Yet another incredibly annoying story "from the old days."

[67Dart273]

Another thread tweaked my memory

Stationed at NAS Miramar, 70-74, our shop was way out near the W end of the runways. We were a small crew, and worked 24 on / 48 off. So typically 2 or 3 of us "in a section" worked a normal day, then cleaned up the shop, stayed the night

We had the walking talking "twin" to "Frank Burns" (MASH). Mr Gung Ho career lifer complete with pre-formed permanent coffee cup forefinger. And an asshole in between

So of COURSE when you left, day crew for the day, or duty section next morning, you were expected to pick up your personal crap. And if you left your coffee cup out, dirty, you might just expect to have to look for it next duty, possibly IN THE FREEZER

So ET1 Charles X XXXXXXX SIR!! comes in one morning and can NOT find his coffee cup. And he is irritated. And he finds it in the freezer. So what to do? OF COURSE he throws it into the one-hole porcelin kitchen sink in the shop and CHIPPED the PORCELIN in the sink!!!

So next time the rest of us come in, 2 days later, "it starts." And it went on for A COUPLE OF YEARS

You'd put the office chairs upside down to "swab the deck" and --grease pencil-- on the bottoms of the chairs-- "Charlie chipped the sink."

You'd open the empty towel dispenser and ----"chips"

Go down to the TACAN building and unlock the door, there were those infamous big frosted globe lamps. Someone had pulled the down, and written backwards on the inside----"flying chips"

This goes ON and ON

One time we had one of our trucks over for maintenance, and they'd given us a "loaner" . So Dave and I got out the brass DIY stencil kit and neatly stenciled "FLYING CHIPS" on the rear bumper.

One night Dave and I (on duty) were trying to get out of the shop. So we told "Charlier" were were heading to the "linen locker" Charlie wants to go. So Charlie is driving, Dave in the middle , me (ETR2) on the pass side. We come rolling up to some traffic on base at a stop sign, and THERE IS THE TRUCK. I sideways glanced at Charlie and the purple veins on the sides of his head were about to explode SAID NOT ONE WORD!!

BUT THE APEX was yet to come

The RADAR had certain "PM" (preventative maintenance) procedures/ skedules. "Chapman" was "short" not far from "getting out." So he had carefully looked (the day before our crew came on duty) for a low level maintenance to perform that would not be looked at for a very long time

In the one RADAR trailer, there was a "voltage regulator" which consisted of 3 identical chassis. # phase power. There was a metal/ hermetic enclosed bridge circuit and 3 motor driven variable transformers commonly called "Variac". The bridge monitored line voltage, driving motors which moved the wiper on the transformers to stabilize the voltage.

Our crew (with Charlie) comes on duty, and the "controllers" called from the tower "the 52 is dead"

So we go out to the trailer and NOT EVEN THE A/C is running. NEVER seen ANYTHING like THIS!!! before.

Check AC power at the main disconnect, OK. 10 minutes later we had one of the regulator chassis pulled out. DAVE AND I HAD NEVER BEFORE SEEN OR TOUCHED THESE. And there, written in grease pencil, is a "personal message" addressed to ET1 Charles R XXXXXXX and dated "ETR2 XXXXXXXX Chapman"

TO THIS DAY I don't know why he wasn't disciplined, other than he was ONE HELL of a tech, and was getting "out" pretty soon!!!!
Below, "me" early 70's pretending to adjust something in the trailer

Below, overhauling both QUAD FPN-36 RADARS. No idea why we did both at once Tower is behind one of the antenna frames This is looking kinda N. These two RADAR were between the parallel runways

Below, the RADAR I went to school on, AN/CPN-4A a complete search/ precision/ communications air control facility Trailer with antennas was the main trailer "operations." Had all the operational gear except the A/C unit which was ducted over with flexible duct from the center trailer. Main trailer had about a 45mi search RADAR, the precion GCA RADAR, and 3 UHF and 3 VHF radios, and space and displays for 3 controllers

This was NAS Glynco, Georgia, 1969--early 1970

 

[RustyRatRod]

Now THAT'S some funny stuff!

 

[66fyssh]

He got you guys good !!!

A good one I remember was a squadron commander getting ready to PCS (transfer).

This was a really cool Commander that everyone liked. He smoked cigarettes. It wasn't allowed in the building but he had an ash tray in a desk drawer. If anyone came to visit, the first person to notice would head to the Commander's office to tell him so he could put it out and spray some smelly stuff.

Anyhow, one day before his transfer he was out at appointments and we moved his entire office to the lawn in front of the building. We even got partitions and hung his pictures from them. And...we put a huge ash tray on his desk!!! He loved it.

 

[68gtxman]

When I was a new 2LT, I went through my very first base exercise. I was manning the civil engineering call desk with a young A1C assisting. Up drives the wing commander and with him is the base commander and my squadron commander and they walk right into my call center. The wing king walks right up to my face and says “what do you do once you find out that a hurricane is on its way?” I looked at my squadron commander and I see him wince, likely because he knew that I never got any training whatsoever after I recently joined his unit. So I thought to myself, if you don’t do something, you’re going down in flames - guaranteed! So fast thinking, I grabbed one of the 3-ring binders sitting on the call center desk and flipped it open. It just luckily happened to open to a “Hurricane Checklist”! I looked at item #1 and read it out loud “Notify the command post.” I look at my squadron commander and I see him sigh in relief, so I know that I blindly nailed it. Hooray for me! They left immediately at that point, as I collapsed into my chair.

Another time, we were going through an ORI (it was on a TAC base). I was tasked to plot battle damage called into us over the radio and then I was to decide where to locate an expedient runway of 100 by 5,000 feet (IIRC) that had the least bomb damage to it. That way, we could send out repair teams to make the repairs and start launching our F-4s in the least amount of time. We were charged to repair a huge bomb crater in 3 hours, using aluminum AM-2 matting over the back filled and compacted hole. The inspectors made sure that they simulated bombing the hell out of our 2 main runways, so we had at least 1 crater to repair any way we could look at them (they were examining how well our repair teams were trained). Well, old smart alec 2LT me made a template that was 100 x 5,000 in scale and I slid it all over our base’s airfield pavements (on the base map). I finally found that by using parts of the parking ramp and taxiway, that we had a 100 x 5,000 worth of pavements without any bomb damage whatsoever. I radioed out the positions of the 4 corners of that strip to our painting crew. The crater damage crews were not engaged. We launched aircraft in less than 20 minutes on the “new” runway! The ORI inspectors were beside themselves telling us that we cheated and I thought I was going to be chastised. But in the end, our wing commander convinced the inspection team commander that we had every right to do what we did and they should applaud our ingenuity. They caved in the end, though they were still mad. My squadron commander called for a squadron briefing in the base theater and he proceeded to embarrass me by singing my praise in front of the whole squadron. I was a hero to every man on the crater damage repair teams!

Fun times looking back on those days, but it wasn’t a lot of fun living through them.