unpopulated patch of desert eight miles east of Palmdale Airport. Just before impact, the drone sliced through a set of three Southern California Edison power lines along an unpaved section of Avenue P. The camera pod on the airplane's right wingtip dug into the sand while the Hellcat cart-wheeled and disintegrated. There was no fire.

Chris Neale (Never a "backseat WSO")

61-09 (B3/6)

(Web keepers note: The F-89 D was replaced by the F-89 J about 1958. The difference was that the "J" carried two MB-1 nuclear rockets in place of the folding fin rockets. I have about 300 hours in the back seat, both with the Air Force and the Montana ANG.)

Terry

January 5, 2012

Honorable Harry,

Of course the spoon! How could I have neglected such an essential item. Do you guys remember the nifty soft leather gloves we were issued? What the heck were they for? I tried to measure, plot, and write with those gloves on – no way. The gloves we were issued in 1960 and still had an Army Air Corps insignia. Remember the stop watch dangling on a boot shoe string? Finally, by 1964 even us backwater MATS types were required to display the ubiquitous Line Badge.

Willy’um of Fernpatch

January 5, 2012

From: Carter C Neale Jr.

Re: Plastic Spoons ...

WOW.... All I ever used mine for was to eat stuff that a fork didn't pick up.... Pretty tame by comparison! HOWEVER, When I was flying FB-111's for SAC, I always carried one of those little dental mirrors that go into your mouth at the dentist. We used those to check a small indicator inside a small round window on the side of an AGM-69 Nuclear Attack Missile. These were always carried in our weapons bay, and since the window was on the side about halfway up the side of the missile, you needed the mirror to look into that little hole. Always looked a little strange though, so I sometimes carried a spoon that covered over the mirror....

Chris

January 6, 2012

Retired USAF Cadets,

PRIDE … DIGNITY … HONOR

How many of you still wear your “Blue Suit” to appropriate functions?

When I attended Merle Peper’s military funeral … with Bill Day, Jim Perrin, and Bob Nelson … I was prepared to honor Merle by wearing our uniform. It went with me to the Perrin Ranch.

I am the neighborhood “Grampa,” and have seen many “toddlers” graduate from High School in these past 20 years.

I have PROUDLY issued the “Oath of Enlistment” to about half a dozen!

Even at age 71, I stand about a foot taller every time I wear the Air Force Blue!

Bangkok Tailors (1971) “built” my uniform to outlast me!

I have worn my “Class A” uniform many times, every calendar year since 1958 … with …

PRIDE … DIGNITY …and … HONOR!

Wear yours!

Harry Rogers

January 6, 2012

A question for the “GIBs” …. R. I. O.s …. Excess Gross Weight … Fuel Displacement …
Is it true that you back-seaters only used two NAVAIDS?
GCI and “guard channel?”
We’re the fugawee ?

Horrible Harry


Part 2

The Scorpion …

I think I may have posted this several years ago …
During the “cold war,” Icelandic Law prevented any foreign military power to deploy “combat aircraft” from their soil.
The USAF got around that “rule of engagement” by assigning a squadron of F-89 Scorpions to Keflavick Air Base as a MATS – Military Air Transport Service – squadron!

Many times, I taxied past rows of fully armed Scorpions, adorned with the MATS patch … and smiled!

Horrible Harry

January 6, 2012

File this under "War is Hell" (but somebody has to do it...!)

This is a picture that I had the restaurant owner take for me. John McKinnon (on the right) had come down to Vung Tau, RVN during the Summer of 1969 to give some "newbie" FAC a short in-country 'check ride' for standardization purposes. I didn't know who was coming, but since I had just gotten there, I was "in the barrel," so to speak. John didn't know it was going to be me either. This was the first time we had seen each other since 61-09 graduation in May 1961.

I'm here to tell you, it was like "old home week!" Because when I asked John how long he could stay, he said couple of hours, but it turned into three full days!!! We spent a day or so near the beach where this picture was taken and then a couple of days at my Australian Army base camp, where the 8,000 man group mainly operated from. Not a large group, but every individual unit had it's own "mess" system complete with small 'bar,' ALWAYS stocked with ice-cold Australian beer, which we managed to sample in what would become known in the future as a "pub crawl!" During his stay, we even managed to get in a couple of actual missions so that I could give him the "cooks tour" of our AO just to make sure we had 'ticked' all the boxes on the "check-ride" paperwork!


The picture itself is inside a French restaurant right on the beach, with John on the right, me in the middle and a forgotten FAC friend of mine on the left. Of course, we did have the Lobster Dinner with all the extras, a couple of beers to wash everything down, and a nice after-dinner drink to top it off. Like I said, "war is hell, but someone has to do it...!!!"

Lobster Dinner

Chris Neale
61-09 (B-3/6)

January 6, 2012

Willyum...!

I had to laugh at your comment about "working" with a pair of leather gloves on. I had never done that either, until I got to Albuquerque in 1966 to fly in the RB-57F inside a full pressure suit! Let me tell you, having three layers of material including rubber, covered by leather takes some getting used to... I actually went through a short practice course wearing just the gloves without the rest of the suit, just to get a "feel" for what it was going to be like!

You'd be surprised what you can adapt to when needed! It just takes a little practice and then you've got it.... Here is a picture of what it looked like. I don't know who is in the picture, but I had all my 'table stuff' tied to me with short strings so that if I dropped anything, I could get it back...

Chris Neale
61-09 (B-3/6)

January 12, 2012
Gene Goldsmith

This video is fresh (for the public). It was made just six weeks ago in the Atlantic, just off Newport News (Hampton Roads), Virginia .

These are the latest sea trials of the F-35B on the USS Wasp. They were very successful, with 74 VL's and STO's in a three week period. The media and the program critics had predicted that we would burn holes in the deck and wash sailors overboard. Neither of which happened. You will notice a sailor standing on the bow of the ship as the jet rotates. That was an intentional part of the sea trials.

The USS Wasp is an amphibious assault ship designed to embark a Marine Expeditionary Unit. It is capable of simultaneously supporting rotary and fixed wing STOVL aircraft and amphibious landing craft operations. For this test deployment the USS Wasp was outfitted with special instrumentation to support and measure the unique operating environment as the F-35B conducted short takeoffs and vertical landings.

No catapult...... No hook ............

The shape and scope of warfare – worldwide – just changed.

F-35B Video    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Ki86x1WKPmE

January 13, 2012

F-35B Sea Trials ….

I looked for the Navigator … I looked for the Sextant port … I looked for the Driftmeter … and I looked for the Loran trailing wire antenna …
How the heck does the Navy find their way around?

Horrible Harry

January 17, 2012
Gene Goldsmith

THE FINAL INSPECTION

PLEASE DO NOT HOLD ON TO THIS OR PRESS DELETE. SOMEONE HAS TO HOLD OUR COUNTRY IN THEIR HANDS. SEND THIS ON, AND ON AND ON

THE FINAL INSPECTION

The soldier stood and faced God,
Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining,
Just as brightly as his brass.

'Step forward now, soldier,
How shall I deal with you?

Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?'

The soldier squared his shoulders and said,
'No, Lord, I guess I have not.
Because those of us who carry guns,

Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays,
And at times my talk was tough.
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a penny,
That wasn't mine to keep...
Though I worked a lot of overtime,
When the bills just got too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,

Though at times I shook with fear...
And sometimes, God, forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place,
Among the people here.

They never wanted me around,
Except to calm their fears.

If you've a place for me here, Lord,
It needn't be so grand.
I never expected or had too much,

But if you don't, I'll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,
Where the saints had often trod.
As the soldier waited quietly,

For the judgment of his God.

'Step forward now, you soldier,
You've borne your burdens well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in

Hell.'

Author Unknown~

If you care to offer the smallest token of recognition and appreciation for our military, please pass this on and pray for our men and women who have served, and are currently serving our country. And pray for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for freedom...

THESE COLORS DON'T RUN!
Stuart Heinemeier
STUART HEINEMEIER
Sgt, USMC (ret)
3933 Salceda Place
Sierra Vista, AZ 85650-4259
(520) 456-7944 cell
(520) 803-9695 fax
sheinemeier1@cox.net
"Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful!"

January 17, 2012
Terry Higgins

OK guys, I hope you don't think this is a political message.

Today January 12, 2012, at 0934 MST, my 22 year old son, Tyler Higgins enlisted into the United States Air Force as an Airman Basic. He signed a six year contract because he qualified as an Air Traffic Controller and will go to Keesler AFB for ATC training after completion of Basic Training. Hopefully I can convince him to try for the Air Force commissioning program later. While the swearing in ceremony was taking place, I flashed back 50 plus years. The only difference is that Papa lost it. Oh well, so much for gross displaying of emotions. I think that's only two demerits.

January 18, 2012

Congratulations Terry,

There are many ways to count wealth, but eventually you find that "family" is the real currency...!

Chris Neale
61-09 B-3/6

January 19,2012

Gents,

The link below will lead you to pictures of the old "China Clipper" aircraft. This plane used navigators and several of the pictures depict them "in action." You can't discern much detail, but they are there, nevertheless...

I had a small connection with this plane, as an old hometown friend from childhood had a father that flew these before WWII in the Pacific and finished the war in them after working for the military during the war. They moved to my town shortly after that, and I was able to spend time with his dad asking millions of questions and listening to some great stories.

Click on the link and go back in time to a "grander" means of travel....

Boeing 314 B  (Power Point presentation, requires 6.8 Mb download)

Chris Neale
61-09 B-3/6

January 21, 2012

61-09 Classmates,

Our friend Don Rizzo created this Star Identification system. For those of you still scanning the heavens on a clear night this might be useful. I am not sure how the attachment will blend into the Guest Book. Good hunting!

Bill Day
 

Part 2

61-09 Terry, Bill and fellow classmates,,

I still don't know how to use this new MAC computer but after reading the guest page, I thought
I would try to put this Star Identification pamphlet into the web site. My only question is : Can the readers
click onto the Star Charts? But I'll try it any way. If it doesn't, maybe you can add it to the "Guest Message" section.

Thanks,

Don

Part 3

Bill,

I just got this new MAC and I don't know very much about how to use it!! Hell, I didn't know how to to use the old PC.
I hope I did this right and the attachment is there.

I was going through some old junk boxes and found old orders, oak leaf clusters to the Air Medal from back in 1964,
even found old pictures of me and my classmates when I was enlisted and going to Tech school.

Anyway, as I was going through this old stuff I came across this old Star Identification pamphlet. I don't remember
us having anything like it in Cadets, so I guess I got it when I was an Instructor at UNT at James Connally in Waco
after I got back from my 1st tour in Nam in 1964.

I thought you might pass it on to our fellow Navigators (as we are a breed apart)!!! I am sure those Star charts will
bring back some good ---(and scary ) memories. We weren't very far removed from Columbus, especially south of the
equator.

Pass it on.

Don Rizzo
61-09 B2
 

Web keepers note: You can download the PDF version for a slightly crisper copy at : StaridentIfication.pdf (91.2Kb)

January 22, 2012

Bong Bunnies,

I am a dinosaur, a relic, defunct!
I have just discovered that I am no longer a USAF NAVIGATOR … but I am now classified as a “CSO,” Combat Systems Officer!
Combat systems on a C-124? a C-141? a C-133? a C-119? What Combat Systems?
I guess that the new “transports” and “air refueling” aircraft are designated as “combat” aircraft and all have “combat systems!”
None seem to have any “navigational systems!”
They can’t get there from here!

Horrible Harry

January 24, 2012

Harry,

I suspect that you are still a navigator somewhere under all that "Horribleness," but if you wanted to be a "navigator" today, then YES, you would go through Combat Systems Officer training.

I always smile when I think back a few years to the "big debacle" that occurred when the brand new squadron of F-22's deploying to Okinawa, departed Hickam headed in that direction, and upon reaching the "International Date Line," everyone of those planes promptly made a 180 degree heading change and headed back to Hickam...!!!

Seems as if The "programers" in all their very well paid wisdom forgot that when you cross 180 Longitude, the 'numbers' go in the opposite direction. I suspect that even the "slowest" navigator ever trained knew how to get past that geographic point without having to turn around.... Newer may not always be better! That whole squadron of F-22's plus all their support aircraft waited at Hickam for about three weeks while a solution was found. That turned out to be a software change in the nav system.

Chris (been there~done that) Neale
61-09 B-3/6=

November 24, 2012

Horrible Harry went to the super market for a steak and asparagus, for Susan’s dinner.
I broke a hundred dollar bill to pay for it.
When I came out of the store … I encountered a Viet Nam veteran in a wheel chair, with a tin cup … wearing a USMC Danang 1969 ball cap! He had no legs.
I f***ing fell to my knees … and he saluted me!
I have been crying ever since!
It’s going to be a bad night, too! I’ll talk to dead men tonight in my dreams.
Forty years ago, I got shot out of the sky three times, and survived.
This veteran has lived his last forty years bound to his wheel chair!
Guess whose wallet is empty? I wish I had another couple of hundreds in it.
We are so very lucky, and our Nation has forgotten them!

HH

January 27, 2012

Chris’ International Date Line memory reminds me of my KC-135 days, and a Navigator who couldn’t find Hickam!
I was a Captain co-pilot, and we were enroute from Travis to Hickam, with four F-100s flying formation.
Our NAV came forward proclaiming that all the sextant gave him was “speed lines,” and he had no idea what our course might be.
“You had better call Honolulu and advise them that we may not be on course at ADIZ penetration.”
The Aircraft Commander started to reach for the transmission switch, and I patted his hand and shook my head.
I turned to the NAV and asked what his ADF bearing was.
“Harry, we don’t have an ADF on the KC-135 ….”
“Marvin, you have four F-100s on your wingtip, with “coffee grinders,” and they are all probably listening to Hula Music!”
Use all your NAVAIDS, Son!

Horrible Harry

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