The Friday Flyby - 24 May

Before the cool kids get to do this...

...or this...

There's a lot of hard work involved. In all sorts of weather. For long hours. Day after day after day. I know. I've "been there, done that". Somewhere in all the boxes in the basement, I've also "got the t-shirt". My blog buddy ORPO1 is still doin' it. And at his age! (I kid. I kid.)

You Can Read of ORPO1's Adventures
Here

In order to "keep'em flying", somebody has to work on them. Load them with gas, bullets and bombs. Clean the canopies, vacuum the cockpit, tweak the radar, etc, etc. Yes, boys and girls, I'm talking about aircraft maintenance. The guys and gals who do all the grunt work so the flyers can put on their fancy flight suits and go off and "slip the surly bonds".

Don't get me wrong, we maintainers love our aircrews, as long as they bring the jet back in one piece. Without too many write-ups (I think the nautical types call them "gripes"?)

When we sent a squadron down to the Philippines from Korea, we maintainers were up at the crack of dawn to load our equipment into the C-130s and then climb aboard ourselves to make the long flight south. The pilots and WSOs left a bit later, seeing as how their F-4s could move just a might faster than our Herky-bird. What's a C-130 you ask? Why here comes one now - 

Noisy and slow but she can haul a lot of stuff a long ways. She ain't all that comfortable but she can also fly without an engine or two. (And yes, I have experienced that. Thank you for asking. And yes, it was out over the sea between Okinawa and Korea. Just sayin'...)

So anyhoo, we're on the ground at Clark AB awaiting our birds. Line chief told me a little secret, any crew that landed with a write-up was obliged to buy the beer that night. Needless to say, "officially" there was nothing wrong with any of our 12 F-4Ds. We did have to, ya know, align a couple of things. A tweak here, a tweak there and we're all good to go spend our first night in the Philippines. Now that's a story I'm not sure I'll ever tell. Suffice to say, those who've been there need no explanation. For the rest of you... Maybe, we'll see.

So regardless of what uniform you wear. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force (yup, even the Coast Guard): if you work on military aircraft, I'm betting you've got a hydraulic fluid stain (or two) on that uniform!

So here's a big Chant du Départ salute! To the men and women of aircraft maintenance.

Thanks ladies and gentlemen, for all you do.

Keep'em Flying!

Oh, Yeah!