Pease Air Force Base (AFB), New Hampshire

In 1968 I was stationed at Carswell AFB, Fort Worth, Texas, working as an Electronic Warfare (EW) Technician on B-52D aircraft. It was hot as hell working inside that airplane on the ramp in August and July. They eventually relocated the whole B-52D Bomb Wing from Carswell to Pease AFB, NH. I then found myself freezing to death in those same airplanes in December and January in New Hampshire. Eventually the B-52D’s were replaced by the new (it was new then) FB-111 aircraft. I was retrained for the EW equipment on that plane and continued working out in the weather. My four-year enlistment was finally coming to an end so I had to decide to re-enlist or get out and work as a civilian (with no job prospects). I decided to re-enlist but I was not going to work as an EW Technician any longer. The re-enlistment guy gave me a list of available jobs and I quickly spotted “Air Traffic Controller.” I said that’s for me and that’s how I made the transition between jobs. It really wasn’t that simple. I had to go back to an 11-month technical school in Biloxi AFB, then be reassigned to a new AFB. I liked New Hampshire so I got a meeting with the commander of the Pease AFB Air Traffic Controllers and he agreed to request me by name so I could return. Eleven months later I’m now working in the Control Tower on Pease AFB with a hot cup of coffee in my hand watching those poor suckers working in the snow on the ramp. Life is good!

B-52D aircraft:

This blog tells some of the interesting things that took place during my couple of years working there as an Air Traffic Controller.

Lost FB-111 aircraft:

New Hampshire can get some pretty serious snowfall. The plows would keep moving it to the side of the runway and in the middle of winter there would be a 10- to 20-foot-high snow bank on both sides of the runway. One dark night I had an inbound FB-111 and the weather was not good, close to minimums with ice on the runway. Our visibility was pretty bad and we were lucky if we could see the airplane landing lights when they broke out of the overcast at the end of the runway that was at least a mile from the control tower. He was on a radar approach so was talking to the radar controller until he was almost to the runway. He called me about half mile out and I gave him landing clearance and saw his lights come out of the clouds. I then saw him make a dive towards the runway then I lost sight of his lights and all radio contact with him. I kept trying to get him on the radio with no luck. We alerted the firetrucks and they asked where he was and we said we have no idea, that’s why we’re calling you. We had the trucks enter the runway and drive the full length looking for the FB-111 but they couldn’t find him! They finally started backtracking and looking more closely to the sides of the runway. They spotted a skid mark from the middle of the runway into the snowbank on the side but there it disappeared. They started digging into the snow and found the aircraft totally covered with the crew trapped inside. The FB-111 is a two crew aircraft and they sit side by side. The cockpit has clamshell tops that lift up and hinged in the middle. When they went into the snow it covered the clamshells plus prevented any radios from working. The accident investigation stated that they broke out of the clouds and saw the runway and basically dived down trying to make a landing in the marginal weather conditions. When they hit the nose gear on the runway, it collapsed and then the aircraft slid on the ice into the snowbank. Pretty sure they got their butts chewed out for that landing.

Presidential Candidate Musky:

I was working the night when Presidential Candidate Musky was due to land for a campaign rally. Again it was a miserable winter night and the airport was close to shutting down due to ice on the runway and very bad weather conditions. The base commander called the tower several times and told us to tell the pilot of Mr. Musky’s airplane he should divert. The pilot finally said he was landing and the weather and ice wouldn’t be a problem. Interesting that all the Air Force planes were grounded but this guy was flying. They were in a Lockheed Electra, which was a four turbo propeller aircraft. The pilot made a perfect landing even on that very icy runway. He used differential engine control to maneuver the airplane off the runway and to the ramp where he parked right in front of the control tower (very nice job). There were a lot of dignitaries including the Base and Wing Commanders ready to meet Mr. Musky when he walked down the stairs that had been rolled up to the aircraft. The base commander had told us to keep the huge spot light on the Control Tower roof on Mr. Musky as he walked down the stairs and to his waiting limousine. We controlled the spot light from inside the control tower. The first people off the airplane were several young ladies and they started down the slippery stairs so as they descended, we moved the spot light down the stairs so they wouldn’t fall and for good measure we moved it all the way to their car as they crossed the ramp. They waved good-bye and then we moved the spotlight back to the bottom of the stairs where we see Mr. Musky and the Base and Wing Commanders staring up at the control tower. We knew we were in deep trouble at that point.

SAC:

At the time of these stories Pease AFB was one of many Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases. SAC controlled all the nuclear bombers and missiles in the USAF. They clearly had an important responsibility but it also meant SAC was a bit paranoid about almost everything.

SAC aircraft and aircrews would continually train for nuclear war. They would rotate between being in the alert ramp for a week ready to launch for war in minutes to flying simulated war missions without real bombs. When they had a launch time for a training mission they would not launch early and they better not launch late or there was hell to pay. One day we had an FB-111 at the end of the taxiway next to the runway waiting for his launch time. We also had a C-130 cargo aircraft in the same location that would be departing shortly. Both of these aircraft would be on instrument flight rules (IFR) which means they are totally under air traffic control and must follow strict separation rules. The Wing Commander had a habit of sitting at the end of the runway in his staff car and monitoring the radios of his aircraft. This day we could see him down by the FB-111, which means he could hear us talking to the FB-111 and C-130. We knew the FB-111 only had a couple of minutes before his official launch time and if the C-130 called up first for departure there was going to be a conflict. We called the FB-111 and asked can he take an early departure and of course he said no since his boss was listening. Of course the C-130 then called up for departure. For an IFR departure we would call radar on the landline for approval to depart and they would approve then start looking for the aircraft to come off the end of the runway. At that point they would direct it onto its route of flight. As soon as the C-130 moves onto the runway for takeoff the FB-111 calls up for departure. We taxi him into position and hold while we called radar for launch approval. As it happens both the C-130 and the FB-111 were taking the same departure route and the C-130 is much slower than an FB-111. The official launch time came and went and the FB-111 is still waiting on the runway. We kept talking to radar telling them what was happening and they said too bad, they can’t launch the FB-111 until they have prescribed separation. We then got a call from the Wing Commander on our air traffic control radio frequency asking why we were holding his scheduled SAC departure! He wasn’t interested in hearing our sorry ass excuses and said he would be in the tower in five minutes and to have our commander meet him in the tower!

We could see his staff car speed down the taxiway towards the tower. We called our commander who was in an office building next to the tower and said he was commanded to come to the control tower to talk to the Wing Commander who might be a little pissed. He was not real keen on coming to the tower under these circumstances but said he was on his way. By this time we had gotten approval to launch the FB-111 but about 10 minutes late. The Wing Commanders car squealed into our parking lot and we watched him slam the door and march up to the tower door. BTW we controlled the electric lock on that door from the control tower for security. We also had an intercom box next to the door where anyone wanting into the tower would contact us. We did not unlock the door automatically and was waiting for him to buzz the intercom. Instead he grabbed the door handle and jerked it so hard he bent the door but it still didn’t open. I asked the crew chief should I ask who was at the door wanting in but he said “just open the door.” Which I did.

Our commander was still not in the tower, but we could hear the Wing Commander storming up the stairs and as he came to the tower cab he was breathing so hard he couldn’t speak. He slammed his hand held radio down on the desk and it immediately bounced off and under the desk. There was four of us in the tower cab including our crew chief who was about to mess his drawers. I retrieved the radio and put it back on the desk and when the Wing Commander could finally talk again he screamed “Tell you commander to be in my office in 10 minutes,” he then went back down the stairs. We four just looked at each other and grinned, then the crew chief called our commander again to break the news to him that his presence was requested in the Wing Commanders office immediately. Our commander told us later that he was yelled at for 10 minutes until he finally got a chance to advise the Wing Commander that he had no priority over the air traffic control operation and it’s first come first serve, which resulted in another outburst of profanity. It was a learning experience for the Wing Commander because even though he controlled the airbase, as soon as his aircraft left the runway they were transferred to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controller and they could care less what the Wing Commander wanted because his aircraft had to take their turn like all the airliners using the same airspace.

SAC cold be pretty paranoid. By this time I have my own crew in the tower and one slow evening we were watching a small TV since there was no traffic to deal with. Pease AFB is about 50 miles from Boston. All of a sudden we see a huge mushroom cloud and explosion on the horizon towards Boston. I immediately called the SAC Command Post located on our base and said “We just saw a huge explosion and mushroom cloud form over Boston!” The local SAC Command Post has a direct line to the main SAC Command Post buried deep in the Rocky Mountains somewhere. As you can imagine there was a lot of concern because we actually though a nuclear explosion had just happened over Boston. SAC was about to send out alert messages to all its bomber and missile sites when we saw a news flash on the TV that said a huge propane storage facility had just exploded on the outskirts of Boston! I immediately called the Command Post again and said don’t launch the missiles or something similar to that, I was pretty excited at the time. I told them what the TV was reporting and to this day, I’m not sure how close we might have come to an actual launch.

 Messerschmitt Attack:

Traffic could be pretty slow on a Sunday afternoon so we would kill time having a cribbage tournament (a card game) in the tower. My crew chief at the time was an expert and the rest of the crew could never beat him. I was standing next to the two players watching their game when something caught my attention towards the runway. I looked up just in time to see a World War II German Messerschmitt BF-109 with all the Nazi markings and camouflage making a high-speed low approach down the length of our runway. I yelled “What the Hell is that?” and everyone else looked up but too late to see the Messerschmitt since he stayed low even past the end of the runway until out of sight from the tower. No one would believe me when I kept saying a BF-109 just made a strafing run on a United States SAC Air Force Base (that had numerous nuclear armed bombers on the ramp). They all went back to playing their card game. I knew what I just saw so I picked up the direct hot line to the FAA Air Traffic Control Center and asked if they had been working any German fighters in our area. The guy sounded surprised but said “Yes we were but he cancelled his IFR flight plan and descended out of their airspace.”  I then asked if it was a Messerschmitt BF-109 and he said “No, it was a Messerschmitt BF-108.” I told him that it just made a high-speed low pass down our runway without approval. He got a big kick out of that but this did cause a problem for me. The BF-108 is a two seat trainer that looks a lot like the BF-109 and this one had all the markings to further make it look like the real thing. This guy was overflying our site and saw that it was a military air base and decided to make a run on it just for fun. I finally got the rest of the guys in the tower to believe me then we had to decide what to do about it. Our air base is in protected air space and no aircraft is approved to enter that airspace unless approved by the tower. In addition, it was a SAC air base with nuclear bombers. We actually could have reported him to the FAA and USAF SAC Command and he would have been tracked down and paid a pretty heavy price for that fun run. This would all be based on my testimony because there was no other way to prove it happened. I finally said if he had the balls to do it I wasn’t going to be the one to have them cut off, so I dropped it.

BF-108:

BF-109:

UFO:

My last story from Pease AFB happened one dark night. I had a single FB-111 in the pattern and he is making multiple touch and go’s to our runway, meaning he kept flying a box pattern around the airport. Our runway was only a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean coast and aircraft in the air were only a short flight from the shore. My tower crew noticed something very strange toward the coast that none of us had ever seen before. It was a bight object about the size of your thumbnail if you hold it arm’s length. This object became visible as if it was coming out of the ocean on the horizon and then would go several thousand feet in the air, hold for a few seconds then descend again to go out of sight on the horizon. It did this several times. I called the FB-111 in our pattern and asked if he could see the same thing and if so can he identify what it is. He said he could see it but had no idea what could be doing that. He asked for permission to fly out towards the ocean to try and get a better look. We coordinated with our radar for his deviation plus asked if they were picking any targets up to the east. They gave permission for the flight deviation and also said their radar wasn’t picking up anything unusual out east to the range of their radar (about 40 miles). The FB-111 headed directly to the object at high speed but stayed on our radio frequency. He reported that he could see it clearly and it looked like a very bright disk or a disk with bright lights on it but he couldn’t tell how far away it was and he didn’t appear to be getting any closer to it. He finally decided to return to the pattern and after about a half an hour the disk finally stayed below the horizon. I spent many nights in a control tower over the nine years I was a controller and that was the strangest thing I ever saw.

Aircraft Accident

This story is about an aircraft accident I witnessed in 1981 while working as an FAA Air Traffic Controller at Riverside Airport in Oklahoma. The airport was renamed Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport sometime in the past but that name was too long so the controllers still used its original Riverside Airport name. The story does not have a happy ending so be warned. I am writing this blog for my kids primarily so they will have some idea what their dad experienced in his life.

I spent nine years in the USAF, the last five as an Air Traffic Controller. I decided to get out of the Air Force in 1976 and try to get a job as a controller with the FAA, which I did in 1977. The FAA had an age limit of 31 (I think) so I had to make the jump or stay in the USAF till retirement. My first couple of years as an FAA controller was spent at an airport in western Okla. but I finally got a transfer to Riverside Airport, Jenks, OK, which was closer to my  family.

An understanding of the different functions (controller positions) of a typical Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower is required to grasp the rest of the story. We would normally rotate through the positions every hour so everyone would get to work both easy and hard positions during their shift. Another important fact is that Riverside Airport has parallel runways meaning two runways in the same direction spaced apart enough for air traffic to safely operate on both runways at the same time.

Local Control — This position controls all aircraft taking off, landing, departures, inbound or in other words, everything in the air. This is the busiest position and as traffic increases we would split the Local Control into two positions with each taking one of the parallel runways and all the traffic on that side of the airport.

Ground Control – This position controls all taxiing aircraft to/from the runway and on the ramps. In addition, this position controls all rescue vehicles during emergencies; i.e. Fire Trucks, etc. This is the second busiest position.

Flight Data – This position coordinates with all other ATC facilities via land lines. In addition, Flight Data prepares the Flight Data strips for each Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) aircraft. IFR aircraft are under ATC contact from departure to final destination. Most aircraft use Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which means once they leave the five-mile radius of a controlled airport (like Riverside) they are on their own. They do have to contact ATC again before entering that same five-mile radius when returning. Flight Data position is the easiest of the three positions (most times anyway).

Supervisor – This is an experienced controller who has moved over to management and provides overall crew management. Normally there would only be a supervisor on shift during peak traffic hours; i.e. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The rest of the time a senior controller would be in charge and during very low traffic, there may only be a single controller in the tower.

Airport Patterns is another piece of the puzzle you must learn. On a single runway, traffic would use a box shaped right hand traffic pattern (Parallel runway operations use both a right hand and left hand pattern at the same time). Departures would take off on the active runway and depart either straight ahead or turn right onto crosswind leg. They would then turn right again onto downwind leg flying the opposite direction from take-off.  They would then tun left out of the traffic pattern from downwind leg. Arrivals would normally fly to intersect downwind leg mid-field then fly parallel to the runway until turning right on base leg then turn right again on final leg to touch down. Occasionally an aircraft would request a straight in approach, which means they would enter final leg several miles from the airport and fly straight to touchdown. This meant that the Local Controller had to sequence traffic that was on downwind leg with any straight in aircraft. Directions would be given to both aircraft as to their sequence to the runway and who should follow who. This gets even more complicated with two parallel runways and especially if two Local Controllers are being used.

On the day of the accident the weather was good and nothing was unusual about the flow of traffic and a single Local Controller was being used. Riverside had five flight schools, all of which would launch student flights every hour with them all returning an hour later. These flight schools also had many foreign students with barely acceptable English language skills. We had complained about this on several occasions to the flight schools to no avail.

It was not unusual to have more than 200 take-offs and landings in a single hour using both runways. In fact, at the time of this accident, Riverside was the 38^th busiest out of 400+ airports in the nation. Our traffic flow would peak on the hour during departures and again an hour later when they all returned. During the slack between these events, the controllers would rotate positions by Local Controller going to Flight Data, Ground Controller moving over to Local Control and Flight Data moving over to Ground Control. As a controller working Ground Control, you would know what type of traffic to expect when your turn came up next to take over Local Control. Believe me there have been many times when my stomach would be churning because I could see that I would be getting a load of airplanes inbound when my turn came up for Local Control.

The supervisor was usually in the Tower to help when the traffic got heavy, but there is something that you must understand. During low traffic we would have all radios on speaker so everyone could hear all transmissions from the aircraft and the controllers speaking at their positions. As soon as the traffic increased we would all go on headsets. This meant that only those in the tower on the separate positions could hear the aircraft on their frequency but everyone could still hear the controllers as they talked on their headset. Confusing? BTW Local Control and Ground Control of course used different radio frequencies but were only about eight feet apart in the tower cab.

With all that knowledge I can now tell you what happened.

We had three controllers working that day with a supervisor occasionally in the tower cab. George was working Local Control, I was working Ground Control, Bill was working Flight Data and our Supervisor was John. At the time of the accident the Supervisor (John) had gone downstairs for some reason. The student traffic was starting to return with numerous arrivals plus some departures. I had all my ground traffic moving as needed so I was watching out the window at the in-flight traffic that the Local Controller had. He had a Cessna 150 (two-place training airplane) on downwind, call-sign Tad-57, and another one coming straight-in, call-sign Jump-29, plus aircraft asking for departure clearance. He also had other aircraft calling inbound and several more in the pattern. Several examples of a C-150 is provided below:

I heard George give an aircraft take off clearance and the aircraft took the runway and started rolling. Remember I can only hear George and not the aircraft. I also heard him tell his downwind traffic “Tad-57 you are number 2 to follow a Cessna 150 (Jump-29) on three-mile final” (the straight in aircraft). George then looked at the other end of the runway to see where his departure aircraft was. I was still watching the downwind aircraft (Tad-57) when I saw him turn base leg too early which would put him in conflict with the straight-in aircraft (Jump-29). I alerted George by saying “George, your downwind turned in front of your straight in!” He knew immediately what I meant.

George immediately tried to get Tad-57 to make a right 360 degree turn and re-enter base leg behind Jump-29. He said this several times but Tad-57 continued on base-leg towards the final leg. At this time he also advised Jump-29 of traffic on base leg “Jump-29, traffic ahead and to your right”. Both Tad-57 and Jump-29 were foreign students flying solo. As I watched both aircraft and heard George continuing to try to separate the two aircraft, Jump-29 made a right hand turn and collided with Tad-57. It appeared to me that both aircraft immediately went straight down to the ground behind trees about two miles from the airport.

At the instant of impact, the supervisor John just stuck his head up from the stairs and saw two airplanes collide. George ripped off his head set and threw it on the floor and said “You stupid Son Of A Bitch!” and went past the supervisor down the spiral stairs. We three still in the cab where in shock for a micro second then experience kicked in. Flight Data (Bill) activated the crash alarm to get the fire/rescue trucks moving. I immediately stopped all ground traffic and started talking to the fire/rescue trucks giving them directions to the crash site. Supervisor John ran over and plugged into the Local Control radio and started trying to figure out who all the aircraft still flying were and where they were reference the airport. Once I had the fire/rescue trucks heading to the crash site I started helping him sort out the flying traffic. We told all aircraft to exit the traffic pattern and hold until we got the emergency under control. Flight Data (Bill) had to deal with all the phone calls that began and alerting other rescue resources.

Several minutes had passed and we were starting to identify all the traffic still holding when I see a Cessna-150 fly low over the trees, touch down on the runway in front of the tower and crash off to the side of the runway. I think I said “ What The F___!” or something similar. I immediately called the Fire/Rescue trucks and said we just had an aircraft crash on our runway, send some of the resources back to the airport immediately, which they did. They pulled the pilot out of the crash (lucky no fire) and rushed him to the hospital. The other aircraft had crashed in the back yard of one of our controllers getting ready to come to work. He was the first one to the airplane but said the pilot was dead or dying when he got to him.

Aftermath:

Normal procedure during an aircraft accident is that the working controller(s) have to be taken off position and relieved by other controllers. Since there were no other controllers working yet, they had to call in some of those off work but meanwhile we had to stay on position for an hour or more till they arrived. Once we were relieved, we all went downstairs to the break room. At this point the FAA Tower Chief said we needed to write a statement and listen to the tapes of the accident. BTW, all the radios were recorded on 8” reel to reel tapes. George is a basket case at this point. We said we were NOT going to write a statement until we talked to our union lawyers. This sent the Tower Chief into a full blown screaming fit. He was already getting calls from FAA headquarters and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and he didn’t want to hear what we had just said. In addition, by this time the Tower was surrounded by news trucks and cameras trying to get facts about the accident.

At this point I will explain why we had a Union. The Air Traffic Controller Union was called PATCO for Professional Air traffic Controller Organization. I went from the military to working for the FAA. I knew nothing about unions at the time but quickly realized that in this job, it was very necessary. Only working controllers could be represented by the union. Supervisors, managers and Tower Chiefs could not. An Air Traffic Controller’s job was and still is extremely subjective. We had a manual 3” thick that had all the rules we had to follow to control air traffic. It covers everything to include separation of aircraft by IFR and VFR rules. It covers distance between aircraft in numerous situations. A couple of typical examples of how this works is provided next. The ATC manual says one aircraft can’t cross the runway threshold until a departing aircraft has crossed the runway end. If I have heavy traffic, I am pushing this right up to the minimum in order to get the traffic moving. A supervisor could state that my departure was 50 feet from the end of the runway when my arrival crossed the landing threshold. There is no way to prove this one way or the other but that is all it would take to get a Systems Error given to me. Another rule using radar was the three-mile separation requirement. I could have five aircraft on final lined up on radar and I must maintain three miles separation between all five. If one aircraft flies a little faster than the others this could go down to below three miles per the supervisors opinion. At the time, radar wasn’t recorded so no way to prove it, but the controller gets a Systems Error. Neither of these examples was unsafe or put anyone’s life at stake but the FAA would and did hang controllers on such issues and would especially sacrifice a controller on a high-profile accident. PATCO was our only protection because FAA management could not be relied upon to look out for the controller. PATCO had the lawyers who would stand up for the controllers against the FAA, otherwise we would be at the mercy of the bureaucracy. Please don’t assume PATCO would protect a controller even if they were at fault because they would not. They just ensured the controllers were treated fairly. I appreciate that there are many people opposed to unions, but unless you have been in this situation, your opinion isn’t even a factor.

The PATCO lawyer said to listen to the tapes and write a statement that said “On this date I observed two aircraft collide southeast of the Riverside Airport.” He said then leave the tower and they would be flying in the next morning to meet us for any further action. We advised the Tower Chief of this and he went into another screaming fit, but we just went into the recording room to listen to the tapes and write our statements.

We listened to the tape at least six times. This was the first time I actually got cold chills. George was totally out of it and would not listen to the tapes at all. We wrote our statements and then left the tower with George and went to his apartment. We had to work our way through all the news cameras and reporters then do some fancy driving to lose some of them on the way to the apartment. We finally got George to talk and we explained that he was not the cause of the accident. He did everything correct and everything possible to get those two aircraft safely apart, but the language issues finally caught up with us.

In the last paragraph I stated that only while hearing the tapes did I get cold chills. You have to understand the mind set of an Air Traffic Controller to appreciate this comment. I never met a controller who didn’t love his job. It provides instant gratification for a job well done. Every hour on position you and all your co-workers knew if you did well or screwed up in some way. It was an adrenaline rush after working a 200 traffic hour because you are talking non-stop with a constantly changing environment (picture) and you knew you kicked a__.  On the other side, if for some reason you “lost the picture” and had to get it back, sometimes with the supervisors help, you felt like crap. During those rare events, you still had to keep working and may very well have to go back on Local Control during another peak traffic hour. In order to do this hour after hour, day after day you have to disconnect from the thought that people’s lives relied on the very words you continually spoke all day. That is why we were all able to deal with the unforeseen accident immediately and only thought about the people dying when we had to listen to the tapes later. George on the other hand knew immediately that he had just possibly killed several people and that’s why he went into shock. It’s the truth when they say this is one of the most high-stress jobs in the world.

To continue with the story, the next day the PATCO lawyer met us and listened to our stories. He agreed that this was not controller error and we wrote out more detailed statements that we gave to the Tower Chief later that day.

Accident Conclusion: The FAA and NTSB finally agreed that the language issue was the primary contributing factor and the controller was not at fault.

When Jump-29 made the right turn and collided with Tad-57 he basically cut the tail off Tad-57 which crashed in the back-yard of one of our controllers. Not much hope for Tad-57 once he lost the tail of his aircraft. Jump-29 on the other hand had bent his propeller and bent back his nose gear. He also started straight down but was able to recover and keep flying even though he had severe vibration from the bent prop. He was able to limp back to the airport and is the aircraft that flew low over the trees and crashed on the runway.

As for the three controllers working that day, George, me and Bill, we went back to work a short time later although none of us ever forgot this day.

Finally, I’ve been reluctant to write this story for many, many years. It’s now 2020 so it’s been 39 years since this happened, but I remember it like it happened yesterday. I worked as a controller both USAF and FAA for around nine years. I saw and participated in numerous emergencies and have several letters of commendation for the efforts I provided in saving several pilots from death or injury. I was never the cause of any of those mishaps, but I may have just been lucky. George on the day of the accident was not lucky and I’m sure he still lives with this memory to this day. Shortly  after this accident happened I was involved with the PATCO strike and I will write the story of that life event next.

                

PATCO Strike

I went to work for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an Air Traffic Controller in 1977 after spending nine years in the U.S. Air Force (USAF) from 1967 to 1976. The last five years in the USAF I was a controller and worked at numerous locations under pretty trying conditions. I was a fully qualified controller and had performed crew chief duties for the last several years which meant I managed several other controllers while operating a Control Tower at an Air Force Base. This meant nothing to the FAA. I entered the FAA as a new employee and had to go through all the training that someone with no controller experience had to do.

In retrospect I understand the FAA’s logic. The FAA Air Traffic Controller Academy located at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City not only teaches you how to be a controller but it also puts each student under extremely stressful situations to see if you can handle it. There is no second chance at the academy. You fail a test or a practical exercise, which there were many, they would walk you to the door the same day. The students would not only attend class all day but would meet up in groups in the evening to review and practice the events that we all knew would take place the next day. There was a massive amount of data that had to be memorized and be able to be recalled immediately. It is definitely the hardest school I ever attended and I went into it as an experienced controller! I was extremely glad to have successfully completed the four months of hell and finally get to my assigned site and get back to work as an FAA controller.

My first FAA assignment was at a closed USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC) base in the plains of western Oklahoma, Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base at Burns Flat, Okla. The name of the town says it all. The airport had a 13,000 ft. runway 300 feet wide that in years past housed B-52 bombers and KC-135 Air Refuel Tankers. All the base housing and other facilities were still there only there were no people, at least not many. Burns Flat had a cotton gin and a small store/diner and that was it. The only reason the FAA staffed this site was because Altas AFB was 50 miles south with C-5 and C-141 aircraft and the FAA Academy at Okla. City also had many aircraft that was used to train FAA check pilots. Burns Flat allowed aircraft to come from Altas and FAA Academy to practice with no conflicts with airlines or private aviation aircraft.

We were actually very busy at Burns Flat because we not only provided a control tower and runway but also provided Non-Radar Approach Control so the aircraft could practice all their instrument approaches uninterrupted. For those not familiar with air traffic control, Non-Radar Approach Control is extremely difficult compared to having a radar screen to see all the aircraft. We worked everything using time/distance and pilot reporting over navigation aids and at assigned altitudes.

I’ve provided you all this history so you can realize that no controller went into this work for the money, which was not very good anyway. They took this job for other reasons such as pride, job satisfaction, instant job gratification and many others. I never met a controller who didn’t love his job.

After completing the FAA Academy and arriving at Burns Flat, I was introduced to the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) union by the other controllers. There was no pressure to join, but I quickly saw why the union was needed to ensure the controllers were treated fairly by the FAA bureaucracy. As I stated in a previous blog about an aircraft accident I witnessed, the FAA was quick to use the controllers as scape-goats to cover their lack of solving numerous flight safety issues that the controllers continually highlighted; i.e. short staff, mandatory overtime, unreliable Radios/Radar/Navigational Aids, antiquated operating instructions, etc. As a result, I joined PATCO and became a fully supportive member.

I worked at Burns Flat for several years but finally was able to transfer to a site closer to my folks and kids; i.e. Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport at Jenks, Okla. also known as Riverside Airport. This was a much more dynamic environment because of the many flight schools and low time pilots. I was used to working with highly professional pilots in the military and the FAA Academy Check Pilots but now had to adjust to many low time pilots with even English language issues (foreign students). I picked it up quickly and became fully qualified at this airport. Every new assignment required the controller to go through a complete indoctrination process before being allowed to work unmonitored.

At this new site I found that the PATCO officer positions would be rotated every year among the 12 assigned controllers so everyone had to share the union administrative work equally. The key position was the local PATCO president position because they interacted directly with the FAA Tower Chief on such issues as assignment of mandatory overtime, disputes and especially on any actions being taken against a controller such as System Errors. I explained in my last blog how subjective this job is and that a controller could be given a Systems Error by an FAA supervisor on the most trivial of issue. A controller could be fired over these type of things and the FAA would use this to intimidate the controllers if they complained or caused any problems for the facility boss (Tower Chief). In other words, there was a lot of tension between the controllers and FAA Management. After a year or so on site I rotated into being the vice president of our local PATCO.

Because PATCO was the recognized bargaining unit for the FAA controllers, FAA and PATCO would enter contract negotiations every couple of years. This was the only time PATCO could address such issues as controller staffing or lack of adequate staffing, mandatory overtime procedures, pay, etc. Actually FAA controllers are government employees paid using the GS pay scale also used for all other professional government employees. In 1981 I was a GS-11 working at the 38^th busiest airport of the 400+ controlled airports in the nation. GS-11 is not a lot of money for the work performed by a controller compared to the work an office employee would do in Social Security or IRS.

In 1981 the controller contract was up for re-negotiations and this received lots of news coverage. Primarily because PATCO was trying to get the point out to the public of the deterioration of the air traffic environment due to the lack of staff, unreliable equipment and needed airport facility upgrades. Controller pay was also a subject PATCO tried to highlight to get realistic compensation for the work performed by the controllers. In my four years in the FAA I saw only one controller actually retire. The vast majority would be eliminated due to medical disqualification such as eyesight, required medication that could impact their performance, etc. PATCO was confident that their concerns would be addressed this time because they had received endorsement from Ronald Regan who was running for and won the U.S. presidency.

The events that finally led up to the strike are well covered in a book named “Collision Course, Ronald Reagan, The Air Traffic Controllers, And The Strike That Changed America” by Joseph A. McCartin. If you have any interest what really happened then read this book.

At the start of the contract negotiations I was really on the fence about what to do. I loved my job even with the low pay. I had planned on making this my life’s career and was not anxious to throw it away without a pretty good reason. Another important fact is as an FAA Controller we had to sign a statement saying we would not strike against the government. None of us took this lightly. As contract negotiations continued to deteriorate, a barely acceptable contract was distributed by PATCO management to the controllers for their vote to accept or not. This vote also included a vote to strike if an eventual agreement could not be reached. No one liked the offered contract and responded with that answer, but a strike vote was not accepted by the controllers. When PATCO went back to the FAA to further negotiate, FAA pulled the offer off the table and submitted a worse offer than before. Somehow FAA had learned that the controllers were not ready to strike so they took advantage of that with a reduced offer. I had actually voted against a strike with the first offer. At about this same time FAA management made each controller sign another non-strike statement in front of FAA management witnesses. The FAA also started a news campaign that all the controllers wanted was an immediate $10,000 raise. This was 1981 and I was barely making low $20K as a GS-11 so that is a lot of money but that was not what was being asked by the controllers.

When the revised FAA offer was distributed to the controllers by PATCO management a full storm of rejection rose from the membership. You  have to understand that there were only 17,000 controllers in the whole U.S. spread across over hundreds of facilities. There was no grand meeting of all the controllers to debate this issue, it was done over land-lines and among small facilities of maybe a dozen or so controllers. This time the FAA offer was soundly rejected and the strike vote was approved. I also voted to strike. PATCO advised the FAA that a strike would happen at midnight Aug. 21, 1981, unless they were willing to renegotiate their last offer. The FAA walked out and said take it or leave it.

Strike:

On Friday, Aug. 21, 1981, I worked a normal shift at Riverside Tower but since the tower closed at 8 p.m. I was actually off work when the strike happened at midnight. The government had U.S. marshals at all FAA facilities at midnight as the controllers came out the door and gave them federal injunctions stating that if they did not come to work as normal the next day they would be in contempt of Federal Court and would be arrested. Since I was already out of the facility at 8 p.m. I did not get handed an injunction although I knew one had been issued in my name. We had been warned that the government was especially going after the union officers, and I was the vice president of our local.

Of the 17,000 controllers, 12,000 went out on strike, I among them. My first move was not to be found by the U.S. marshals. Several of us from my site drove to Oklahoma City to hide out and also participate in union meetings at a hidden site. I was actually staying with one of the other controllers from my site whose father was a senior manager at a big FAA facility in Oklahoma City. At one point he and I were hiding in the back room as his father is talking to a U.S. marshal in the front of the house asking where his son could be found. He lied for both of us so I guess blood is thicker than water.

I stayed several days in Oklahoma City attending union meetings and glued to the news, but I finally had to go back home to get more clothes. As I drove up to my house I found several business cards from U.S. marshals and FBI agents stuck in my door with notes saying it was imperative I contact them. Of course I will! The news actually showed controllers in orange jump suits with ankle and wrist chains walking into a courthouse and jail somewhere in the U.S. That was not going to be me if I could help it. While in my house, the phone rang and I automatically picked it before thinking. It was a U.S. marshal and he said he had been trying to contract me for several days and had some important papers I needed to get to my lawyer. I knew what he wanted to give me and wasn’t too keen on making it easy for him. I told him I would be at a donut shop in town for the next 30 minutes if he wanted to meet me. He said he couldn’t get there in 30 minutes and I said sorry, I’ve got other things to do so can’t wait for you. I guess that wasn’t the best thing to say to someone carrying a gun but too late now.

I was setting in the donut shop just about to leave when this guy filled the entrance and walked towards me. Not sure how he got there so fast, but he was the biggest cop I ever remember seeing. He sat down and confirmed I was his quarry and handed me my injunction plus about 2 inches of additional paperwork. I wasn’t sure what his mood was and expected the worse since I had jerked his chain about waiting for him for only 30 minutes. He was actually very nice and stated that all the U.S. marshals had been pulled off all their other real crime work to go after us controllers. He said he didn’t believe it was right but I better get my lawyer on the job quickly because otherwise I would be in jail soon. I did get this paperwork to our union lawyer who added it to the pile of the other 12,000 controllers’ paperwork.

At about this same time President Regan or as we liked to call him, “Ronnie,” had publicly fired all the striking controllers. This actually kept me out of jail. The Tulsa Justice Department, which was handling my case made a logical decision. They stated they were trying to prosecute the controllers who refused to go back to work yet the President had fired the same controllers and had them locked out of their FAA work sites. He made the decision to drop all the cases under his jurisdiction and eventually so did the rest of the country.

Aftermath:

12,000 controllers out of 17,000 in the U.S. are now gone. How did the air traffic continue, you might ask. The FAA had made some major contingency plans to include several items PATCO was requesting to be implemented.

1                    Air Traffic Control services to all but military and airlines was suspended. This meant that unless you were an airline or military you probably were not going to fly in any controlled airspace. The controllers used a lot of their work day supporting private aviation and this came to an immediate stop.

2                    Military controllers were assigned to FAA facilities to backfill the missing controllers. This works but no one walks into a new facility and starts controlling airplanes, not even an experienced controller.

3                    Physical requirements were lowered so many flight service technicians could move over to controller positions. This included age limits and eyesight limitations. Controllers have to take a complete flight physical every six months, and the FAA loosened up on these requirements drastically.

4                    They banned PATCO so there was no protection for the controllers remaining. Mandatory overtime was the norm and no complaints were entertained by the FAA. They had it exactly how they wanted, finally.

The president and FAA got the relief from the U.S. traveling public without them even realizing what they gave up in exchange. Flying safety was drastically reduced for years and overall services impacted, but the public accepted it.

As for me, I was out of a job. I started looking at almost everything available. I even went to the State Employment Office to see what they had listed. I met a young lady setting at a desk in a large room with other similar desks and she said “let me go talk to my supervisor” who was in an office to the side. I heard him yell at the top of his voice “Job? Hell, he needs to be put in jail!” She came back to the desk red faced and I said “No problem, like I hadn’t heard that before” and left.

I went on several interviews and actually had a job offer from a large Tulsa hospital to manage all their janitorial staff. I was a little hesitant when he asked me how I would handle unruly employees. In the meantime I had gotten an interview with a company in Tulsa looking for flight simulator technicians. I had never even seen a flight simulator but I had four years of avionics training in the Air Force prior to cross training into Air Traffic Control. I met with the manager of the technicians and we talked for several hours. He never asked any questions about my electronics background or simulator experience. We talked about the strike and my many life experiences to date. At this time I held an FAA Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) mechanic license, a FAA Commercial Pilot and Instrument License, in addition to my recently cancelled FAA Air Traffic Controller License. I had experience in everything associated with aviation. He hired me that day at only a couple $K less than I was making as an FAA controller. Six months later I’m the lead test and evaluation technician for this company testing new flight simulators before delivery.

A very short time later I had received promotions and pay raises that exceeded my FAA pay with a whole hell of a lot less stress from the job. Leaving the FAA was the best career move I could have made even though it was not my expressed plan. I entered the flight simulation workforce and found my niche. With my varied aircraft experience I moved from job to job using my unique skill set to end my career as the chief engineer for a flight simulator government contract with 16 full flight simulators in five different locations in the U.S. BTW this is without having an engineering degree.

I wish I could say that all my controller brothers and sisters ended as well. I at least had experience in another field that gave me a path. One of my controller friends from Riverside committed suicide as a result of losing his family medical insurance. Many others I’m sure suffered different degrees of hardship.

Conclusion:

It’s interesting the different reactions I get from people when they hear this story. Many say I should have been put in jail, way more than those agree with my decisions. For those with negative reactions, if you have never been in a situation where you have extreme pressure plus must make sweeping life- changing decisions, then your opinion isn’t relevant. I much prefer the company of the 12,000 brothers and siters that tried to make flying safer and paid the price for that decision.

Fast forward several years to  about 1983:

I get a letter from the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. and it says “Mr. Stanley, we find in our records that you witnessed a mid-air collision in 1981 while working as an Air Traffic Controller at Riverside Airport, OK. We would like to have you come to D.C. to provide a deposition for a law suit against the U.S. Government by one of the foreign pilot’s from the accident.” I had to assume it was either the Argentina pilot’s family of the aircraft that crashed on our runway after the mid-air collision (he survived) or the other Iranian pilot who died. I called the telephone number provided in the letter and eventually spoke to a female lawyer handling the case for the U.S. After a few pleasantries I said “You have a lot of gall asking for my help with this case when a couple years ago you were trying to put me in jail!” She said that wasn’t their department, but I pointed out to her that the address on her letter was the same as half a dozen I already received during the PATCO strike. I finally agreed to help and would wait to hear from her again for the arrangements. After not being contacted for months I finally hear the government settled with the family out of court.

Fast Forward to 1987:

While I was in the UASF and FAA I had a secret security clearance, which was mandatory for the work I was doing. I lost the security clearance when Ronnie fired all the striking controllers. Meanwhile I had changed jobs and was working for Singer Link at a civilian flight training center on DFW airport called SimuFlite. Singer-Link, who owned SimuFlite,  had just won a government contract to take over operation of the C-130 Aircrew Training System (ATS) at Little Rock, Ark. My boss asked me and three other engineers to go to Little Rock and help get the program running. We four went for a site visit to Little Rock and only me and one other engineer agreed to move to Little Rock for no more than a year (I’ve been here for 32 years). This program required lots of people initially and we hired 250 to 300 new employees within several months. Most if not all of them required a secret clearance, including me. This was something I hadn’t considered when I agreed to move to Little Rock to become the programs project engineer. Most of the new hires were already on the program and just changing companies or ex-military so they already had current clearances.

After being at Little Rock for a couple of months we get a visit from a gentleman from the government who was managing the security clearance applications. He came to investigate only one applicant from the 250+ we needed for the program, and that was me. I came into a small office where he was sitting and in front of him was a stack of papers that looked a lot like those I had seen several times in 1981. He began by saying “ Mr. Stanley, what is this contempt of Federal Court charge all about?” I responded with “ I was charged but never convicted!” I then went through the whole scenario including the fact that several years after the PATCO strike the government started hiring back some of the fired controllers. I also had the opportunity to go back, but I had already passed my FAA pay by a significant amount and I liked my job. Not a hard decision to make. I got my Secret Clearance reinstated and worked on the C-130 ATS for 32 years training thousands of aircrew for the UASF and many foreign countries

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I know to this day in some dusty filing cabinet buried deep in the bowls of some government building is that stack of papers for a desperado with my name on it. Lastly, I worked from the time I was 12 years old on a paper route until I retired at 71 and only got fired one time and that was by the President of the United States.

My Summer In Wisconsin

In 1974 I was still in the United Stated Air Force (USAF) working as an Air Traffic Controller. At the time I was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base (AFB), Oklahoma City with the Third Mobile Communication Group or as we called it the 3rd Mob. Our job was to provide a completely mobile airport that could be established anywhere in the world on short notice. This included mobile control tower, Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar, navigational aids, etc. The down side was we usually had to transport everything on 2½ ton trucks that had no air conditioning and the seats were made out of horse hair 1 inch thick, but that’s another story.

The summer of 1974 my group was deployed to Volk Field Air National Guard Base located at a little town called Camp Douglas, Wisconsin. This deployment was done every summer to provide air traffic control for numerous two-week training sessions for the various Air National Guard units around the country. Every two weeks a new guard unit would arrive, anything from C-130 cargo aircraft to F-100 fighter jets and several other type aircraft.

Volk Field already had an air traffic control tower where I worked, but we did have to bring our GCA radar and set it up next to the runway to provide precision radar approach capability. This blog is about the many adventures I had while working the summer of 1974 at Volk Field.

Shortly after our arrival at Volk Field we received a UH-1 helicopter from an Army base not far away. The UH-1, or Huey, was heavily involved in Viet Nam but it was to provide rescue services during the summer operations at Volk Field. The Huey crew had supported these operations for several years so they knew most of the old timers in the 3^rd Mob. I was working the tower the day they arrived and as they came inbound to the landing pad the pilot asked if Joe Brown (fake name) was working this year. I said he was and in fact I just saw him go into the outhouse next to the GCA unit. The pilot asked for a low approach and I, of course, approved the request. The next thing I know the pilot has the Huey in a hover over the outhouse and the wind from the rotor is about to blow the outhouse over. I see the outhouse door fly open and the occupant shake his fist at the pilot who was only a short distance away. I start with this story because it is typical of what my summer was like at Volk Field.

Volk Field was at one time in the past a large facility with lots of buildings and barracks. In 1974 all these were empty except for those used to house the National Guard units every two weeks and the one barracks used by the 3^rd Mob. In other words, we had the base to  ourselves a lot of the time, especially between National Guard units. The Base Commander did live on the base about a city block from our barracks. He had a clear view of our barracks as I found out one day when I answered the phone in the barracks and it was him. He said in a very loud voice “Do you have a motorcycle in the barracks?” I had to admit I had just ridden my motorcycle up a ramp into the hallway of the barracks. He said “Get that damn motorcycle out of my barracks!” I complied as requested but from that time on we knew we were being watched closely.

The small town next to Volk Field was called Camp Douglas and was just a bump in the road. It did have a large bar/restaurant where we would gather almost every evening. During most of the year this place would have very few customers but during the summer it was always packed with all the guard guys. We got to know the owner pretty well since we were there every night.

One day I see a strange item on a shelf behind the bar under a plexiglass cover. I asked him what it was and he began telling me a story about his famous moose hunt in Canada. He said he paid for a high-priced guide and plane to fly him into a remote area in Canada for the express purpose of shooting a moose and bringing its antlers back to put on the wall behind his bar. He said after days of tracking moose and fighting the millions of mosquitoes he finally got his chance to shoot a moose with a huge rack. He took his shot but missed. As he walked up to where the Moose was previously standing he found only a pile of Moose Dung still steaming on the ground. He gathered up the Moose dung and had it “mounted” in a glass covered trophy case for his bar.

During one two-week period we had a C-130 Guard unit on base and they flew every day on different missions. One morning a C-130 was making an approach to the runway and said “Tower, what is that written on the runway?” Being a smart ass I said “That would be the runway number.” I knew he knew that, but I thought it funny that he would ask. He replied “It’s not that, it says All Guard Pilots are Pig F____ers”. Someone in the middle of the night had painted that in big white letters on the end of our runway. Very funny!

The C-130s would take off in three- ship groups and fly low level all over the Wisconsin landscape. We would get phone calls in the tower on many occasions from local famers complaining that the airplanes were causing their dairy cattle to panic and run through their fences. The complaints didn’t stop the low-level flights. I asked to get a flight on one of the C-130s and they agreed since I was an air traffic controller. I was approved to fly on one of their three-ship missions in the number 2 aircraft, which would be to the left and behind the lead aircraft.  BTW number 3 aircraft would be to the right and behind the lead and almost even with number 2. I need to provide you a bit more information for this story. The main runway at Volk Field ran east/west and the southeast end was very close to a large hill of several hundred feet that was located just to the left of the approach end of the runway.

As we were loading the aircraft I was told to sit on a folding metal chair right behind the co-pilot and in front of the navigator whose position is on the right-hand side of the cockpit. I though this very odd since I had flown on many military aircraft and usually had my own seat with a seat belt. In addition, I did not have a headset on so did not know they planned on using an assault take off maneuver. This is a high performance take off that gets the aircraft as high as possible before passing the end of the runway to help counter small arms fire. The three ship lined up on the runway with lead starting his take off roll. Number 2 started about 15 seconds later, then number 3, 15 seconds after number 2. As my aircraft started its take off roll I’m watching out the cockpit window looking over the co-pilots shoulder. As the pilot rotated he kept pulling the wheel back until the nose was pointing 45 degrees up. At that point my chair with me in it fell back into the navigators lap where I kept my face planted until the pilot finally pushed the nose over to level flight. At that point I knew I had been set up because everyone got a good laugh over my situation. They eventually joined up into a three ship V formation after airborne and flew low level for several hours. I got to see the cows running like crazy as the C-130s flew over at high speed at a couple hundred feet. On our return back to Volk Field we were going to make a low approach over the runway in the V formation to give the ground crews a show. My aircraft number 2 was tucked in close to lead, with number 3 on the other side just as close. By this time I had been given a headset so could hear what was going on. As we approached the end of the runway I hear the pilot say “ What the F___!” The lead aircraft had pulled back power unannounced and number 2 and number 3 aircraft were quickly overtaking the lead. Immediately after the pilot made his statement he pulled back hard on the control wheel and we barely made it over the left wing of the lead aircraft. We couldn’t turn left away from lead due to the hill to the left of the runway. At that point all three aircraft separated and made their individual approach to the runway. I thanked the pilot for the ride but said I wasn’t going to fly with them again. They just laughed. I lied and did fly on several other C-130s, but there always seemed to be an issue like engine failure or parts flying off the aircraft. Again, those are other stories.

During another two-week period we had a F-100 Guard unit on base. The F-100 is a single seat fighter of the Viet Nam era. These guys would take off and fly to a firing range not far from the base and practice strafing runs using their onboard Gatling gun. I rode my motorcycle up to the range one day and sat in the control tower as these guys would make multiple runs on targets on the ground. Very cool! You would see the bullets hit the ground then hear the rip sound of the gun from the aircraft. The Gatling fires so fast it sounds like ripping fabric instead of a gun firing. They would also do air-to-air attacks against a dart-shaped target pulled behind another F-100. The dart was made from aluminum covered balsa wood attached to the aircraft using a cable and winch system under the wing. The F-100 target aircraft would take off with the dart snugly held under the left wing then let it out on the cable once airborne so the attack aircraft could shoot at the target. At the end of the mission, the target aircraft would fly over a large open area next to the runway and release the dart, which would land in the field and be recovered by a tractor. One day we got a call from the target aircraft saying he couldn’t get the dart to release so was going to have to use an emergency procedure to get rid of the dart. The procedure was for the target aircraft to fly low over some trees on the airfield boundary with the dart flying at the end of the cable. The goal was to catch the dart in the trees, which would supposedly break the cable at a weak link especially installed for this purpose. The pilot made his approach to the trees, caught the dart as planned and then almost crashed the aircraft into the ground when the cable made the aircraft slew violently around. He recovered and landed safely, but I guess this procedure wasn’t used very often because it sure surprised the pilot.

On the departure day of the F-100 Guard unit, the ground crews where loading their trucks on the ramp while the individual F-100 aircraft were taking off to fly back home. The last F-100 to leave was the Wing Commander and shortly after taking off he asked to make a low approach for his troops on the ground. A low approach is usually accomplished over the runway but not this time. The F-100 was on the far side of the airfield, which would normally be downwind leg. After I cleared the F-100 for his low approach he turned directly towards the airport so as to fly over the ramp where all his troops were gathered. In addition, the control tower where I worked was right next to the ramp. Although this isn’t what I had expected, it was ok as far as I was concerned. What I didn’t realize until it was too late was this was going to be a special type of low approach. As the F-100 crossed over the runway heading towards the ramp it rolled inverted and passed over the ramp and right next to the tower cab up side down! I could see into the cockpit as he flew by. The troops on the ground were going crazy at this point.

As you can probably figure out by now we had a great time at Volk Field because discipline was almost non-existent and the guard units were here to have fun and do crazy things. In fact, there were several display aircraft on permanent pedestals on the field and one guard unit got caught trying to steal one of them to take back to their base. They had it unbolted and a crane attached when they were finally caught and told to put it back. My friends in the 3^rd Mob actually tried to steal one of the security police trucks (each Guard unit brought their own police). As it was being rolled away from the Security Police office they came out of the building and started yelling. My friends jumped out of the truck and it continued to roll down the hill and was only stopped when it went through the fence at the tennis court. In-depth interrogation by the Security Police of all the 3^rd Mob members resulted in the thief’s not being identified.

Our summer deployment finally ended after three months and we had to drive those damn trucks all the way back to Oklahoma City.