Didn't the reference to the double-digit midget Vietnam-era crew chief sound
a little awkward? It sounds a little disrespectful to me. I believe Juan's
story, but the crew chief reference reminds me of when people add a little
jargon or colorful characters to give credibility to a lie.
This is best described in a scene from Reservoir Dogs:
"The things you gotta remember are the details. It's the details that sell
your story. Now this story takes place in this men's room. So you gotta
know the details about this men's room. You gotta know they got a blower
instead of a towel to dry your hands. You gotta know the stalls ain't got
no doors. You gotta know whether they got liquid or powdered soap, whether
they got hot water or not, 'cause if you do your job when you tell your
story, everybody should believe it. And if you tell your story to somebody
who's actually taken a **** in this men's room, and you get one detail they
remember right, they'll swear by you."
"Juan Jimenez" wrote in message
.. .
There is no "link" for that. There was no consumer "internet" at the time.
You'll have to go to the squadron to find the records, assuming they still
have them, otherwise you'll have to ask the Marine Corps to check their
archives. I don't know how long they keep records locally.
The story is this: At 9pm I was working night duty in the avionics shop.
We were scheduled to go home on standby at about that time and were about
to cleanup and turn in our tools when the hanglar claxon went off and the
PA system announced the usual "Launch Pedro!". Pedro was the codename for
whatever helo was the duty bird. So, myself and my sidekick sat down to
wait, because if the bird was going out we had to stay in case it came
back with squawks.
Not more than 2 minutes later we get an intercom call to go to the
aircraft. So we run out there, and we can see the APU is running but no
lights. I go inside and gesture to the crew chief and he points to the
lights ... no power. I checked the obvious things, and nothing, so I
turned around to my sidekick, the slowest kid in the shop, and asked him
if they had done anything to do the bird that day. Changed the APU, he
said. D-oh. Ok, did you check it when you were done rewiring it? No. No??
Did you bother to run it up? No. Why not? I'm not checked out. (It takes a
short check and two switches to turn on the APU on an CH-46A... that
should give you the picture.)
So, I turned around and dropped the upper rear clamshell a bit, raised the
lower one to just a few inches under, and carefully slid up to the running
APU. I removed the small plastic cover over the wires and immediately saw
what was wrong. Wiring becomes somewhat brittle over the years, and when
its put back on the wrong way it's rather obvious because of the way it
looks. So I switched the two incorrectly installed wires, replaced the
cover, safety wired it, checked for loose safety wire, inventoried tools
and slid back down.
I tell the CC to fire up the power and even though its dark and he's
wearing a helmet, he gives me one of these "Are you out of your ****ing
mind?" looks. I repeat the hand gesture to power up, he talks with the
crew up front, I can see them looking back from the cockpit, so I walk up,
asked for permission to turn on power, they sort of nodded and I did.
Power came right back up. Big smiles in the cockpit.
I went back to finish up with the crew chief (who had another huge smile
on his face). Just then I realized why he had a huge smile. Two ambulances
came roaring down the ramp and parked right behind the helo. Out came a
woman in a stretcher, clearly in distress. Behind her came a portable
incubator with a preemie. The woman had just given birth and was
hemorraghing, they were on the way to Lejeune because that's where the big
hospital was located.
We got off and the helo fired up its engines and roared off into the night
sky. Came back with no squawks, so we went home. The next day the Vietnam
vet crew chief (and senior crew chief in the squadron) told everyone in
the squadron I knew my **** down cold and he'd trust me to work on
anything with a wire on his bird. I already had the ability to do just
that, but that one compliment made my whole year. Doesn't happen very
often.
Within weeks I got my best eval ever and had my txfr request out of NC
approved, to California. The rest is history, and records from that day
will verify everything happened exactly as I state here.
And yes, both the mom and the child were OK, I just never heard from them
again.
"Scott" wrote in message
.. .
Thanks for the link. However, I was unable to find a reference to the
"medevac mission in 1981 involving a mom who had just
given birth and was hemorraging, and the preemie to which she had just
given birth. Then check out the comments of the (at the time,
double-digit midget) Vietnam-vet crew chief on the aircraft that took
them from Cherry Point to the main hospital at Lejeune."
It sounds like it might be interesting reading...
Scott
Juan Jimenez wrote:
I doubt you will find a URL. SOES is the Station Operations and
Engineering Squadron. I worked there from 1979 to 1981 maintaining their
CH-46A SAR birds.
Oh, wait a sec. I see why you can't find it. It's been renamed and is
now VMR-1.
http://www.cherrypoint.usmc.mil/mcabe/vmr1/vmr1.asp
Look at the history page, you'll see this is what used to be SOES.
They now have HH-46D's. Looks like they finally upgraded sometime after
I left for MCAS(H) Tustin in Southern California and was assigned to
HMM-161 until I got out in 1982. They are also listed as having UC-12B
King Air's, but that's not what we had when I was there, back then they
had Piper Apache's, I forget the designationm U-something too. There
were rumors they were going to be replaced with the King Air's but when
I left they had not arrived. We already had the C-9B's and we also had
some T-39 Sabreliners for VIP transport.
This was our hangar. I assume it still is, there's one of the C-9B
sitting at its usual parking spot on the ramp.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...06781&t=k&om=1
This is a picture I took on the ramp in 1981, if I remember correctly.
Been a while. Look at the discussion page for the image, a Marine who
currently
works for VMR-1 saw it and commented on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CH46-At-SOES.jpg
Juan
"Scott" wrote in message
.. .
Can you provide a link URL? I searched on the MCAS Cherry Point Website
with no luck (since I don't know what SOES is...searching with that
turned
up a Sony Online Entertainment tribute). Searching with your name only
turned up 3 hits...all in 2003-2004.
Scott
Juan Jimenez wrote:
Tell you what, if you ever grow balls large enough, go check the
records
of SOES, circa 1979 through 1981, at MCAS Cherry Point. In fact, check
out the records of a medevac mission in 1981 involving a mom who had
just
given birth and was hemorraging, and the preemie to which she had just
given birth. Then check out the comments of the (at the time,
double-digit midget) Vietnam-vet crew chief on the aircraft that took
them from Cherry Point to the main hospital at Lejeune.
Go ahead, putz. I dare ya. But don't worry, I don't hold my breath for
all bark, no bite keyboard cowards like you. 
--
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