Post two. Don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Example one. After the initial line check (see above post), a new aircraft commander is assigned a "buddy" ride with an experienced aircraft commander as a copilot. Of course, me, being snake bit, drew as my aircraft commander copilot "buddy", the brand spanking new Squadron Commander! Not good. We went on a relatively short Stateside mission called a special mission. All went well and I got along okay with my new Squadron Commander. After we returned, in the crew bus, he asked me where were the special mission documents. Uh-oh. I had never heard of a special mission document before. He pulled them out and started to explain to me what they were about. Then the loadmaster jumped up and said "so there they are, I have been looking for them the whole flight". It seems our squadron's policy was for the loadmaster to fill them out and we were never briefed on them. Needless to say, the new Squadron Commander had a serious discussion with our Squadron Training department. It wasn't a big deal, but every pilot in the Squadron knew my name.
Example two, BIG DEAL. All aircraft commanders were required to intermittently pull Supervisor of Flying (SOF) which was basically an expediter. He drove around in a car and checked to make sure everything was flowing smoothly; making sure aircraft about to be launch had required fuel, maintenance, etc. I pulled SOF. On my pre-briefing, with the Deputy Chief of Operations (DCO), which was really unusual, I learned that McGuire was expecting an Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI), which was a big deal and affected the evaluation of the top base and wing command. Again, uh-oh. I was told that if I was approached and was instructed about some sort of event, look up what I should do in the SOF instruction book. Okay, I can do that, and I charged off. Sure enough, as I was driving around this full bird colonel waved me down, got into my car and handed me a note. "This is an ORI, at the end of the runway with engines running is a T-29 and it has been high jacked, what are you going to do?" Ah-ha, I told him that I would look it up in my book. So I looked. Hmmmm, nothing on high jacking (did I ever tell you that I was snake bit). So, being a well trained aircraft commander, I told the colonel that, having no guidance, I would rely on my MAC manual 55-1, operating procedure (for aircrew). It said that if an aircraft was high jacked the crew would request (by moving surfaces) for different type of assistance. So I drove out to the runway, and sure enough, a T-29 was setting there with engines running. We sat there for a few minutes awaiting for some clue from the crew when, all of a sudden mayhem broke out, Air Police, fire trucks, ice cream trucks, every thing, came flying all around us. The colonel turned to me and said, do you think that aircraft could have taken off by now. I said, sure, it had plenty of time. He said I am going to call this off before an accident happens. I had a bad feeling about that. We failed the ORI. Needless to say, I visited the DCO again to explain myself. It seems the SOF was supposed to physically prevent a high jacked aircraft from taking off by pulling in front of the nose wheels. Well, of course, since I had not been instructed properly nor was instruction in the book, nothing really happened to me. However, my reputation at the squadron was added to.
I never really trusted that 55-1 any more.
Next Post, some interesting missions.