There’s also a B-52 on display at March air reserve base
I think it’s a D model
We should get back to cars. Please bear with me. I have never seen a U-2 in person although I have had the pleasure of seeing 4 SR-71s. 1980 on the ramp beyond the dreaded red line at Nellis AFB Las Vegas, NV. Mid 1980s Boeing museum Washington state with D-21 drone mounted. Late 1990s Evergreen museum McMinnville, OR with un-mounted D-21 drone. 2007 Marshall space center Huntsville, AL. Outdoors display. In 1978 my oldest Nephew (2 months younger than me) were doing our flight training at US Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS) . Fort Huachuca, AZ. We drove his 1975 Chevrolet Vega station wagon to Davis Monthan AFB to check out the new A-10. We were treated very nicely since we were US military aircrew and given flight line passes with an A-10 crew chief showing us the A-10. When we were turning in our flight line passes we said we were returning next weekend for the boneyard tour and asked for the schedule. The AF Master Sergeant replied “you don’t want to do the tour bus”. He retrieved a form and went to the squadron commanders office. He returned with a signed pass that allowed us to drive anywhere in the boneyard. Being military aircraft geeks we did not require a tour guide. It was an incredible experience. We spent about 3 hours driving around the boneyard. We stumbled upon 5 D-21 drones laying by the side of the road. They were more secret than the SR-71s! When we turned in the vehicle pass we asked about the drones. They were there for the coming soon Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT-2). They were also bringing in older B-52Ds to be chopped up and displayed for the USSR satellites. My Nephew’s Vega carried us back 70 miles to Fort Huachuca and a week later carried his Wife and child over 1,500 miles home. It had the iron cylinder sleeves.
While attending auto races at Riverside I was distracted by watching B-52s departing and arriving at March AFB. The B-52Ds have the tall tail.
When participating in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB I was invited to sit in a F-106 cockpit. Fortunately I was somewhere between 150 and 160 pounds. Talk about tight.
The last time I was at Hill AFB they were having a car show at the aircraft museum so the best of both worlds all in one spot.
On the aircraft side they have a C-124 Globemaster (a monster…) and the only afterburning A-7 Corsair ever built.
On the auto side some guy there had a mid 60s VW Bug convertible with a Ford 302 stuffed into it. From 30 feet away it looked like a normal car. Look at where the back seat used to be and there was a V-8 in it.
I wanted to know how it was hooked up but the owner wasn’t around and the car sat so low I couldn’t see underneath well enough to figure it out.
My assumption was that the transaxle had been flipped over and the 302 mated to it. Flipping the transaxle gives you 4 speeds in the “right” direction with the engine in front of the gearbox.
Sounds logical, but I have to wonder if a mid-60s VW transaxle could handle the power of a V8… 
The National Atomic Museum at Kirtland AFB has a B-52 on display.
I think you would have to be vewy, vewy caweful with the “GO” pedal.
I was stationed most of my 2 years at Fort Lewis in Crash Rescue at Gray Air Base. Our barracks where we slept, not took duty, were one of the last WWII wooden barracks in Main Fort, though they had plenty in North Fort.
I came home at Christmas the first year to put in a rebuilt motor and transmission in my '53 Chevrolet and drove it to Fort Lewis in 50 hours ET, before the I-80 was all done. That was my first cross-country trip and I will never forget it, though now it wouldn’t mean so much after doing it many times. That old car purred like a kitten. One night in the mountains a HP guy stopped me to tell me a headlight was burned out. The gas station repair guy said the paint on on the bulb implied it was an original 1953 bulb, and that was 1964.
The Interstate was done by Ft. Lewis and I loved the scenery when we went out for a drive.
We worked (well, sort of) one day on duty, the next day off, and every two weeks an extra day off called a Kelly Day after some historical firefighter hero. At that time, Gray air base had never had a plane crash. But we would put a couple barrels of jet fuel on a small pond and light it up then go in to retrieve a small keg with our asbestos suits and a gigantic diesel powered crash truck running a fogger hose set up.
Being young soldiers we slept all night in the squad room at Gray, then when we got off at 7 am, we would sack out again. One day they brought in a C5-A. If you read the press release carefully, they weren’t sure they could get it off the ground again on that short runway, heh, heh.
They parked it on the grass at the north end, and then spooled that sucker all the way up with the brakes on before letting it go. We normally slept through normal airplanes taking off, because we were used to it. When they lit that thing all the way up everyone of us leaped out of bed in panic to see what was happening.
They didn’t tell us what they were doing, except as I mentioned above, but sometimes they would land planes at McChord AFB next door, load them up with Army stuff, take off, fly north a ways, then land at ft. Lewis and unload for practice. So, there is a possibility they kept the fuel low on that C5-A, took off, went in a circle and landed next door at McChord. I will never know, but they took off without crashing. That would have been ‘A’ shift crash if it had bought the farm. We were on ‘B’ shift and sleeping in.
Wow! we crossed paths only 14 years apart. I joined the Oregon Army National Guard in 1977 and served 30.5 years all Army aviation. I have visited Gray Army Airfield many times also what I refer to as East Ft. Lewis Yakima Firing Center. A C-5 taking off from Gray Army Airfield would be quite an event. Why the Army would not have trucked the cargo a short distance to and from McChord AFB seems stupid although I have seen the Army do stupider things. Our NG facility shared the municipal airport and relied on their Crash/Rescue which we regularly trained with. As a former aircrew member I appreciate your service for obvious reasons.
I am sorry I did not make it clearer. The C5-A landing was clearly an experiment to see if it could be done, or something much like that. Of course, it was not a means to transfer anything between bases.
My first service at Ft. Lewis was in the 6/32 Arty in North Fort. I was still there when I brought my '53 Chevrolet from the Midwest. After I got there, there was a cold spell. My choke was not working correctly, so I mostly blocked it open. In the cold all the guys from California couldn’t get their cars started, so I had to help them. And, on the Interstate into Tacoma every mile or so would be a stalled car, probably from frozen radiator.
While in the 6/32 Arty, we did do a maneuver at Yakima. Big troop movement and at one point the OIC stopped us on the Interstate and had the MP’s block the Interstate so the entire unit could turn around and go back from being lost. Not his finest moment. I forget what you called those vehicles. Bigger than a Jeep, but smaller than a truck.
One night they put me on guard duty at the motor pool. No telephone, the sergeant locked it up. And, no bullets so anyone who wanted to blow up the trucks could have had an easy time of it. Then, about 1 am, a vehicle came up the street and into the pool. Not being stupid, I hid behind the trucks until he pulled up, and stopped and jumped out. Then, after identifying him as the sergeant of the guard I shouted, “Halt! Who goes there?”
If you want me to guard millions of dollars worth of vehicles, give me a phone or bullets and I will do it. Otherwise they can have all the whole stack of vehicles as far as I am concerned.
We had an officer at one time in the 32nd, who wanted everything freshly touched up with paint. And, he expected to see grease on all the zerks. The manual said to wipe them clean, but he knew better. So, we had to grease them all again, and not wipe them clean.
There was a joke at the time that one of his vehicles, bigger than a jeep one day someone slammed the door and the paint coat exploded all over the pool, and when it stopped it was only a jeep when the paint layers were all gone. I wrote that in a letter home.
In fact, I am not even sure the C5-A went to McChord. They did not tell us those details.
Sounds like the usual military “lack” of intelligence to me concerning the C5-A experiment. Why? I’m confident the prototype C5s were thoroughly tested for maximum capabilities before being placed in service. Those results are usually reduced by 10% (fighters) and up to 20% (cargo) for normal operational use (which can be exceeded in combat). Of course some high ranking commander wanted to know what their new toy could really do (bragging rights). The un-needed experiment could have been accomplished on the much longer runway of McChord AFB. I don’t think the rated (-20%) weight limit of Gray Army Airfield could (within regulations) support an empty C5. I saw army trucks in the late 1970s early 1980s which reminded me of 1.5 ton stake bed farm trucks but cannot find them online.
Go where you’re sent. Do what you’re told. Details are for much higher pay grades.
1 Like
There may have actually been a valid reason for the C5-A at Gray. But, no one knew it at the time, nor was there any imaginable other explanation as far as we could tell. Bragging rights pretty well sounds right.
Our crash rescue trucks were big things. My son-in-law was in the Air Farce (His spelling) in the 80’s and when he saw the photo he said it was what they had where he was stationed.
We were told when they first got them, they had gigantic four cycle motors in them and every time they went out of the station full throttle they needed to put in new pistons.So they converted to large GM diesels. With open exhaust we could hear them run from our barracks up on the edge of Pendleton.
They had a large reservoir of water, I cannot remember after 50 years, maybe 500 gallons, plus the foam which looked and smelled like cow blood. A big turret on the front. We were taught to come to a near dead stop for a 90 degree turn, anything faster would lay them over on their side.The tires were like tractor tires, and they had automatic transmissions.
There were three of them. I usually drove Red 3.
We had a cool black guy from the inner city on the east coast. He really could drive those things. We were back up for structural hits. He would go rolling down Pendleton Avenue full throttle, with red lights and siren. Those Army wives would look in their rear view mirrors and see that horrible monster behind them, and would drive up on the sidewalk in panic. I bet he is telling his grandkids about that.
I don’t know if this is okay to say or not. But, let me tell you in the 60’s Army where I was there was absolutely no racial problem at all. On duty we were all buddies, and I liked that. We separated on pass, but on duty all was cool. That was one of the few things I liked about the Army.
My son-in-law said there is a black man out there and they consider themselves brothers with different mothers, is how he put it. They would have been together in the 80’s and still stay in touch.
Full disclosure. I did not like military duty at all. I got my honorable though. My wife has asked me why as much as I hated the Army I do talk about it. I tell her it was two years of my life completely different from anything before or after; you can’t just forget about it And, it did turn me from a small town kid into someone comfortable all over the nation and Mexico.
I was stationed with a staff sergeant who worked with the U-2 and the SR-71 units back in the early 70’s. I wish that I could recall the type of vehicle they used to chase down the U-2’s but I can’t. Getting older is no fun.