Were you ever in the Armed Forces

[Q-RTF-X]

Air Cadets 1957/58
Joined RAF as a Boy Entrant Armament Mechanic February 1958
Subsequently served at following locations .........
RAF Scampton 1960/61 - 617 Squadron Vulcan B Mk 1,1a and 2
RAF Akrotiri (Cyprus) 1961/1964 Armament Squadron / Station Instrument Training Flight Canberra T4 / Visiting Aircraft (all types)
RAF Wattisham 1964/1966 / Red Top and Firestreak Missile Servicing
RAF Masirah (Oman) 1966/67 General Armament work plus transit aircraft servicing (most frequently Hawker Hunter types)
RAF Valley 1968/70 Strike Command Missile Practice Camp / Various posts associated with live firing of Firestreak and Red Top missiles from Lightning aircraft
RAF Aktotiri (Cyprus) 1970/73 56 Squadron / Line Servicing Lightning Aircraft becoming Line Service Shift Boss
RAF Chivenor Line Service team Hawker Hunter aircraft
__________________________________________________

After RAF worked briefly in Saudi Arabia on Lightning F56 and T54 aircraft then in Dubai on various fixed and rotary wing types; Transitioning from Aircraft Engineer into Flight Operations (Licenced FAA Aircraft Dispatcher). Later becoming involved with establishing arrangements (Ground Handling/Crew Passenger Requirements/Overflight Landing Permits/Fuel etc.) for Corporate Aircraft based in various Asian locations. Now semi-retired in the Philippines doing occasional Consulting work and looking after Pigs at my 3 acre small-holding.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool!

 

[RabidAlien]

Welcome aboard, Q!

 

[usafmsgtret]

United States Air Force
Avionics Communication/Navigation Systems Technician
1973-1993

 

[RabidAlien]

Welcome aboard!

 

[mikewint]

In short:
basic at Ft. Ord . . . 1963
Medic training at Ft, Sam Huston
8th Field Hospital Na Trang, Vietnam
Hearts Minds Medic N. Highlands, Vietnam
Special Forces School at Ft. Bragg
Airborne School at Ft. Benning
Two Tours Vietnam
Discharge in 1968

 

[vikingBerserker]

Nice.

 

[mikewint]

vikingB,
thank you, i understand your meaning, and i do sincerely thank you but, without any offence to you, my tours were many things but nice is not one of them. it screwed my head up for many years and my reception when i returned was even worse. those five years cost me every friend i ever had. even my parents were not sure on how to receive their "baby-killer" son
i'm just coming to terms with everything 50 years later. thank god that soldiers today are geting just a bit of what they are due

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

vikingB,

i'm just coming to terms with everything 50 years later. thank god that soldiers today are geting just a bit of what they are due

I agree. I am happy that when I came home, I was at least not called a "Baby Killer". For the most part veterans today are respected.

 

[RabidAlien]

I can't even pretend to understand what y'all went through, so with all respect, to Mike and Chris:

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Others went through much much more, compared to what I did, but thanks.

 

[RabidAlien]

Others went through much much more, compared to what I did, but thanks.

Heh. And as I tell all the other vets I get to talk to, "I'll thank them, too, as I find them."

 

[mikewint]

alien/eagle, many thanks to both you. i am very proud to have been a member of the 5th, proud of what we tried to do with the Nungs and Yards, i'm not proud of the US press who cost us the war through their one sides reporting and our ambassador sullivan to whom political was more important than US lives

 

[BorderWarrior]

12 years Royal Air Force Logistics, loved my time in there, Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, various trips around the world, would do it all again!

 

[RabidAlien]

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

mikewint... Welcome home. My dad was in Vietnam also for two tours. I remember both of his homecomings and the homecomings of others. He was based in Da Nang and flew Cobras. He has since passed back in 2002. Agent Orange finally got him. Since then I have always made it a point to welcome home all vets, especially from Vietnam...

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Greetings Borderwarrior and welcome to the forum.

 

[mikewint]

night fighter, thank you sir, cobra gunships were new by the time i left, mechs were doing everything they could to arm standard Hueys, initially with just M-60s hung by bungee cords. agent orange alone would not have been all that bad except it was used in 5X to 10 times the listed concentration. i understand that the da nang area was pretty heavily hit. my sympathy on the loss of your dad

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Thanks, by the way I have taken his 8mm film he took during his tours and put them into DVD format. A lot of interesting shots although they are not always clear. He was an infantry officer during his first tour. He told me he hated that tour because there were many instances they were not allowed to shoot back. He told me his second tour as a cobra pilot was better not only because he could shoot back, but he could make up for those times he wasn't allowed to shoot. Said he was shot up a lot but never shot down.

 

[BorderWarrior]

Greetings Borderwarrior and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for that!