Previously Held AFSC/MOS 27350A-Aircraft Control and Warning Operator
27370A-Aircraft Control and Warning Technician
27370S-Aircraft Control and Warning Technician
27670-Aerospace Control and Warning Systems Technician
Retired and enjoying life. I joined the Air Force August 15, 1961. After 30 years and 17 days I retired on August 31, 1991. While on 90 days terminal leave I went to work as a security guard and worked for 13 months. I then went to work for a company (BRENCO) that manufactures wheel bearings for railroad cars, and worked for them two years. I then started working for the U.S. Postal Service and worked 17 years and three months. I worked a total of 50 years four months and two weeks . I started with the Postal Service as a City Mail Carrier and did that for three and a half years. I then got a job in Personnel in Aug 98 and worked there until it was phased out, and then started working in the training department in Jan 08. I worked in training 16 of my 30 years in the Air Force so I was happy with that job. I sold 588 hours of annual leave when I retired completely on 30 Dec 2011. Selling that leave helped me to finish paying for the hardwood floors Nancy had installed in two hallway. Wish I could have sold the over 1600 hours of sick leave I had, but during that time the Postal Service would only add half of it to your time in service. In 2013 the Postal Service started adding all of it to time in service. House in Virginia was paid for, and I had my yards in good shape. Unfortunately Nancy's Arthritis caused us to need to move to warmer weather.
Other Comments:
I was born in the very, very, very small town of Lamont FL. I grew up in Tampa, FL and graduated from Middleton High School in 1960. I then attended Florida A&M University for a year and joned the Air Force 8/15/61. I had four remote tours; all in the Pacific. Two were in Okinawa, one in Vietnam, and one in the Philippines. I had two long tours in Germany. The first was at Hessisch-Oldendorf AS, Germany Jun 76 to Jun 78. My last assignment was to the Warrior Preparation Center at Einsiedlerhof AS, Germany for 14 months and my slot was deleted. I was then moved to Headquarters USAFE at Ramstein Airbase for two years and retired Aug 1991. Life has been really good to me, and I consider myself to be a very luck person. I had a wonderful Air Force career. My second wife (Nancy) and I have been married 42 years. While in Virginia we lived in a quiet neighborhood in Petersburg, VA which is about six miles from Fort Lee, VA. We annually went to Hampton, VA to attend the Jazz Festival and most of the time was able to get billetting on Langley AFB. While vacationing we have also been lucky to get billetting at Travis AFB, CA, Shaw AFB, SC, MacDill AFB, FL, Hickam AFB, HI, and at Eglin AFB, FL. When I retired from the Air Force we went to Petersburg, VA to live because we had a house there we were unable to sell when I went PCS to Eglin AFB, FL in Jan 1984. In April 2016 we moved to Shalimar, FL because of Nancy's Arthritis and the cold weather in Virginia causing her lots of pain.
Aircraft/Missile Information
From Wikipedia: The F-4 Phantom was designed as a fleet defense fighter for the U.S. Navy, and first entered service in 1960. By 1963, it had been adopted by the U.S. Air Force for the fighter-bomber role. When production ended in 1981, 5,195 Phantom IIs had been built, making it the most numerous American supersonic military aircraft.[7] Until the advent of the F-15 Eagle, the F-4 also held a record for the longest continuous production with a run of 24 years. Innovations in the F-4 included an advanced pulse-doppler radar and extensive use of titanium in its airframe.[8] Despite the imposing dimensions and a maximum takeoff weight of over 60,000 pounds (27,000 kg),[9] the F-4 had a top speed of Mach 2.23 and an initial climb of over 41,000 ft per minute (210 m/s).[10] Shortly after its introduction, the Phantom set 15 world records,[11] including an absolute speed record of 1,606.342 mph (2,585.086 km/h), and an absolute altitude record of 98,557 ft (30,040 m).[12] Although set in 1959?1962, five of the speed records were not broken until 1975 when the F-15 Eagle came into service.[11] The F-4 could carry up to 18,650 pounds (8,480 kg) of weapons on nine external hardpoints, including air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, and unguided, guided, and nuclear bombs.[13] Since the F-8 Crusader was to be used for close combat, the F-4 was designed, like other interceptors of the day, without an internal cannon;[14] In a dogfight, the RIO or WSO (commonly called "backseater" or "pitter") assisted in spotting opposing fighters, visually as well as on radar. It became the primary fighter-bomber of both the Navy and Air Force by the end of the Vietnam War. Due to its distinctive appearance and widespread service with United States military and its allies, the F-4 is one of the best-known icons of the Cold War. It served in the Vietnam War and Arab?Israeli conflicts, with American F-4 crews achieving 277 aerial victories in South East Asia and completing countless ground attack sorties.[15] The F-4 Phantom has the distinction of being the last United States fighter to attain ace status in the 20th century. During the Vietnam War, the USAF had one pilot and two WSOs,[16] and the USN one pilot and one RIO,[17] become aces in air-to-air combat. It was also a capable tactical reconnaissance and Wild Weasel (suppression of enemy air defenses) platform, seeing action as late as 1991, during Operation Desert Storm.[4][5] The F-4 Phantom II was also the only aircraft used by both of the USA's flight demonstration teams.[18] The USAF Thunderbirds (F-4E) and the USN Blue Angels (F-4J) both switched to the Phantom for the 1969 season; the Thunderbirds flew it for five seasons,[19] the Blue Angels for six.[20] The baseline performance of a Mach 2-class fighter with long range and a bomber-sized payload would be the template for the next generation of large and light/middle-weight fighters optimized for daylight air combat. The Phantom would be replaced by the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon in the U.S. Air Force. In the U.S. Navy, it would be replaced by the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18 Hornet which revived the concept of a dual-role attack fighter.[21]
