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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