Originally Posted by
MD10PLT
I heard this complaint over a hundred time while I was in the AF. I often wonder if it was just an urban legend that some guy said this, because everyone I met was personal friends with that guy.
Then most of those guys must have been in the 920th Air Refueling Squadron at Wurtsmith because that is where Doug was. And where I was for a while. Doug was a Major and barely made Lt. Col. He decided he had had enough and knew he wasn't going beyond LC. He retired. Good guy to fly with.
you have to scroll about halfway down the page to find this guy retelling the story
I've seen many of those battle damaged bird sights, .....and it seemed most FREQUENT that an F-105 would land blowing a tire eating half the metal wheel away while skooting blowing sparks down the runway, or sliding into the grass at 100 MPH or so ....... I'll never forget that one even landed BLIND with oil covering its windshield after being shot in the front section and taking a direct hit in the front canopy glass,.......but one of the strangest memories was when an F-105 landed with a Missile stuck into its tail !!! YES, you read correctly, this F-105 came in boiling black smoke , the rear side of the engine area with flames and so hot several FEET were eaten away by fire,................. and that damned missile WEDGED in between the engine afterburner and the skin of the bird,..... normally maybe a three inch gap now swelled around seven inches in diameter.
Someday I hope to finish a book about it all, (and alot more) and show photographs like none others I've ever seen yet published..... but thats another story.
Here is my war site address : "My War : My Secret" :
My War : My Secret Take care of yourself,...... and I'll see you in the next war ! ...
Ervin Davis
[email protected]
on page
Bios and More information for Taklhi Roster
However, for those that care, the reason SAC required the DO/OG (O-6) to be informed of all emergencies and authorize the landing for the emergency aircraft, comes from the Rolling Thunder and Arc light days. They were launching upwards or 72 B-52s from the Anderson AFB in Guam. There were so many aircraft on the field the second runway was actually being used for parking aircraft. Most bombers were so heavily loaded they had very few divert options when returning to Anderson. If an aircraft came home with an emergency and landed without approval there was a real potential they could close the runway and as many as 70 airplanes would be left without an option. Yes it was possible, depending on the emergency, the OG/DO would say "go ditch it I can't risk closing the runway".
And yes, on my second Young Tiger we deployed from U-Tapao to Andersen on Guam and when we arrived one runway was closed and being used for parking. The story was that there had to be at least 2 cells (3 airplanes in a cell) airborne because they simply was no room on Andersen for any more aircraft.
Andersen was where the BUF drivers lived in tents and were not happy flying to the same IP, making the same runs and then coming back to live in tents while the BUF drivers at U-Tapao along with us tanker-pukes were living in air-conditioned rooms. The story then was the commander was briefing some mucky-mucks and said the morale could not be any higher when some 1st Lt Nav stood up and reportedly said, "I am Lt X.. I'm living in a ****ing tent, flying the same routes day after day and my morale ain't worth a ****!" The general reportedly said, "See to it that man's morale improves!" Fun times...