The 'Story Book' is dedicated to all the men and women who served in the Air Force with the FB-111A and later, F-111G. If you have some stories you would like to see in the Storybook, e-mail the webmaster.
"Pease AFB Alert Story" We had to take an FB off alert uploaded with nukes to the line for some reason. Tom Finch and John Loret went to alert to get it. They towed it to the alert fence throat. Myself and somebody else I can't remember who wing walked after it came through the gates. Just as we get it to the spot all hell breaks loose!! Apparently they never took it off the "Ops 380" and put it on a "Maintenance 380" !!! The radios come alive that it is still on "ops 380", SPS start flying in from everywhere !! As soon as I heard the radio calls and see the SPS coming from a distance I new we were in big trouble. So,I lingered to the near by FB and pretended I am working on it !!! The SPS arrive and march everyone but me with their hands up in the air away from the airplane and across the red line to the access road and make them eat cement!! According to Loret he wouldn't keep his hands where the SPS wanted them and Finch kept yelling at him " That he was gonna get them fucken shot !!! Like loyal crew dawgs, they never gave me up and I got to watch the whole thing go down from a distance in RED 2 !! Eventually they cleared it up and all was good. How many people can say they almost got away with GTA of a fully "COCKED" nuclear FB-111A off alert !!!??? (J.B.)
"Incentive Flight-101" I flew a bunch of these incentive flights in the mid-late 70s and as I recall, the first one of them was flown by the late Major James "Red" Cecil in 1974.The established procedure was for the IP and the incentive rider to meet at the simulator on the day prior to the flight and go through a simulator flight. This was necessary as it really isn't possible for someone to just ride in the airplane. There are some controls and switches that can only be reached from either the right or left seats. During this indoctrination it was common to feel the rider out as to what he would like to see and then tailor the approximate 30-4o minute flight to meet these desires as much as possible. Red's guy wanted to see the airplane burning and turning.Perhaps the best analogy to a fighter ride (for the uninitiated) is to consider going into the hospital for surgery. Most folks being wheeled into the operating room are a bit uncomfortable with all of the procedures involved while the medical folks are quite comfortable in this environment. After all, this is their office. Similarly, the FB-111 cockpit was Red's office and he was quite comfortable there. It didn't occur to him that the Crew Chief now occupying the right seat might not share his delight in pulling Gs and engaging in rapid rolls. The result was that Red's guy barfed all over himself. Pulling back into the chocks the aircraft was met by the Wing King, DM and Crew Chief's wife. Following this embarrassment, Red and I spent a bit of time working out a general routine that demonstrated much of the aircraft's performance envelope without subjecting a person to very high G forces or rapid rolling maneuvers. I don't think we had another case of airsickness on our watch. (E.M.)
'The Tiger's suicide" Early in 1976 (I cannot recall the exact date), I showed up early for work one morning and happened to look in the briefing room and discovered our Tiger missing from the plexiglass cage where it always resided. On the floor were a set of paw prints that led out the other door and across the hallway to a latrine. I followed the prints into a toilet stall where they ended and I discovered a suicide note taped to the toilet bowl that said something like it can't take it anymore with the 393rd. It was obvious that the personnel of our rival squadron, the 715th B.S. which had no mascot, had kidnapped the Tiger. A large article appeared in the 'The Seacoast Flyer' , the base newspaper, about the Tiger's suicide.The crafty members of the 715th of course denied any knowledge of the Tiger's disappearance and claimed that it was truly a suicide by a very unhappy Tiger. I sat down with our Operations officer and the flight commanders of the squadron to map out a strategy of how we were to react and to get back the Tiger as soon as possible. It was our consensus to ignore the subject entirely figuring that our seeming disinterest would drive the kidnappers crazy. We took the tack that the Tiger was a mess anyhow (which it was) and the squadron personnel really were glad to be rid of it anyhow. This was a bold-face lie but we felt we had to proceed this way and deny the culprits with the satisfaction of taking advantage of our grief. We were right. Pretty soon everyone lost interest in the loss of the Tiger. No pressure was put on me by the DO or the Wing Commander or higher headquarters to get back the Tiger so the whole thing just disintegrated. Now we had the personnel of the 715th wondering what they were going to do with a moth-eaten Tiger sitting in one of their members basement. You can just hear the wife of the kidnapper asking when were they going to get rid of that damned thing down there.As luck would have it, they were given the opportunity of saving face by returning the Tiger to the 393rd on the occasion of a farewell party, given for me, at the Pease Officer's Club on my reassignment to Korea. Bald-faced 715th personnel, who had always stuck to the suicide idea, now brought the Tiger to my farewell party and presented it to me. I imagine that they were really relieved at getting rid of it. In presenting the Tiger they tacitly were admitting that the suicide story was concocted by them. We, on the other hand, had proof that there was no suicide and that the Tiger really loved his role as our mascot. I was really relieved to see that the Tiger is still the mascot and stationed at Whiteman. May he always rule. (D.N.)
"The first female Crew Chief" Well . . . I was on alert along with the first female Crew Chief (I think the first), Airman Marsha Carver during her first tour of alert. As a matter of fact, I believe she was the first female (of either the officer or enlisted persuasion) to stand alert at Pease.There had been considerable discussion of how we would handle the issue of living in such close proximity with women, and avoid the sexual encounters that could have destroyed unit cohesiveness. The whole thing was handled in a very low key way by the DO, Col. Robert Voelker. There was a brief announcement that there would be a female Crew Chief on this tour and that a sign had been placed on one of the latrines that would allow it to rotate from male to female usage. Life on alert went on as usual and over time, more and more women joined the Alert Force. Incidentally, I used to love to fly Marsha's aircraft because it was one of the best maintained airplanes in the fleet.Airman Carver was an approximately 20 year old (and rather attractive) blond. She was small, even for a woman, and probably weighed 110 pounds soaking wet. One of the tasks of all Crew Chiefs was the positioning of ground power carts. The Dash 60 power cart used by the FB weighed almost as much as a small car. The cart had an electric drive that could be used to make it move around much like a power driven lawn mower, but most of the drives were inoperative because they weren't maintained. Airman Carver quickly learned how to repair these drives as she simply didn't have the mass to horse them around the ramp. It seemed that each time she would get one of the drives working, the power cart would be reassigned to some other (read male) Crew Chiefs.One day after she had fixed a half dozen drives only to have the cart reassigned she was stopped on the ramp by the DM who asked her how things were going. She read him the riot act about the reassignment of the carts she had repaired. I think she never had another cart she had repaired reassigned. (E.M.)
"Start and taxi" We found this hilarious at the time, but you might not think so today. At Pease and Plattsburgh during an alert force engine start the crew chiefs would stand on a yellow square outside of the shelter to the pilot's left and face the aircraft making eye contact with the pilot. This act told the pilot that the aircraft was clear for taxi and that the crew chief was prepared to marshall the pilot out into the stream of taxing aircraft. The crew chief knew that his bird would taxi if the anti-collision beacon came on..not all engine starts meant a taxi. Well, the checklist was rewritten so the beacon was always on. In a crew meeting a bright young crew chief got up and asked the Wing Commander (Col Sam Swart.who later became a Maj Gen..think of a cross between Robt Mitchum and Don Rickels) "Sir, now how will we know if you're going to taxi?" Swart got real steely eyed, and w/o missing a beat said "Son, the airplane's gonna get bigger!" I'm telling you the crew force had tears running down our cheeks we were laughing so hard. Knowing Col Swart, I'm sure he later put his arm around the young troop and made him feel better. (D.W.)
"Apple juice" Red had been scheduled to fly on the night before his annual Flight Physical. He and his Navigator got as far as Base Operations when they learned that their aircraft was not ready for flight and there was no spare. Prior to receiving this call, they had eaten a small meal in the Base Ops Snack Bar and Red had purchased his usual can of apple juice for use during the flight. After a few hours, the flight was canceled and the Crew Dogs headed back to their quarters. The next morning Red put on the same flight suit and headed over to the Hospital for his physical. The first activity was providing a urine sample. The old hospital had a lavatory for this purpose and in the lav was a sliding partition to allow folks to slide their urine samples onto a shelf in the laboratory. Red remembered the apple juice still a pocket of his flight suit. He retrieved the can and poured it into a urine sample bottle. He then slid the window back and sure enough, there was a female Airman (very young), just waiting to work on Red's (alleged) urine sample. Red spent a few seconds examining the bottle and announced that "It looks a little weak, think I'll put it through again". With that he drank the contents. The young Med Tech left the lab screaming for her supervisor and the Hospital Commander never did forgive Red. (E.M.)
"Smiley face" After I was assigned to the 509th AMS as assistant shop chief of "C" Shop in 1985, I found out quickly that every time one of our FB's was to fly an OST (off station training) mission or go TDY from Pease, we were required to remove the IR detector that lived in the top of the vertical tail and put a cover on the back of the tail to cover up the hole that was left. One quiet night we were bored, and I decided that instead of painting this round fiberglass cover OD green (we were always repainting the silly things) I would liven things up a bit. We found a can of bright yellow paint and proceeded to paint this cover yellow with a "smiley face", using black paint for the features. The next time we removed the IR system, this modified cover went on. We had absolutely no idea how it would be taken, as no "higher ups" were in the loop. Several days later, we got word though the grape vine that no FB would leave Pease on an OST without the smiley face. One of them even had an eye patch and a scowl for a change. (H.S.)
"Bird strike" I was Major Ken Anderson's right seater when we hit that bird near Lossiemouth. We lost all pitot static systems, and Lt Col Jack Pledger (our wingman) led us into Lossiemouth. The radome was unraveling like the paper off the end of the grease pencil, but at least we "shacked" that goose!! The landing was uneventful, and Ken Anderson & I wandered around from pub to pub while waiting for a radome to arrive. Our crack maintenance guys brought up an F-111F radome, I believe from RAF Lakenheath onboard a C-23 Sherpa. During the radome swap, it was found the power cart provided did not have the right kind of hookup to get power to the jet...but as always, the maintenance guys found a way to make it work (something about hairclips or moneyclips act as good power transfer devices). The jet was fixed, we kicked the tires, and kit the fires!! 40,000 pounds of afterburning thrust never felt so good (except maybe during that same 3 week UK Air Tactical Fighter Meet when Pat O'Connor led a 3-ship at 200' TFR over the North Sea...at 1.15 Mach...right over a fishing trawler!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We never heard after that what had happened to those poor guys on the ship, other than the fact that I am sure we blew out some eardrums and woke up anyone who was sleeping! (H.T.)
"A mind of its own" FB-111A 68-0275, or as we liked to refer to it, "Arnold", had a mind of its own. As most jets went , it was pretty good flyer. Not the greatest bombing jet ever known (that honor, in my opinion, went to 69-6510), but still a good flying "airliner". But don't ever try to put 0275 on alert. Arnold repeatedly gave us the bird and refused. Well, one day we had had all we could stand with Arnold and resolved to all that was allowed that the SOB was going to do its stint on alert. As soon as Wayne Mims (NCOIC of Alert Maintenance) found out, he immediately called me and "begging for forgiveness for any and all offenses", asked that we not do this. As I say we were resolved. The story as i got it from Chief Patterson (OMS Supt) is that he went out to the ramp and looking Arnold straight in the nose (Pitot tube) told him (Arnold) to cut the crap 'cuz he was going the pad come hell or high water. Well, Arnold went to alert without a peep and strangely enough was never a problem again. Don't know if the success of our accomplishment had anything to do with the chief and his association with chicken bones or the strength of our resolve. But the name stuck and 68-0275 has been "Arnold" (by those who know) ever since. (C.M.)
"Low over Valcour Island" On October 10, 1978, John Wilson and I were doing Bomb Comp practice with aircraft #282. When returning to PAFB, we were told to meet up with one of the base helicopters over Valcour Island as there was a Time/Life photographer doing a series on the FB-111A. We worked out an arrangement where the helicopter would be over the middle of the island at about 1,500' and we would make passes over the trees with wings full aft and light the burners at the south end of the island. We were really light-weight and even though Valcour is only ablout 1.5 miles long, it was out of burner, speedbrakes, bank and yank to keep from busting the mach next to downtown Plattsburgh at the north iew the photo.end of the run! (B.P.)
"Plattsburgh Alert Thunder Trucks Demonstration" The following took place at Plattsburgh AFB during a summer holiday weekend in 1977 or 1978. The weather was good but for some reason, morale was down and the Alert Facility seemed more like a morgue than a collection of accomplished air and maintenance crews. One of the tanker guys and the FB-111 senior ranking officer (SRO) on alert, quite aware of the low morale, put their heads together and decided to organize some 'Fun For The Alert Force'. Together, they orchestrated what was to be called, The 'Thunder Trucks Demonstration'. Essentially, it was a mock of the USAF Thunderbird Aerial Demo Performance using KC-135 and FB-111 Alert Trucks in the role of aerospace vehicle.....and, a great deal of imagination. It turned out to be quite a performance because everybody, officer and enlisted, had a part to play. It began with a briefing preparation in which various aircrew members played the role of the key 380th Bomb Wing staff. During the initial briefing, the various suggested roles were listed and virtually everyone volunteered to fill a certain part. Several hours later, they all formed up in the alert briefing room to practice the various parts and discuss the 'Truck Formations.' It started with a pep talk from the (acting) wing commander, followed by a similar talk from the (acting) DO....."OK you guys, you are the best of the best so go out there and knock 'em dead....but remember, SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT!!!" By this time, everyone seemed to get the idea of what was to be done and new ideas began to form. Almost everyone wanted a role to play, so new roles were created. After rehearsing, rewriting and replaying, everybody came back the next day for the final pre-brief. The guy that played the Chaplain gave a prayer before each alert sortie's aircrews 'raced to the alert trucks for the demo'. The assigned DO then put up a slide show showing the sequence of events and planform view of the 'Thunder Trucks Demo...'. So much effort, coordination and fun was put into this event, they did not want to let it go completely unnoticed by the outside world. It would have been like canceling the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl! So, time was allowed for everyone to call their wives or lovers and invite them come to the Alert Facility Area (outside the gates) to watch. (To put some people at ease, it was confirmed that there was nothing in existing USAF or 380th Regulations precluding the 'Thunder Trucks Demonstration'. In fact, at all times the entire alert force was in an increased state of readiness because the entire force was at the alert facility preparing the event).Essentially, this is (in part) how the 'Thunder Trucks Demonstration' occurred: At the 12:00 noon Alert Klaxon Check, the horn blew and over the loudspeaker came 'The Thunder Trucks Narrator': "Ladies and Gentleman, (AF Hymn in the background) we are pleased to have you here today to witness the world famous United States Air Force Thunder Trucks!!". That is how it started. All aircrews raced to their trucks and each truck had a large red, white and blue number posted on the doors and the front of the truck. Sortie 01 started engines (truck engines) as the loudspeaker continued to ring from the narrator. The SRO and his navigator were in the first truck which had a big sign on both sides and the front saying, CINC Truck. They started driving around the alert facility and with each pass, another decorated alert truck would join up. The Tanker guys did the same thing, only going the opposite direction around the building until all trucks had joined up. One of the AMS Maintenance crew chiefs had wired a speaker in the grill of CINC Truck so that it played, "Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder"....and other military pomp as they 'trucked up and down the Alert Ramp doing close formation truck work.... even did a "Missing Truck Formation"... again, all to the music and words of the narrator. It was so well planned and rehearsed that it was executed in perfection. After the demo had been complete, all ended up 'peeling off' in their alert trucks in front of their assigned sortie aircraft, accomplished their preflight, called the command post, "Code 1 Alert" and then joined back up for the prebriefed 'Taxiback Demo'. ( One of the tanker officer's (not on alert) video taped the entire event and gave it to the FB-111 SRO for his keeping). During this event, all "assigned tasks" of being on nuclear alert, were accomplished properly....and everyone had fun carrying out what, often times, became a rather depressing task. Back at the alert facility a post briefing/lessons learned session formed up in the main briefing room, marked by two hours of uproarious laughter. In the end, this event completely changed the morale of all aircrew and maintenance crews on alert over the remaining tour...............from 'Very Low' to 'Very High!' And, the wives and invited viewers loved the performance. The SRO, however, spent the next few days preparing his defense argument and sweating the phone call from the DO and Wing Commander. (D.I.)
"Torching at 50 feet" During the early 1970s, SAC's SIOP added a new twist to complicate the Soviet targeting problem by placing some of its FB-111As from Pease AFB, New Hampshire and Plattsburgh AFB, New York, at Kincheloe, Rickenbacker, Grissom and K.I.Sawyer AFB. Initially, six aircraft were placed on satellite alert, then this number was reduced to three. While the aircraft remained, aircrews and maintenance personnel were rotated through for TDY on a weekly basis. At K.I. Sawyer, there were B-52s and KC-135s assigned to the 410th Bombardment Wing. In addition, the 87th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, equipped with Convair F-106s, was stationed at the base. Each had its own alert facilities. For the FB-111As SAC built an alert facility, including six alert hangars. This SAC program was terminated in late 1974 or 1975. Normal configuration for alert at K.I. was four bags and a pair of SRAM in the bomb bay. Aircraft were ferried in this configuration with inert warheads installed. On the last day of the alert commitment at K.I., Major Ed happened to run across the Wing Commander in the Club. The C/O asked who would be taking the last bird out. Ed responded that he was going to do that since he was 'Senior Thing' that week and was asked if they could do some sort of departure show (without being at all specific). This was an F-106 base and even with minimum fuel and a clean wing, there was no way an FB-111 could do much of anyhting to impress a 106 driver (other than nuke his base!). The "Zippo" maneuver came to mind and even if most folks had done that at some point at high altitude, few (if any) had done so at 50 feet! Major Ed and his navigator, Captain Bob thought this would be a really spiffy idea.Ed and Bob took off under VFR and asked for a low pass at high speed. Tower approved. Flew out a fair distance over the lake and lined up with the runway. With an airspeed at about 425 KIAS, Ed poked the nose down to arrive at the threshold at about 50 feet and told Bob to dump. It was late afternoon and late in the year. It got really bright in the cockpit and the tower said something like "Bububububnub". At the departure end, the crew secured from dump and Ed pulled the aircraft into a climbing left turn and damn near had a heart attack. There was nothing in the Dash-One to tell an unwary aviator that dumping at this altitude will lay the fire down on the ground. So there! They had 10,000+ feet of brightly burning runway behind them. At that point, Ed asked Bob if they had enough fuel for Cuba! While they were both considering their imminent demise of their respective carreers, the 'Wing King' called on 311.0 and said "Great show guys! Come back again soon". The crew then went RTB to KPSM flying very conservatively. (E.M.)
"Awesome"" I remember the feeling of awesome power when they used to do AB runs on the trim pad at Plattsburgh, parking spot 20F, during the winter.. One time, at night, in the freezing cold, they had an FB cranking in zone 5, stood right next to the engine, you feel your guts shaking like a well-stirred Martini, you don't feel the cold because that Afterburner is warming the night, pitch dark out, and that "warm" glow coming from the aft end of that bomber...There are plenty who have seen it, the AF came out with an FB poster, nice shot of a crew chief "parking" an FB, jet is back lit with the Adirondacks in the background. In reality, the jet is tied down to the trim pad, 20F, stabs are drooped, and he's in front of the jet signaling the crew to stop. NOT! Nice picture though!Second "awesomeness" was after the 380 BW passed an ORI, they had a jet take off, then all of maintenance and at I'm sure more, jumped in the trucks and drove down the middle of the runway.. Off in the distance you see an FB, 72degree wingsweep, coming at ya. Can't hear a thing coming from it.. He's not even 50' (at least it seemed like that) off the deck, screams directly overhead and disappears into the clouds.. You didn't hear him until after he passed.. That's where the name WHISPERING DEATH came from, the Vietnamese never heard it coming until it was gone.. That was too cool! Another time, if I am correct it was the in 1984, the year we (380th) won the FAIRCHILD TROPHY, the jet we sent down to the symposium at Barksdale came back.. Did a low, fast approach, pointed skyward and did a barrel roll (aileron roll,whatever!) halfway down the runway twice and came in for a landing.. That was cool! We never saw that before, at least over the base, am sure it took HHQ approval, or the approval from the Wing CC, to perform that show.." (M.K.)
"Underground Fire" One day, all the Pease alert crews were sent to their aircraft because some guy who had been welding a manhole cover had inadvertently set the toxic waste that was in the drains under the flight line on fire. Apparently, the fire was moving from one manhole to the next, and as it reached each new one, the huge steel manhole cover would be blown off, flying several feet in the air. The firemen and trucks were scrambling around trying to figure out how to stop the migration of the fire.While sitting in one of the alert aircraft, listening to the show on the radio, one pilot happened to look back and low behind its aircraft to notice that there was a huge steel manhole cover under the tail of his FB. Of course, this was an alert aircraft with a variety of interesting explosives under the wings and in the weapons bay, as well as about 48,000 pounds of JP-4. The crew got on the radio and got clearance to move the aircraft well out of harms way. (E.P.)
"My last alert tour at Pease"
I went on alert Thursday, 13 March 1980, with Capt Barry Harper. It was scheduled to be my last alet tour before attending SOS at Maxwell AFB with a follow on to the 4007 CCTS at Plattsburgh AFB. The tour started like most tours, 'change over brief,' signing for the "Cookies" and so on. The weather in New Hampshire had not yet transitioned to spring. On the second night of alert freezing rain started to fall and continued. As we all watched a movie that night, the "Klaxon" went off. We all looked at each other and someone said, "This can't be an exercise, the ramp is a sheet of ice." We all departed the alert facility and literally shuffled to the shelters because the alert trucks were stuck in the ice. Luckily the FB-111s were not too far from the alert facility. Barry and I got into the jet and as he started the engines I decoded the message. I turned to him and said, "It's real, we're going to war!" Of course, he said let me see that and he decoded it and got the same results. Holy Shit! The question now was, which of the nine FBs was going to pull out of the shelter first. As we contemplated that, another message came in and when decoded took us back to normal alert. Regardless, the adrenaline rush took awhile to wear off. It was the most memorable alert tour of my career. It turned out there was a computer glitch at NORAD that attempted to launch the entire fleet. Getting off alert the following Thursday never felt so good. (H.O.)
