Don't know how to feel about this....county and gun club settle

[alfsauve]

I made an  emergency trip to Scott AFB one night.  Was way less than impressed.  We weren't Generals, but our crew had a Major, a Captain, a 1st Lt and about 11 enlisted men.  Scott operations requested us to come bail them out but we were treated with indifference and ignorance.  They insisted they had no place to house persons of our low rank on base so put us up in a flea bag hotel in ESL.  We basically stole a base bus to provide our own transportation.   The next morning base ops insisted they had no idea why we were there.   We said forget it and drove up and down the flight line till we found the plane that was causing them embarrassment.  We made it airworthy in about an hour, pre-flighted it told the tower we were taking it on a VFR check ride and left.   Once air born we verbally filed a flight plan back to Charleston.

We caught static because there evidently were a bunch of VIPs scheduled to take this plane on some tour.    They were ticked and the original flight crew of course was stranded in IL.  Our commander gave us a couple extra days off and the flight crew, when the got back bought us a beer.   That tells you the level of boondoggle the whole mission was to begin with.


TYLER:  What did you do in AF?   I was, in theory, a 32550, fire control specialist and my group was tasked with recovering downed aircraft worldwide.  Most of the time we went on pre-emptive missions to make sure that the a/c didn't become stranded in the first place.

[tombogan03884]

I made an  emergency trip to Scott AFB one night.  Was way less than impressed.  We weren't Generals, but our crew had a Major, a Captain, a 1st Lt and about 11 enlisted men.  Scott operations requested us to come bail them out but we were treated with indifference and ignorance.  They insisted they had no place to house persons of our low rank on base so put us up in a flea bag hotel in ESL.  We basically stole a base bus to provide our own transportation.   The next morning base ops insisted they had no idea why we were there.   We said forget it and drove up and down the flight line till we found the plane that was causing them embarrassment.  We made it airworthy in about an hour, pre-flighted it told the tower we were taking it on a VFR check ride and left.   Once air born we verbally filed a flight plan back to Charleston.

We caught static because there evidently were a bunch of VIPs scheduled to take this plane on some tour.    They were ticked and the original flight crew of course was stranded in IL.  Our commander gave us a couple extra days off and the flight crew, when the got back bought us a beer.   That tells you the level of boondoggle the whole mission was to begin with.


TYLER:  What did you do in AF?   I was, in theory, a 32550, fire control specialist and my group was tasked with recovering downed aircraft worldwide. Most of the time we went on pre-emptive missions to make sure that the a/c didn't become stranded in the first place.

Does this mean your motto was NOT "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ?   

[Pathfinder]

All this talk about Scott AFB brought up some memories. I used to do archeology right outside the base. We had C-19, C-21, C-130 and C-141 flying over us all of the time as we dug the village site. I really wanted to see a B-52 or three, but that was not to be. It was hte height of Nam and many of them were otherwise engaged elsewhere.

Best of all was the off-base bar called the Thunderbird. I was barely legal, and a couple of us were, um, not so legal. But we would work from 7AM to about 1 - we were getting paid as this was highway salvage operation - and the boss would haul us all to the T-bird for lunch. Back to work for a couple of hours in the hot summer southern Illinois sun, then back to the T-bird for drinks. One of the bartenders was great, he would pull the frosty mugs out of the freezer as we exited our cars or trucks, so the beer was on the counter waiting for us just drafted. Wonderful.

We were there one time when a van of AF boys showed up. I loved it - the full bird Colonel came in first, followed by the Captain, followed by the E-8 - all while the Lieutenant was holding the door for all of them! 

[Tyler Durden]

huh?  I wonder if the Thunderbird is still open.

I'll have to drive by there one of these days and check it out.