Retired. I worked with computers the majority of my career as an Operator,Tele Comm Analyst, and with CAD ( Computer Aided Design). I have been retired as of 2005. I do research in my spare time on the early Southern New Jersey glass industry, where the art of blowing glass by hand began in America. I also collect and study items from the F4 Phantom II fighter aircraft. I was a mechanic on the environmental systems on this plane in SEA at Ubon RTAFB,Thailand in 1969-70. I have a functioning Ejection Seat (minus rocket) out of a F4D, that I am currently working on.
Worst Moment While visiting the downtown Ubon town area at night they sounded an alert. I jumped into the open back of a large truck with other airmen to get back to base. We ended up in a large fenced in compound on base that turned out to be some kind of intelligence squadron. Once inside I entered a large theater size room that dispalyed all kind of codes on a screen with airmen with headphones sitting at stations. Two AP's noticed that I wasn't wearing that special ID badge that everyone else was wearing, and they dragged my butt into some Colonels office. It was embarrasing, but the Colonel looked bewildered that I actually got inside their compound. I had to persuade my sarge that I didn't know anything about that truck and where it was going. --------------------------------------------------- in Thailand in 1969-70 I was running late getting back from town one night. Actually I was late getting back a lot of nights. But this one particular night I decided to take a shortcut to the shop where I worked on Phantom F4D Enviro sytems. I figured I would just walk down the side of the runway until I reached the shop area. A pair of headlights reached me fast. A big dog and two AP's commanded me to lay prone on the ground, while the dog sniffed me all over. Iam glad I had my deodorant on (24hrProtection) because the dog let me off the hook. The irate AP's asked what I was doing there and pointed down the road where I was heading. They informed me that there was two nervous Thai troops with their trigger fingers on the M60 gun ahead in the bunker. They dropped me off at the shop and told me to give them a break and don't show up again. Phew!, that was close. I was 24 then and should have known better. But didn't. --------------------------------------------------
Chain of Command 8th Combat Support Group(PACAF) 8th Tactical Fighter Wing Wolf-Pack 8th Field Maint Squadron 315 Air Division Blind Bat 16th SOS Spectre Squadron 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron 'Satans Angels' 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron 476th Tactical Fighter Squadron 497th Tactical Fighter Squadron 25th Tactical Fighter Squadron
Other Memories I was a Mechanical Accessess Tech, which was changed to Environmental Systems Tech. I worked on the Air Cond, Heating, Pressurization, Aux Power Unit, Fire bottles, Canopy seal, Anti-G Suit Pump, Oxygen Reg., Wing Anti-Ice and a Starter Cartridge for starting engines on C-130,s in remote areas that had no ground equip. I used to sit in the seat of the F4 to check out the pressure drop on the Oxy Reg with a Go-No-Guage. You had to watch your footing when lowering yourself into the seat. All the trip mechanisms had safety flags installed, but you still had to make sure you didn't activate the seat. There was an incident over at Ubon, where an Egress Tech accidentally tripped the seat while installing it. I was paranoid afterwards, just sitting in the cockpit. I worked on the F4C and D, the AC-130A Spectre Gunship and the AC-130A Blind Bat Flare Launcher. The flare ship was a part of the Blind Bat Squadron. They lit up the Ho Chi Mihn Trail so that the Spectre Gunships could see what they were doing. We lost a AC-130 gunship a week before I arrived on base. It was shot up, and tried to land back at base. It caught fire on landing, and crewman perished when He could not escape the little fire ops room, that was installed in the cargo area. The tail was all that was left after the inferno. I did see two pilots eject upon landing with shotout landing gear. I took a photo from top of the reventment. It was a distance pic. I wish I had a telephoto lens. The rockets were so fast, that I could only see them when their chutes opened. We used to cannibalize a lot of the planes. That is take parts off of one plane to use on another so that it could fly its mission then return and put the part back on the original plane or some other. I have a band-aid tin with AK47 slugs removed from the parts I took off of the F4s and AC-130s. They were always coming in with some kind of damage. The F4s took off on a lot of missions with trees hanging from their bomb racks. These artificial trees were weighted with a pointed end. They had radio transmitters inside and the trees were dropped along the trail, and picked up the sounds from the trucks. The base ops knew when and where to schedule their missions. The AC-130A's used to take off an hour before night came. I always saw them flying in circles around the base before taking off for the trail. I found out later that they were calibrating their gun sights on the large water fountain in the city of Ubon, just outside the base. ---------------------------------------------------
I worked on the anti-G system on the F4D Phantom fighter in Thailand. The plane was capable of Mach1 flight. The System was a valve (Photos of this valve are located elsewhere on this profile) with a floating weight. When the pilot went into a climb or a dive the valve would pressurize bladders in different locations in the pilots flight suit. The suit worked like a tourniquet, making sure the pilots blood did not all flow to his feet or head, if he was going into a dive or climb. This prevented him from passing out. (Photos of this suit are located elsewhere on this profile).
-------------------------------------------------- Our Commander on Ubon RTAFB in Thailand would hold his monthly 'Commander Call' at the base movie theater. This gave him the opportunity to show us movies of the AC130A Spectre Gunships strikes at the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We sort of viewed it as a pep rally to inspire the troops to rally to the mission.
---------------------------------------------------- When we worked the grave shift our meals consisted of C-rations. I guess the chowhall closed early. I Can't remember. We used to put the opened can on the exhaust of the MD3 units, they used to power the A/C on the flightline. I guess you could also use the exhaust header on a truck vehicle to warm the can. I do remember a lot of the times at the end of the month when bucks were scarce, the cigarettes were usually procured by whoever got to the supply of C-rations first. ---------------------------------------------------- I remember signing for a M16 Rifle while stationed at Ubon RTAFB. But never remember actually getting to play with it. It was probably stored in the squadron store room. I did actually get a 'bugout' duffle bag that was stashed on top of my locker. It was stuffed with gear to survive outside the base. We were instructed to take off with it, if the base was attacked. In other words we were on our own. When I heard that, I said to myself 'sht I should have paid better attention'. ----------------------------------------------------
