Document Page: First | Prev | Next | All | Image | This Release | Search

File: aabff_12.txt
Page: 12
Total Pages: 29

sorties as we flew yesterday but, as CENTAF said, it will in-
crease. We had one air abort (ln 11) for chaff/flare and In 34
for trapped fuel. We also dropped three lines for ground aborts.

- Ops must make sure that they pass any changes ASAP. A change
will ripple through the flightline readiness here and affect
times at the FOL. I know that the changes often hit them immedi-
ately, but I stressed to them the need to keep us in the loop.
Pilots are already reporting that the 8 ships turning at the FOL
will be overlapping and this is only the first morning of the
turns. We do not have the facilities or personnel to handle any
type of congestion. CENTAF is talking about getting another hot
pit operational there to help with the bottlenecks and turn
times.

- When frag changes come down they must go to the Weapons super
and he will brief the flightline. If other agencies get in-
volved, signals get crossed and information gets lost.

- We had another ABDR jet (a/c 1374). He was carrying Mk 20's
and it 1ooks like another arming wire or band.

- Our one troop that was operating the bunsen burner when it blew
up is in the hospital with severe burns. CENTAF is notifying the
appropriate agencies and we are working to keep rumors to a mini-
mum. We faxed sample Casualty letters to the FOL commander.

- We are receiving phone calls at home station from spouses whose
deployed "significant others" have told them specifically the
base we are going to establish an FOL at and how far from the
border we are. We reemphasized COMSEC as loose lips will get
someone killed.

- Only one jet aborted at the FOL a/c 1217 for a nose wheel
steering problem. They pulled pieces out of it to fix another
jet as instructed. Cann the hardest broke aircraft at the FOL to
get all back in the air but that one, otherwise there is no way
you can meet the tasking.

- Red ball cann's to get anything on planes going to the FOL,
including mail. Even call CENTAF to delay MAC take offs. If
that doesn't work, tell your TA folks to stall or throw
themselves down in front of the aircraft in a mock protest of the
war. Today we threw an EFCC and Feedback Potentiometer on a C-
130 to fix our broke bird up North.

- Even though the message traffic during war is unbearable, do
not flip through the read file out of control. I received a
nasty paper cut from a message on my nose that bled. People
laughed about it too when I asked for sympathy.

- A/C 1217 came back anyway. I guess the pilot got a good look
at the surroundings and decided he did not want to spend the
night there. In reality, they cleaned the canon plugs and the

Document Page: First | Prev | Next | All | Image | This Release | Search