my first night bombs and rockets hop, june '69

[flaps]

hey, live and learn.
the target certainly did 'hastily depart the complex'.
i think i had 6 hours in the jet.had just figured out how to strap in. was flying with the xo. he had just come off a tour with some saftey dept. in washington. didn't know he wasn't god-like. shit, back then, i thought everybody was god-like.

always wondered about the head work that allowed a summer camp to be constructed next to a bombing range, anyway.
in any case, i'm a bit old to have to worry about looking good.

what i did learn . " ya gotta really watch your stick."

 

[phrogpilot73]

hey, live and learn.

And this statement alone is the biggest difference between "then" and "now". Then? Live and learn. Now? Hope you like making big rocks into small ones...

 

[flaps]

concur

i don't even remember getting yelled at.

you guys are smarter but i think we probably had more fun.

hey, phrog. looks like you wern't born then.
shit, your skipper probably wasn't even born then.

i started to order some viagra but i couldn't remember what it was for.

 

[Flugelman]

i started to order some viagra but i couldn't remember what it was for.

Heh. Doc's got me on a quarter pill... Just enuf to keep from pissing on my shoes.:icon_tong:icon_smil

 

[Fog]

You're a big man to tell that story. It's always difficult to divulge our "aw shit" moments.

P.S. Flaps, we had to have had more fun: who can ever forget (a) unbriefed ACM against anybody you encounter in the air and (b) launching VFR and going anywhere in the country you chose that day.

 

[twobecrazy]

View attachment 12883

hey, live and learn.
the target certainly did 'hastily depart the complex'.
i think i had 6 hours in the jet. was flying with the xo. he had just come off a tour with some saftey dept. in washington. didn't know he wasn't god-like. shit, back then, i thought everybody was god-like.

always wondered about the head work that allowed a summer camp to be constructed next to a bombing range, anyway.
in any case, i'm a bit old to have to worry about looking good.

JC... I couldn't imagine the "pucker" factor once you found out that you were bombing or shooting rockets at campers!

 

[coolhandlukesd]

I am sure someone has a kick ass camping story to tell.... "It would probably start like this No shit! this really happened! You see, back in the day we where roasting some marshmallows then all of a sudden......................" :icon_lol:

 

[Catmando]

About a year later I remember somebody 'plastering' Plaster City with those horrific blue-bombs-of-death. Fortunately, no one was hurt and minimal damage.

The same summer, one went through some guy's camper. He got a brand new camper, and a lot of spending money for that.

 

[wplax26]

This is why I was never brave enough to camp or hike at Eglin!! I loved figuring out what the rumbling sounds at night were after living nearby for almost two months!

 

[zipmartin]

.......... I remember somebody 'plastering' Plaster City with those horrific blue-bombs-of-death.........

Early one Saturday morning, during an El Centro Weps Det long ago, on a 4-plane blue-bomb flight over to either Rakish Litter or Kitty Baggage (don't remember which one, but both were uncontrolled) we made the standard low pass to clear the target area before we commenced our runs. Right in the middle of the Bull was a tent that had been pitched late the previous evening 'cause it surely t'weren't there the day before. We did have fun making numerous high-speed, low-passes as the inhabitants scrambled to break camp and high-tail-it out o' there. We all had a CEP of zero that day........zero blue-bombs-of-death dropped.

 

[Catmando]

Tins

I once flew a test project out of Eglin AFB. We were testing dropping ASW sonobuoys from an A-4 at high speed (400 kts +) with newly designed parachutes.

The engineers and high-speed camera folks were all positioned on a large ocean platform just off the coast of Panama City. I was to fly by at about 1,000ft/400kts past the platform and drop the test buoys.

Unfortunately the ocean platform must have been a great fishing hole, as it was surrounded with many boats. We had put out Notice to Mariners, and the project engineers with loud speakers tried to get the fishermen to leave. They warned them about the dangerous testing. But the buttwipes still would not leave.

So........ I decided to do the test anyway, to get their attention, except at a slightly safer distance. (Didn't want to kill anybody) I dropped the 1st sonobuoy as planned. But it's drag chute failed. The sonobuoy then went tumbling, bouncing, and skipping over the water like throwing stones on a lake, with the fishermen looking on.

I will never forget it! As I pulled up and looked back over my shoulder, it looked like one of those time-lapse photos of a flower blooming. Speedboat wakes were spreading out in all directions, away from the platform. And hoops and hollers were heard from our engineers on the platform over the UHF.

We had the platform all to ourselves for the rest of the day with no more visitors!

 

[Flugelman]

We had the platform all to ourselves for the rest of the day with no more visitors!

Nobody ever 'splained it that way to them before...:icon_tong

 

[nittany03]

Cat admits to driving a Scooter. Wait till A4s gets here . . .

 

[Gatordev]

"Closed Thread?" Cat, that wasn't your comeback was it?

 

[Catmando]

"Closed Thread?" Cat, that wasn't your comeback was it?

No, that was not by my hand, nor do I know who did, or the reason why.