Okinawa Eagles

 Well, as many of you long time readers of Sarge's Blog are aware, my last flying assignment in Uncle Sam's Air Force was at Kadena AB, Okinawa Japan.  I have a bit of history with Okinawa.  My Dad was an F-86D driver in the mid-50's. 

F-86D

tvd.im

 I was born while he was stationed at Hamilton AFB, Novato California.  That was also where he met and married my mother.

( ;-) BTW those two sentences are not in chronological order! ) 

In any case, after he'd completed that assignment, he was assigned to Okinawa, still flying the F-86.  Mom and I followed.  My sister, Lisa, was born there.  Getting her officially recorded as an American Citizen took some doing, but that story fits in a different post.

Back on Topic, juvat!  

Aye, Sarge!

I have a few dim memories of that tour.  However,  in the late 80's, Mrs J (aka Captain Mrs J) and  I were assigned to the 18TFW, an F-15 Wing.  This tour I remember with sweet memories.  Two Reasons...Our daughter continued the Juvat family tradition of one of the female children being born in Okinawa. Second, I got to fly the best Fighter in the World at that time.  Supersonic flight was authorized when you got over the Pacific.  Which was about a half mile off the end of the runway.

Yes, Beans, the flying was magnificent.  But, back to the story.

Our Daughter had to be "Naturalized" as an American Citizen. But anyhow.....you know where this post is going, right?

We got her naturalized.

The assignment had a lot of good flying, but it also had a lot of down time activities.  Military Airlift Command (MAC) was very active in the region, so hopping a ride with family around the Pacific wasn't difficult.  The family has been to Hong Kong, the Phillipines, mainland Japan, Korea, and several other places.  Damn, I loved the Air Force!

During the in-processing briefings we were required to attend when we PCS'd to Kadena, we had one on the history of WWII on Okinawa.  One of the many things that I paid attention to was not to walk in the jungle.  There aren't lions, tigers or bears there, but there are booby traps and land mines that might still be around.

I paid attention to that, and made sure my, now walking, son understood also! But, it turns out, the jungle wasn't the only thing to be concerned about.

One of the off time activities I took up was scuba diving.  The water off Okinawa was crystal clear.  It was a 5 dive checkout and we did it off 5 different beaches. Different currents, different temperatures, different depths, all good training factors for a check ride.

 

 

 Now, Kadena AB is on the left side of the island, where the 4 invasion arrows are pointed.  The water there is very clear and that's where the lessons were held.

We're out there swimming around doing our exercises. (Taking off our masks, putting them back on, and clearing out the water was a frequent/common one.  A good thing to know how to do.  You don't need to until you do, then you need to do it correctly and immediately).

 Short interruption to clarify some data.  Our instructor while a certified and available instructor was a civilian who listened to radio transmissions from, oh say, China or North Korea.  8 hours a day, 5 days a week, three year tour.

Yeah, he was a bit odd!

In any case,  he's our instructor.  We're done with our lesson and still had some air left.  The instructor, tapped his dive knife on his tank (that's how he got our attention) and pointed at the ground below.  There looked like a pile of sewage pipes down there.  It was within our dive limits so we followed him down.  

No, these weren't the actual ones we encountered, but they looked pretty similar

Source 

When we got there, he started hitting the encrusted end of the "Pipe" with his knife.  After a few hits, the crust fell off and revealed an ogival nose.  As we were all fighter pilots and having been around bombs and other things that go bang, we recognized the "pipe" for what it was,  some kind of naval round.  

Now, we had no idea how it had gotten there, how long it had been there, or whether or not it might go "Boom".  However, I think I could have won any Olympic swimming competition in getting the heck out of there.  As did the rest of the guys. 

Conversation back on the boat got a bit heated with a lot of adjectives in front of the word "stupid" directed at the instructor.

No Beans, I'm not going to quote anything said, Sarge might blush!

Suffice it to say, we found another instructor to finish the certification and put out the word to the other squadron's not to hire this guy, and I believe, that word leaked out to our Squadron Commander about him,  Somehow the Wing Commander found out then the Air Division Commander issued an order preventing any Air Division personnel from hiring this particular instructor.  

Sucks to be him.

All in All, with this one exception, it was a great assignment. Travel around the Pacific was easy, Flying the Eagle was great and...once I got my Diving Certification that was a lot of fun also.

On a sad note, I just (literally, I found this article right after I took a break writing this post) learned that the Eagles at Kadena are being retired. As they are, they will be replaced initially by TDY "advanced" aircraft until  PACAF "modernizes" our forces in the region.” 

78-564 F-15D.  

Yes, it's got an Alaskan Fin Flash now, It was sent there when Kadena got newer model Eagles.  She's STILL my Eagle!

 airhistory.net 

Gonna miss the Eagle, but the one with my name on it was built in 1978, AKA 48 years ago.  She served her country quite well!  She deserves a rest.

 

Peace out y'all