So What's Your Story?

[Tieleader]

I have been avidly reading Bill Runnels' stories of his experiences and been thoroughly entertained and educated by a member of the "greatest generation" . Having worked the airshow circuits for a couple of years with various 4th FG pilots I have been blessed with more stories than I can ever remember and never even seen in print anywhere.
I would ask some of our forum members who have served (any country, any branch,any time) to share some of their funniest / scariest / memorable / unusual tales with the rest of us civilians!

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Who wants to go first? Nobody? Okay, I'll get it started. This one's not a happy story.
One week in 1972, we were visited by a detachment of TF-9Js from an advanced training squadron who had been displaced from the bombing ranges at Pinecastle and Eglin they normally used by (we found out later) rehearsals for the Son Tay prison raid.
Anyway one of the planes returned from an ordnance drop syllabus flight a little bit heavy on fuel, and decided to shoot a few touch and goes.
Just as they were lifting off, the engine flamed out and they flopped back on the runway just in front of the overrun arresting gear, but didn't get the hook down in time, and the instructor initiated ejection. The seats flew up 400-500 ft and the pilots separated safely from the seats, but the student's chute never deployed, and he fell like a limp rag doll into the mangroves beyond the runway. When they found him he was in a deep mangrove pool with his head above water and 25+ feet of soft mangrove canopy overhead. He had no broken bones and no signs of impact trauma, and the flight surgeons determined he must have suffered cardiac arrest when he realized that his chute wasn't going to open. The nicopress fitting on the seat's parachute deployment lanyard had failed.
The instructor, a second tour Vietnam combat vet, was so distraught from the experience that he had to be taken off flight status, and eventually resigned his commission (I'm told).
-Wes

 

[billrunnels]

I have been avidly reading Bill Runnels' stories of his experiences and been thoroughly entertained and educated by a member of the "greatest generation" . Having worked the airshow circuits for a couple of years with various 4th FG pilots I have been blessed with more stories than I can ever remember and never even seen in print anywhere.
I would ask some of our forum members who have served (any country, any branch,any time) to share some of their funniest / scariest / memorable / unusual tales with the rest of us civilians!

I would like to hear them as well.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Served for 6 years in the US Army as a UH-60 Blackhawk Crew Chief. Spent my whole time stationed in Germany, with a 10 month deployment to Kosovo, and a 1 year deployment to Iraq. I have some stories somewhere, and I will think of some good ones to post here when I get back home next week. Still visiting family in Germany at the moment, so I am not on here as much as I normally am. Family comes first.

 

[Tieleader]

Thanks for the start guys! XBeO2Drvr, didn't feel it appropriate to give your story a "like" because of the sad reality but my thanks for sharing in any event. I don't think most people realize that the military life can be deadly even in peaceful times. BTW whats a TF-9J ? Don't remember that one.
DerAdler looking forward to your experiences (and hopefully more pixs! ).

 

[XBe02Drvr]

BTW whats a TF-9J ?

It was the last serving version of the Korean War F9F Panther, seen in the great flick, "The Bridges at Toko Ri", made from the Michener novel of the same name inspired by the actual bridges at Koto Ri that survived repeated attacks and continued to carry supplies to the Chinese invasion forces.
The straight wing Panther evolved into the swept wing Cougar, which when it was retired from front line service, was rebuilt as a two seater and soldiered on well into the 70s with Training Command. In 1972 it was a relic of 1st generation jet technology with its centrifugal flow engine and interminable spool up times, and the students and instructors who were stuck with it envied their colleagues who were sent to training squadrons that used the TA-4J. The one modern thing it did have was a zero-zero ejection seat, without which the episode in the story would have been a double tragedy. Google image it. It's actually a kind of graceful looking bird, in a chubby 1950s sort of a way.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[Tieleader]

It was the last serving version of the Korean War F9F Panther, seen in the great flick, "The Bridges at Toko Ri", made from the Michener novel of the same name inspired by the actual bridges at Koto Ri that survived repeated attacks and continued to carry supplies to the Chinese invasion forces.
The straight wing Panther evolved into the swept wing Cougar, which when it was retired from front line service, was rebuilt as a two seater and soldiered on well into the 70s with Training Command. In 1972 it was a relic of 1st generation jet technology with its centrifugal flow engine and interminable spool up times, and the students and instructors who were stuck with it envied their colleagues who were sent to training squadrons that used the TA-4J. The one modern thing it did have was a zero-zero ejection seat, without which the episode in the story would have been a double tragedy. Google image it. It's actually a kind of graceful looking bird, in a chubby 1950s sort of a way.
Cheers,
Wes

Cougar I knew. Didn't know about the trainer version though. The swollen nose definitely changes the lines of the original single-seater !