More airplane stuff........Part Seven

[Jbird]

Riley ane his helpers were buttoning up the cowling on #2 and we could see a fuel truck approaching from down ramp. Up ramp we could see that the diplomatic foo-fa-raa was breaking up. Good timing. Things were looking up. We were getting into the short rows now. The flight engineer was getting ready to top off our fuel tanks.

I listened in to a group of guys gathered around the Co-pilot. He was saying that he had been located out in front of the airplane with a dead on view of just how close the mustang had passed over the wing of our airplane on the first two passes. It was his opinion that Riley was perfectly positioned up on that wing to come nose to nose with the mustang's propeller if the mustang had made the same third pass. WHAP!! He emphasized the sound by whacking his right fist into his left palm. "There wouldn't have been enough to send home in an envelope," he said.

I closed my eyes and used a forfinger to peel another layer of sweat off my forhead and let my imagination take over. I could see myself parking my old car in front of Rileys house. His kids would be playing in the front yard and I would throw the football around with them for a little while before knocking on his front door. His wife Linda would open the door, give me a big smile and say, "J, its so good to see you. Come on in and visit."

Then I would say, "Aw, I would like to, Linda, but you know how it is, busy, busy, busy. I just thought I would drop by and return whats left of Riley to you. Sorry we couldn't find any more. We had to scrape this off the forehead of a kid named Squeaky." And I would take the envelope out of my shirt pocket and hand it to her.

Then she would say, "Ohhhh, that is soooo sweet of you."

And I would say, "Aw, well, you know me, always diplomatic and thoughtful."

"What are you smiling about," I heard a voice say and my eyes snapped open and Stomp was nose to nose with me. "We aint got time for you to stand around grinning. Lets get this show on the road."

So I started walking fast, cutting circles, and breathing hard and shouting unnecessary orders like a good sargeant should and pretty soon the old Providers engines were throbbing and we loaded everything and everybody in over the tailgate and started rolling.

Riley had a satisfied smile on his face as the old bird thundered down the runway and clawed its way into the sweet smelling air of freedom. His engines were percolating. There are different ways to compliment a man. I got my own way. I slapped him on the shoulder and said, "You are a sorry axx," and he replied, "takes one to know one."

After we gained altitude a couple of El Sombrero mustangs eased up with us, one on each wing, and flew with us for awhile. What a beautiful sight. Our old Provider might be an ugly duckling of an airplane but she had her head up and was flying proud. The mustangs eased forward untill all pilots could make eye contact and they exchanged salutes before the mustangs peeled off. Crazy bunch, them pilots.

Not bad, Not bad at all, everything considered, in spite of all the extra curricular activities. I caught Squeaky looking across the cargo deck at me. I smiled and shot him the bird. He grinned his goofy grin and shot it right back at me. All was well. All hands going home.

 

[Wayne in BC]

Thanks for a helluva ride Sarge! I won't forget this story soon, gonna send it to a buddy who was a Flt Sgt

 

[VT Dave]

that can't be the end to this story.... but, if it is, it sure was a good one. Dang if I didn't enjoy readin it!!!

Thanx Jbird!

 

[Ron J]

n/t

 

[Jbird]

I guess I could tell you about the Squeaks escapades in the Panama City cat house but........naawww......better not.

 

[Sunny]

for some reason our oldest son who is in Kosovo, has had the nickname of Squeaks since he was in ROTC in High School. NEver knew why, and was too scared to ask! I still don't think I will ever ask! Some things a mom just doesn't need to know!

Great Series, Jbird! I enjoyed all that I could understand, and I'm just a girl! Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this for us!

 

[Wayne in BC]

n/t

 

[Jbird]

Most nicknames are obvious. Like mine and big footed Stomp and Squeaky with his squeaky voice which just seemed to fit in with a kind of naive inexperience. It was just natural for us to tease him, he was quite a bit younger than the rest of us, but we were ready to lay down our lifes for him when the guntoters got after him. We didnt know their guns were not loaded at the time. Boy did we make a good story out of that though. Some said Squeaky was laying under there speaking every spanish word he knew, like nachos, tacos, enchilada,s, guacomole, etc. To me it just sounded like the sounds you would get if someone was jumping up and down on rusty mattress springs, squeak, squeak, squeak.

 

[Jbird]

Your buddy might recognize himself somewhere in there.

 

[VT Dave]

Jbird, that was one great series. Thanks for sharing your escapades with us. Do you ever hook up with ony of your old crew?

Dave

 

[Rob/Windsor Ont.]

I found myself looking for another part to this tale upon every morning return from work. I can't put into words just how much I enjoyed this story ! Your writing efforts are much appreciated and your writing style is greatly admired. I'll gladly read more of your tales.....anytime,.....anyplace ! Many thanks,

Rob

 

[Sunny]

a very deep voice! So again, I guess best not to act. You know, you and your buddies had a very special bond, and that is such a good thing, especially in wartime.

Did you keep in touch with each other???

 

[Jbird]

Writing this up was kind of fun.....brought back a lot of memories I had not thought of for years.

 

[Jbird]

between military members. Also groups in some other professions like police and firefighters. Maybe shared dangers makes for more intense relationships.

In SOF, there were lots of little groups quickly formed up for a job like this one (5 days) or just a few weeks. Often, all were strangers, you just grabbed the particular skills you needed for the job from where ever you could get them. Riley and Lt. Bond were the only ones I knew well out of this group. Everyone is trying to fit in to get the work done and you can find yourself forming a good relationship with someone that, under more normal times, you might not have liked at all. Of course, you could have the opposite happen where some people just struck sparks off one another and that could get interesting. On this trip, the flight engineer was a standoffish guy that didnt mesh in with the rest of the little group but he was sharp at his job so no big deal.

 

[Royal]

that is what we called the Marines back then, maybe they still do I was stationed at Cherry Point NC. So was Fred I think.

I didn't see it but one morning the word went around that some guy walking guard duty on the flight line, around the planes, had been killed.

We had a bunch of old AD's. One heck of a fighter in its day. The way I got the story was that this guard was walking around, his mind a thousand miles away like mine has been on guard, when he walked into a prop on a plane that was running up.

The way I got it was the way they found out it happened, this was at night, was his face was thrown to the feet of another guard, off a ways. His face or the front of his head or something.

I was a Jet Mechanic and had worked on AD's, even though they were piston poppers and for the life of my I can not understand how the heck that could have happened. Those suckers are noisy but there were a couple running up and he must have been distracted.

I never saw it but that has bothered me for about 48 years now.

I really enjoyed your story Jbird and appreciate your efforts for our enjoyment. You have the skills of a true writer

 

[Jbird]

....can strike so unexpectedly. A simple misstake around powerful machinery is final. I was frequently asked to form little groups for different jobs. You ask for volunteers and then someone gets killed because of some old flukey deal. I always felt responsible to a certain degree even though I didnt personally do anything to lead to his death. But when a dead mans wife beat me in the chest in the middle of the post exchange and accused me of killing her husband just as sure as if I put a gun to his head and pulled a trigger myself, it left a deep scar. That man was "Riley"s best friend and even he gave me more blame for that than I thought he should and I resented the heck out of that. He is the one who started the "jinx" stuff and it was making it hard for me to ask for "volunteers". With your military experience, you know what it means to be jinxed. He was a step forward kind of guy though and boy could he keep those old recip engines purring and was worth his weight in gold in certain circumstances and I figured I needed him on this job. I never took him on any more though.

 

[Wayne in BC]

as i know the feeling well. It matters not to rumor mongers that a leader has no control over unforeseen accidents or stupidity and even though a person has not been seen to be negligent, the smear will often stick.
Seems like some folk never "graduate" from "common sense" school.

 

[Jbird]

That was just some guys jerked together for about 5 days. I had worked a couple of jobs with the Riley character before and Lt Bond and I were in the same out fit at that time but everyone else came from different shops and sections on the base. We would pass and say howdy now and then around base but people were always shipping in and out and on each little quicky job like that one it was just grab what people you could at the time and head out. Within a month of this job, I was on my way to work a C-47 gunship training job in Laos and when I returned to home base 6 months later, lots of guys had shipped out and new guys come in. Fleeting relationships but they could be intense sometimes.

 

[JB(MS)]

That is one more great story Jbird. You missed your calling, you should have been a writer.

 

[JB(MS)]

I was working for a government contractor at Pensacola Naval Air Station painting one the barracks the OCS guys were housed in. Right across the street was a museum that had, among other things, airplanes dating to the WW I biplanes. Everyday some guys would fire some of them up and let them run for a few minutes. One day they were starting up the old prop planes and one of the guys, the one who spun the propeller, dropped something, turned and bent to pick it up. He was too close and the prop cut the cheeks of his butt off. We heard the sirens and saw the ambulance but didn't know what happened until one of civil service guys came over and told us.