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Post by Leftee on Sept 18, 2020 8:45:25 GMT -5
73 years young today.
I served - 1979 - 1992. E6
I’d do it all over again.
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Post by jhawkr on Sept 18, 2020 9:44:32 GMT -5
My son is an E6 in the Kansas Air Guard since 2001. He’s been waiting for an E7 slot for 2 years. Already qualified. My Grandpa retired from the Army Air Corps after WWII and again from the Air Force after Korea as Master Sgt. I had 3 uncles that were career Air force, 2 E7 and 1 E6. Also a niece that retired with 90% disability as an E4 2 years into her enlistment.
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Post by tahitijack on Sept 18, 2020 10:42:48 GMT -5
USAF 1967 to 1971 E5 Staff Sgt.
All my bases have closed and as most know Army and Air Force records were lost in the 1973 fire.
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Post by RonC Picker on Sept 18, 2020 10:45:21 GMT -5
Happy Birthday USAF!
Served 1963-1984, E6 enlisted, O3 commissioned. AF was “berry, berry good to me”!
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Post by Lefty Rev on Sept 19, 2020 17:04:45 GMT -5
My dad served for 23 years - I literally grew up in the Air Force - a true "Air Force Brat"!
Happy Birthday, Air Force!!!
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Post by Rick Knight on Sept 20, 2020 6:48:04 GMT -5
One of my uncles flew bombers in WW2 and remained in service after the war. I didn't see him often because he was stationed all over the world during his career; but thought he was cool because he drove Corvettes while my Dad and other uncles drove 4 door sedans. Some years ago, I mentioned in a Christmas card that I had been to a place that displayed several aircraft outside, and that my friends were surprised that I could identify so many of them. He replied with a 4 page letter detailing his assignments and the aircraft in which he had been certified. He had a rather impressive career; and the timing was fortuitous. He wasn't around the following Christmas, and that info would have been lost. I told my Dad in my youth that I thought my Uncle was a good example of a gentleman. He said I obviously didn't know how many times he had been kicked out of school in his youth.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Sept 20, 2020 9:33:02 GMT -5
My pop was Air Force, and growing up as a brat I learned that seeing the world is a lovely thing. I liked it so much I signed up as a 22-year-old in 1982 and retired in 2003. It was a great career and I made many life-long friends...as well as enemies what usually blowed up real good  |
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Post by Mike the marksman on Sept 21, 2020 7:13:26 GMT -5
My grandma was in the air force in the late 50s. She was stationed at Edwards AFB and was responsible for monitoring radar on the west coast for Soviet aircraft, and scrambling intercepts if need be.
She always joked that she flew MIGs when us kids asked her what she did in the AF.
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Post by 6l6 on Sept 21, 2020 16:43:22 GMT -5
Happy B-Day to the USAF!
i served from 1968 through 1991, just over 23 years. I too would do it all over again if I could do what I did during my career.
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Post by gato on Sept 22, 2020 8:42:06 GMT -5
Do Air Force vets consider Space Force as a cousin... brother..... stepchild?
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Post by Blacksunshine on Sept 22, 2020 10:10:13 GMT -5
My plan was to join when I got out of high school, but my discovery of Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen derailed that plan. I ended up joining bands, getting on the road, and playing music semi-pro/pro for a couple decades.
Not joining any military service is one of my very few life regrets.
Kudos and thanks to all of you that did. And happy birthday to the USAF!
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Post by LTB on Sept 22, 2020 10:36:46 GMT -5
My son is an E5 Staff Sargent at Lackland AFBin San Antonio where he started Basic 10 years ago and working on Tech E6. Went to Scott AFB in Illinois 20 miles east of Saint Louis for 4.5 Procuring parts for downed Aircraft (computer job), technical training classified position at Keesler AFB then on to Incirlik NATO base in Turkey 2015 for 18 long months during fight of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. He thought he would get to see the world but was confined to the base for his tenure there due to security reasons. Then that summer in July their base was surrounded by 8000 Armed Police and power removed from the base as they thought the Americans were complicit in the attempted coup but turned out to be a Turkish General there refueling the planes used and American forces knew absolutely nothing about it. They kept power down for 3 weeks in the hottest part of the summer trying to force us to turn over the Cleric in the USA suspected of being part of it but we did not and they eventually restored power. When he finally got to come home he got to pick his choice of I think 6 places he would like to be stationed and got Lackland in San Antonio ( 284 miles from us) where he has been since 2017. That would be great but I can't travel due to back issues and he cannot leave yet due to Pandemic restrictions. Hopefully next month we will see him.
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Post by rdr on Sept 23, 2020 9:27:43 GMT -5
Dad joined the War Dept in '41 and was in Egypt and India during the war. His General recommended to the Army Air Corp after the war that they should take him. He joined for a couple of years, then worked at SAC and other places, eventually landing at the Pentagon. His last job was civilian AF Director of Aerospace Programming. So I'm partial to the AF!
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Post by 6l6 on Sept 25, 2020 10:30:23 GMT -5
Do Air Force vets consider Space Force as a cousin... brother..... stepchild? Definitely a brother! 6 |
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Post by 6l6 on Sept 26, 2020 10:50:24 GMT -5
I graduated from the University of Colorado in 1968. My draft board in Indiana was drafting anyone whose family didn't have the money to buy their young men a medical deferment. One anti-Vietnam War doctor in Colorado was in the business of drawing up false medical records that would make you ineligible for the draft. Two of my buddies, perfectly healthy, went that route and were immediately protected from the Draft. Now that doctor was also in it for the money. He charged $500 in 1968 money (close to $5000 today) and he had young men lining up outside his door. Like I said, rich kids had an advantage. KNOWING I would be drafted, I decided to sign up for the USAF Delayed Enlistment Program during my senior year of college. That committed me to joining the USAF immediately upon graduation. Off I went to basic training and then Officer Training School (OTS). Luckily for me, I'd always wanted to learn to fly a plane and I was accepted into UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training). Thirteen extremely intensive months later I had my Pilot Wings. It was a GREAT day for me. I ended up doing 6 years of Active Duty flying all over the world in my Lockheed C-141 Starlifter. I then joined the USAF Reserve and continued flying the C-141 for the rest of my career. In 1990 I was called back to Active Duty for Desert Storm. That Active Duty stint lasted about a year and a half. Once Desert Storm ended my family and I had decided that was enough and I retired as a Lt Colonel Command Pilot with 23 years of service behind me. All in all, it was a FANTASTIC experience and if I could do what I did all over again, I'd sign up today. Here's my "Glory Pic" from Pilot Training as I was about to take a T-38 out for a solo spin. 6  |
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Peppy
Wholenote
Guitar gear guru at Milano Music Center
Posts: 180
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Post by Peppy on Sept 26, 2020 10:52:53 GMT -5
Go Air Force! Both of my parents were in the Air Force. My father had a somewhat illustrious career. First man to be commander of the U-2 wing and then, next, commander of the SR-71 wing. He retired as the division commander of the largest, and most diversified (not THAT "diversified"), division in SAC. The Air Force was The General's life and, of course, our lives too. A great life it was.
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Post by 6l6 on Sept 26, 2020 11:49:29 GMT -5
That's cool stuff, Peppy!
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Post by LTB on Sept 26, 2020 16:12:40 GMT -5
Go Air Force! Both of my parents were in the Air Force. My father had a somewhat illustrious career. First man to be commander of the U-2 wing and then, next, commander of the SR-71 wing. He retired as the division commander of the largest, and most diversified (not THAT "diversified"), division in SAC. The Air Force was The General's life and, of course, our lives too. A great life it was. Very cool! Bet he had one interesting job  |
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Post by WireDog on Sept 27, 2020 18:27:20 GMT -5
Happy Birthday, you magnificent Zoomy Bastids!
Being Army, I still had many adventures and cool memories with the Air Force.
One memory was deploying to Honduras in the Mid 80s, under Ronald Reagan's watch. My Army unit at the 101'st Airborne went on full alert, got kitted out with full combat load of ammo, got shots, and flew out there. En route, we were told that we were going to Honduras and to expect anything and everything when we got on the ground. We flew out in C-141s. 6L6, were you in on that?
Landing in Palmerola and then on to a smaller strip closer to Nicaragua, our stress level was really high. Finally, we landed our C-141 and charged out the ramp in the back, expecting anything. What we saw has stayed with me forever.
All over the place were Airmen in Bermuda shorts, sunning themselves, wearing wrap-around shades, sipping ice-cold Fanta's and Cokes. Most had earphones connected to Walkman CD players. They had made sidewalks out of wooden pallets and had floors in their tents. They had ration cards and could drink Beer in the evenings!
So the danger level seemed very low. Being Army, our Commander decided that we would stay in our full "Battle-Rattle" (Kevlar, flak-vest LBE, weapon, etc,) the whole time, since the Air Force wasn't giving proper emphasis to site security.
We even had to guard their beer! But I hold no grudges. Years later I watched JDAMS take out people trying to kill me with surgical precision. The Air Force is awesome!
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Post by Vibroluxer on Sept 27, 2020 18:55:32 GMT -5
I've really enjoyed this thread. Thank you all!
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Post by 6l6 on Sept 27, 2020 21:58:25 GMT -5
I wasn’t in on that mission, Wiredog.
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Post by Leftee on Sept 28, 2020 5:29:26 GMT -5
Great pic and story, 6!
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Post by RonC Picker on Sept 28, 2020 10:14:02 GMT -5
Great post 6! I’ve posted before how impressive an empty C-141 was on takeoff from Tan Son Nhut AB, Vietnam. As a passenger I couldn’t believe how fast we accelerated and climbed out of range of small arms fire. That big momma hauled a$$!
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Post by 6l6 on Sept 28, 2020 11:57:37 GMT -5
It was a GREAT plane to fly, Ron!
It was overpowered compared to anything built in the day. That was to meet a specification to be able to transport a Minuteman ICBM out of a relatively short runway.
Other competitors went with straight wing designs and engines that existed at that time. Lockheed, OTOH, said, “We don’t build slow airplanes.” They went with a swept wing and a proposal to Pratt & Whitney for a much more powerful engine that didn’t yet exist.
P&W basically took a tried and true J-57 and put a fan on the front end. It was the first turbofan engine ever spec’d for an airplane.
In over 10,000 hrs of flying the C-141 I never had to shut down an engine. They were SO powerful that they were almost asleep when cruising at altitude. At their scheduled 10,000 hr major overhaul, mechanics would usually find nothing that needed replacing!
Given all the open water I flew over and some nasty places I visited on missions, it was GREAT to know you had reliable engines that would always get you home.
On occasion I flew the plane through an air show routine that always wowed the folks. They couldn’t believe such a big plane could do those things.
The USA taxpayers got a wonderful return on investment with the C-141.
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