Last one to post in this thread wins

[John81]

At least you know what you are wanting to do. A friend of mine joined the Marines, didn't like it there so he transferred over to the Army, didn't like it there so he got out as soon as he could.

[nodnarb]

yeah I really don't want to stay in.

[JerryNumbers]

I will have to admit, during my years working the graveyard shift, there were night that I skated all shift long. For the most part it was a gravy train. In fact the shift leaded, an E5, came to me asking me to work for him on graveyard, he told me, at times it will be work, but you will get plenty of skating time. If it was a Friday night, & I was planning on going home that weekend, & I told him, he would make it an easy night,being sure I got an early start.

John, stretched out in the work truck, with it pouring down rain, taking a good nap, time goes by much faster than it does out in the open rain working on a B-52 engine.

And it also went slow, if your were under an engine working, with the brass & or QC {quality control}, looking over your shoulder.

My one TDY was suppose to be for 90 days, but it turned into 120 days, & they did not ask me if I wanted it to be extended.

[John81]

Yes, on graveyard shift there often really wasn't anything to do. Often whatever needed to be done could be completed in an hour and then there was the rest of the night deal with.

[nodnarb]

Yes sleeping on the truck is very common today to. Depending on who was driving no one would care as long as when you were called for you woke up and took care of it. But I am in support now so I don't ride the truck no more.

[John81]

Most of the time I was in the warehouse or the warehouse office.

[nodnarb]

Now I am just in the support area sitting at a comp and just waiting.

[John81]

Isn't waiting one of the main things that one does in the military?

[nodnarb]

Yes it is.

[JerryNumbers]

Right, at times anyway.

During day or swing shift no one spent much time on the truck except for the shift leader that drove it. There was always work to be done. Of course once in a while we would have a light day, & of course there were the heavy days.

If I recall the phase 15 inspection was the big one, if there happened to be more than one plane due a phase 15, that along with regular work load kept us steady.

Of course I got qualified to run up the engines on both the B-52 & KC-135's in order to check them out as quickly as possible. That has a very large responsibility, but it was physically easire than being out in the weather, especially bad weather, working under an engine. There were several shift when I would just ride the work truck from plane to planes running the engines to check them out, be sure they were repaired & in good operating order.

We had some that wold not do it, they did not want the responsibly, & when you setting in the seat of the B-52 or KC-135 running up the engines, that's a large responsibly.

Had a friend running up an engine on a KC-135 one day, it jumped the chalks, them turned sideways, tore off the hatch door, for a while I thought they were going to make an example out of him. But they finally ruled it was an equipment failue of the brake system.

But he did make a mistake, he run up number 3 engine on the right side of a KC-135 by itself. We were never to run up one engine by it self. If you were checking out the number 3 engine on the right wing, running it up to full power, you were to run up the number 2 engine to full power at the same time.

The only thing that saved him the brake people found that the brake locks did fail.




.

[JerryNumbers]

Now I am just in the support area sitting at a comp and just waiting.

Hurry up & wait, is that still the way of the Air Force?

[John81]

Hurry up & wait, is that still the way of the Air Force?

Hey! That's what I was going to post!!!

[nodnarb]

I thought about posting that a little bit ago. Yes hurry up and wait is still the way.

[JerryNumbers]

I believe that was the 1st, &main thing, that I learned in basic training, & I have never forgotten it, even after all theses years..

[nodnarb]

That and "shut up and color." was that one big when you were in. I don't hear it very often but everyonce in awhile.