Your favorite Rhein Main Story:
The challenging jobs that had teams married to the aircraft until it was fixed. Try telling those stories to people and they don't believe them. I hardly believe them myself.
The 'When I turn on MADAR the #2 boost pump circuit breaker pops' problem that only occured when the flight crew was on board has to be the most memorable for me. Funny that we happened to overhear them saying, as they went into crew rest for the second time, 'Back to the Christmas Markets'. We proved the systems didn't interconnect in any way, shape or form; replaced the boost pump, circuit breaker, half the MADAR Black Boxes (that were grey), sat testing the boost pump for 36 hours and dug into the wiring TOs. Everything worked fine until the flight crew showed up. The third time they showed up they were sequestered in the crew rest room where the TOs were stored and ordered to stay there by the Aircraft Commander and leave the door shut. The Base Commander ordered the flight crew off his base, with or without the plane by 10PM (Quiet Hours). I had to have the AC rescend his order to get a TO to fix something. The sequestered flight crew were not happy campers, as 21st AF got involved, as did Lockheed.
I was chosen to be in the group explaining this situation to the DCM and Base Commander, with MSGT Ady vouching for those of us who heard the flight crews comments on the Christmas Markets, and Cliff the Lockheed Rep giving his input. The DCM signed the ER, the Base Commander allowed late block-out (breaking quiet hours) because they developed an actual problem somewhere.
There was another occasion when MSgt Ady ordered the crew off the flight deck because they were being demanding b*tches, but uncooperative in our attempts to fix thier complaints. That FE table that had to be removed to replace most MADAR components, and we had to squirm down below to unhook cannon plugs. After eating boot three times, I complained to Ady, and he sent them to the line to smoke until we finished. Too bad there was a cloudburst and they got soaked.
And a time a valve stuck on a Medivac, and three CMSGTs, one Msgt, and three TSgts were stripping the valve down as assorted grunts stood watching them work, to get the plane off.
Who can forget the Mannheim Express? An Armed Guard in front of every engine and APU, a guantlet of guards the convicts shuffled through, leg irons and handcuffs.
The Snack Bar, and BBs BBQ Sauce. Cantina Debreifings. The 707 mission. Planes leaving home station barely able to pass throughflights, yet going downrange for weeks. We'd end up busting butt and depleting supply to appease the whiney crews.
Chem warfare excersizes. How I miss sleeping in hallways in the 'shelter' with my gas mask on. NOT.
