This may be a little too much for some people.
In 1980, fresh out of tech school, 328×1, I was sent to England AFB, the Flying Tigers. My trainer, SSgt Carter was a pretty cool guy, I shadowed him for a few weeks as he did his job, he taught me things like “don’t walk behind a running jet”, “don’t walk in front of a running jet”, “don’t sit in a cockpit seat that doesn’t have a safety pin”. Besides teaching me how too stay alive, he taught me my job.
It was maybe 2 months later when we got a “Red Ball”. SSgt Carter sends me out, by myself, an 18 year old Airman, 2 months out of tech school to take care of it. SSgt Carter just told me you can do it so I went and did it.
Those of you who don’t work on aircraft may not understand what a “Red Ball” is. A Red Ball is a problem with an aircraft that will not be able to perform it’s mission without repairs to the problem system, the aircraft is usually running and has a pilot ready to take off. The Air Force hates when scheduled flights, sorties, do not fly. There’s a lot of pressure to fix the jet but you don’t have a lot of time.
I was scared shitless but fixed the jet and he took off on time. After he took off, he did a flyby, did a little wing waggle. 40 something years later I still remember that moment of self pride, this insecure, 18 year old kid made that flight happen. Come to find out that it was the Wing Commander’s jet.
Nothing happened afterwards other than a new sense of self confidence that I never had before. That self confidence is still pretty damn strong in me 40 something years later.
Darryl Carter, thank you for what you did for me. Of course we have more history than our first few months, thank you for saving me from the wash rack for quite some time, sorry that we got busted smuggling pineapples from Hawaii, the chief only got 1 right?
submitted by /u/Steamer61
[link] [comments]
