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Getting BUFF for Alert


VonL

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I did lots of take off data using the manuals too - in the mid-80s, they started giving the crews a huge scientific calculator that had the formulas pre-programmed, and as mentioned, the new FSA/CAS would also generate the numbers, but at the time, they were strictly used to confirm what you manually calculated. And no good Boom would be caught dead without his whiz stick (That sounds so wrong ^_^ )

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Hi Chris,

 

Thanks for the insight on the Naval Ops. It never hurts to hear about the other man's shoes. In reality, I tried joining the Navy first, but they were full up for a while, so went next do to the Air Force recruiter and the rest is history.

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Hi Chris,

 

...In reality, I tried joining the Navy first, but they were full up for a while, so went next do to the Air Force recruiter and the rest is history.

 

That's pretty amazing. When I enlisted in the Navy (December 1967) both the Air Force and the Coast Guard were full up. Of course, the Army, and even the Marines (or so I have heard), were drafting. The USAF was considered white glove duty, even compared to life aboard floating gray steel coffins, and it surprises me that they would have openings while the Navy didn't.

 

I used to see those black-bellied B-52s fly past NAVCOMSTA Guam on final. Occasionally, when the weather changed, they would fly past on departure instead, usually preceded by a screaming KC-135 or two. Pretty exciting stuff for us rear-echelon types. Later I served briefly in a DE (later called a frigate), but that was much closer to submarine duty than air ops.

 

Regards,

Bruce

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Very cool tales, all!

 

Appreciate that naval stuff, too. Which CV...?

 

We did a bunch of B-52G maritime joint/combined ops over the Atlantic, to include many exercises with (& against) the USN P-3's, CVBG's, RAF and sundry NATO folks. Dudes were all business in the air; partied like madmen on the ground. More fun than alert, for sure.

 

And the TOADs were everywhere. Tankers do ALL the missions...except maybe UAV...

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It was early spring, 1966, when the Navy was full and I went into the Air Force. Shifting sands of time and war I suppose.

 

Bruce, when were you at NAVCOMSTA GUAM? I was at Andersen from May 1970 to May 1972 and had a good friend at NAVCOMSTA. He was a WO in personnel. Neither of us really knew what an airbrush was nor could either of us afford one by ourselves, so we went halves on our first airbrush, a Badger 200. We lived across the street from each other in Dededo until we moved into our respective base houses, but we would alternate between the houses, working together and teaching each other how to build a model. Neither of us had heard of IPMS at the time and were just a couple of neophytes floundering along. Contact with a model building chaplain at the main Naval base exposed us to IPMS and REAL model building. What a rush!!

 

Please contact me off forum if you wish to continue this thread. myoungcc at gmail.com

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It was early spring, 1966, when the Navy was full and I went into the Air Force. Shifting sands of time and war I suppose.

 

Bruce, when were you at NAVCOMSTA GUAM? I was at Andersen from May 1970 to May 1972 and had a good friend at NAVCOMSTA. He was a WO in personnel. Neither of us really knew what an airbrush was nor could either of us afford one by ourselves, so we went halves on our first airbrush, a Badger 200. We lived across the street from each other in Dededo until we moved into our respective base houses, but we would alternate between the houses, working together and teaching each other how to build a model. Neither of us had heard of IPMS at the time and were just a couple of neophytes floundering along. Contact with a model building chaplain at the main Naval base exposed us to IPMS and REAL model building. What a rush!!

 

Please contact me off forum if you wish to continue this thread. myoungcc at gmail.com

Mark,

 

I was there from April 1969 to December 1970, so our tours overlapped. Talk to you via e-mail.

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...

 

Regards,

Bruce

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Hi Guys,

 

I too enjoy hearing and reading about other services and there operations.

 

BoB, I was on the USS INdependence CV-62 at the time of this story.

 

Bruce/Mark, After I my active duty time in the Navy I changed over to the Naval reserve (active) and changed rates to a Gunner's Mate. I spent a two week tour on Guam at the Naval Magazine. In my off time I rented a car and toured the Island. Guam is a really cool place for history. There are pieces of the WAR (WWII) everywhere. In the jungle at the southern end of the Island is a JAP Zero that was shot down. Just a little hike in and there she is. On the Naval Magazine itself, 25 years after the war ended they found a Japanese that had been hiding in one of the caves and still fighting the war. They sealed up the cave and he went back to Japan as a hero. Anderson AFB was a cool place. One other tid bit, in the middle of the harbour are too sunking ships lying on top of each other. If I remember right they were both German (or at least one of they) fighting ships. One was sunk during WWI and ythe other in WWII on the same spot. This is a populer drive spot today.

 

Well I have talked too long.

 

Enjoy and Thanks.

 

Chris

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