There was a FS who was also a flight instructor at the east coast A-7 FRS when I went through as a student in '77-'78. He also accompanied our class as a medical observer when we went through SERE school in Brunswick.
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Flight Surgeons Flying?
- Thread starter jf69
- Start date
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
That may have been the one I was thinking of.
I don’t think that was one of the options. A few years ago I helped the webmaster add some AF wings, but never did FS wings.
I flew docs quite a few times during my last active duty tour. Would regularly fly docs on the boat, normally on a tanker line. They had no idea what was going on, other than the emergency items I and others had briefed to them. Not a problem at all, and they were always good for a chat (especially once I tried to sell them on raking in the $$$ on an AME racket), but from an aviator's perspective, it was a single seat flight. Love my docs though......they ride for free in my jet 
A-6 squadron mate of mine did a sea tour as a pilot/LSO, then went to medical school and became a FS. He ended up as an 0-6, fairly high up in the Aero Med world, just retired after 30+ years.
hlg6016
A/C Wings Here
I can recall the Doc going with us on missions for flight hours back in the day, We even took an Air Force FS out in Korea. We had plenty of room so it was not considered a big deal to us. We even brought the Chaplain on a Cubi Pt. mission, that trip got kind of interesting.
I flew several FS at TW-5...all good folks. I preferred to fly with our squadrons own Flight Surgeon as he was a pretty good dude. Every once in a while we'd get a block of FSS's come through. They always wanted to try and hover. Oh for jesus. I'd let that bronco buck for a while and when they were good and sweaty we'd go fly the beach and then hit the hospital route south to north. Easy days. Except for one. I had a dude who would not give up the controls and I'd have to fight through him to keep from dying. After the first time I told him don't do that...give em' up. It happened again and that was the last time...Beach. Hospital route. See ya.
One of the little things that's not written down anywhere but every naval aviator knows it.... any time you're gonna go near a boat, pack a toothbrush and spare skivvies just in case.
And I guess your flight surgeon learned that one too!
I learned this the hard way as a lead-safe in Kingsville. I had been overhead most of the afternoon, had already trapped aboard twice to hot refuel, and was now overhead watching the cones below getting their traps and watching the sun sinking slowly in the west. As it slipped below the horizon, expecting a steer for home plate, I was dumb-founded when the Boss gave me a "Signal Charlie". I was like, "Wait. You don't understand. I'm a lead-safe, not a stud." It was pretty dark when I trapped, and after getting tied down and climbing out, my good friend, the wing LSO, was waiting next to the jet with a big grin on his face. "We got ya!" he said. He explained that they wanted to get an early start the next day, before the shore based outfits would be ready to launch, so they kept a couple of incomplete studs and a lead-safe overnight to facilitate that. So I got to spend a night on the Lady Lex, eating popcorn, watching the evening movie, and retiring to the LSO bunk space for a nite cap.
The lesson echoes elsewhere in aviation. In the airline world, it's, "I'm on reserve. I thought this was going to be a local turn!"
My very first working flight in that job was a deadhead to a Canadian airport to repo an empty plane. But something else was broken on that plane. In hindsight I would have checked out of my commuter hotel but I did have the wherewithal to bring all my stuff with me. My captain, not so much. I was like dude, aren't you the one who's supposed to be mentoring me on this? Poor guy... actually a good guy, really solid. He pulled the epaulettes and wings off his work shirt and he bought beers at the hotel bar. And that is my Thanksgiving story.
I remember we had partial quals with us for an overnight. They got to go out the LSO platform and watch A6s night qual that night, then be a fly on the wall listening to fleet dudes yak uninhibited at midrats. Not to mention getting a thorough debrief from paddles. The next day they preflighted their jets in the hangar deck and rode the elevator with them up to topside, which just feels cool. What an experience they had.
I'm really not trying to hi-jack this thread or trying to outdo you on the story.....but yours reminds me of two stories from my time at "The Show". The first happened during my first month on the line, flying with a VERY senior captain. We walked into the airport hotel at ABQ on a Monday night as the Monday Night Football game was on the the TV at the bar just to the left of the counter as you walked in the front door. The bar patrons were going crazy watching the game - it was obviously very exciting. The captain said screw it, we're watching the end of the game, and proceeded to take off his epaulets and tie, order a beer, and sit down to watch the conclusion - all within view of everyone there. Being the good new hire FO that I was, I followed suit. We didn't realize that several of the bar patrons watching us defrock were HDQ types. Had a nice one-sided conversation with the head of pro-standards after that one.
The other story involved being called out on reserve during my first year to ferry a plane to TRAMCO in Rendon, WA for rework and catch a flight home. Got to the airport, went to the gate where the plane was parked, pre-flighted it, and settled in to wait for the captain to show up. He finally shows up, and I'm not lying, was wearing a pair of shorts and cowboy boots. He was another super senior captain who was called in for an extra-fly, and was a legend around the company. As soon as we got airborne, he unstrapped, climbed out of his seat, said "Wake me when we get there", and proceeded to the back to take a nap. He didn't sleep all the way there, but after dropping the plane off, the TRAMCO people asked if we could stick around, fly a PMCF on a plane, and ferry it back to home base. We made a call to scheduling, got the OK, and spent a couple of extra days there, performing the check and then ferrying the jet back. At least I had packed a bag.