American BS thread

26 yrs active duty AF (Avionics first 4, then Command and Control (Command Post). Retired from AD Nov 2009. I walked back in the door as Civil Service the other end of the hall from the Operations Center...I'm a Load Planner now. Basically figure weight and balance and volume for loading cargo onto various military cargo (C17/C5/C130/KC10) and commercial contract (747/DC6/L100 {stretch C130 civilian model}) aircraft.
I work for the 732d Air Mobility Squadron on Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. We're a tenant unit reporting to Air Mobility Command. Support various missions into/out of/ through Alaska. We also manage supply of all the radar/Missile Defense sites up here. TMI?

 

naw, not too much TMI, wow, so you are in the rear with the gear! Suppose an unbalanced load is a very bad thing for a plane. Had a friend who did fueling at Oakland Internat, told me a story of how some idiot filled the wing tanks wrong and the plane flopped over onto it's right wing and wrecked it. It was probably a 737

 

Yeah ... it's pretty important to do it right.
Over my 26 years, I spent 12 in these "En Route" Squadrons ... mainly doing operations management. I used to interpret (quality check) flight plans and load plans to catch mistakes and get them corrected before we passed them to the aircrews...that skill set enabled me to network into the load planning job. I like it because I was familiar enough with it that the learning curve wasn't huge, but I'm not doing the same thing for another 15-20 years. I was a Superintendent/Senior Controller for the last 15 years of my AD time--sometimes stressful when ops got heavy, and also constantly on an electronic leash to the controllers even when on time off. I'm just a worker bee now...with my retirement check and Civil Service pay, I make more money, than when I was on AD, with about 1/20 the stress. WIN-WIN!

 

That and hey, the Soviets never invaded AK!

 

Hey -- I thanked you for the quote line in my Sig, right? It was the "fake tits and duck lips" that did it for me...I literally LMAO!

 

LOL yeah you did, you guys put the 'Cold" in cold war up there. Funny how there are full grown adults that are old enough to drink that were born after the cold war, i was trying to explain it to my son, the feeling that we could get fried right off of the planet with almost no warning. Back then we lived near the Concord Naval Weapons Station it's nickname was "The fast friendly ammo store", common folklore was that it was #11 on the Soviets 'must nuke" list.

 

Nice pun! For all the worries of the cold war...those were simpler times...and the lines were a lot more clear. This stuff we're into now a days is so political and our primary enemies don't follow the rule book. Oh well...it is what it is. Can't let this fall into a political discussion .

I still remember the day at RAF Mildenhall when I pulled a flight plan for a C5 to fly into and out of Moscow...I actually stared at that plan for 15 seconds or so...thought "When I joined the Air Force I would have pulled this plan for a bomber--never thought I'd pull it for a cargo plane!" It's a moment I've never forgotten. We have seen some shtuf over the last 30 years.

 

Hey how bout Seal Team 6 did it again in Somalia? WOOT! those guys are BAMF for sure

any how gotta knock out for a few hours, catch ya later Rob, thanks for serving BTW!

 

Seal Team 6!

Thanks Bro! I'll catch ya' tomorrow ... might try to rack out for a while myself.

Wanna check out a "BackRack" vendor in A-town in the morning; then gotta go see an AF recruiter with the daughter of a friend...some of those guys are bad as car salesmen...wanna make sure the kid gets a good deal with no surprises.

Sleep well!

 

Good morning, everyone! Off to work now!

 

Mornin' BabyTruck...Have a great day!

 

sorry i saw this in a sig and it made me really hard.

 

You're welcome Zach! See that Chris(acdronin), You could be a slogan writer at some big San Franscisco Ad Agency.

 

Wait a minute Zach, I cut mine down some, who else has it in their sig?

 

Mornin fellas and ladies.

 

Wazzup Chad!

 

My name is Munday....

Hey Moosey, how was everyones weekend?