Forum: Introduce Yourself

Hello all. I've been lurking here for a few years, thought I'd log in and introduce myself.

I only crewed F-16s for 3 years but always thought of myself as a Viper crew chief. I crewed Block 1s, 5s, 10s, and 15s from April 1981 to April 1983. My first jet after FTD at Hill was 78-0001 but when Ric Blomgren came back from the Lossiemouth Bomb Comp team he got his old jet back and I moved over to 78-0024 (both for the 34th TFTS/AMU). Moved over to the 16th and crewed 78-0106. A few years later I crewed F-111D # 68-0106, about as close as a guy could come to crewing 2 different jets with the same tail number. Went to Kunsan and they decided that since TAC had TSgt crew chiefs PACAF should too. I was the lowest-ranking 431 TSgt on base, so they made me the wing CC's crew chief. The Wolf Pack wing jet at the time was 81-0708 and Col Burton Moore was my pilot.

All good things come to an end, and my time with Vipers ended when I left the Kun for Cannon to work F-111Ds. At the time I thought Cannon would be a tolerable assignment if they just had Vipers instead of 'Varks. Little was I to know... After the cold war when a bunch of us crew chiefs were retrained I turned into a hospital puke. I know, a noner. Turned into a good career for me, though; now I'm doing respiratory therapy in Vail, Colorado.

I do miss the flight line life and like to visit here for the memories. Thanks, moderators, for keeping up a fantastic web site. I'll post some old pictures if I can figure out how.

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FYI. 78-0001 is sitting on a stick at Langley AFB. Thought you'd like to know. Welcome to the forum!

Last edited by Meathook on Feb 15, 2008 - 04:38 AM; edited 1 time in total

Hummmm...I wonder when 78-0001 came (transferred) to Luke AFB then?

I got to Luke in August 1985 and 78-0001 was in my flight (I was a flight chief then), Doug Burmeister was the assigned crew chief back then, good guy too, did an outstanding job on that aircraft - pride of the fleet in my book.

I'm sorry she is pole sitting now, she sure had her days in the sun though, she was well liked and well flown (least on my watch).

Hi JLMeurs

Welcome long time lurker! Great to have you on-board.

Please add your profile to the F-16 Crew Chief section, also room to add your history on the F-111. I'd like to see it there very much. Check it out and other CCs here:

http://www.f-16.net/crewchiefs.html

Create your own profile is near the top right. And old F-16 photos are also very welcome!

Meathook wrote:

Hummmm...I wonder when 78-0001 came (transferred) to Luke AFB then?

Tom,

I was at Hill when most of the jets started getting transferred to Luke, It was in late 83 - early '84, Hill had many good TDY's to Luke during the transfers....

Smitty

Hi Smitty - thanks for the info, having the first F-16A in my unit always made many of us feel kind of special just being around it - thanks buddy

Hummmm...I wonder when 78-0001 came (transferred) to Luke AFB then?

I was with a TDY group from the 16th when "Balls One" transferred in to Luke in January 1983. It was a memorable TDY for several reasons, some not good. Good to see that my first Viper was in good hands.

It was and the new owners threshed it, we had three and two star generals want to fly it, it was one of the most photographed aircraft at Luke and it was very well taken care of by many...appreciated by all around her - trust me.

Shame she is on a stick but in a different light, she is still admired for who she is.

We also had Balls 0007, 0077, 0088 (F-16B) modal in our flight too, looking back, it was kind of a special time, I always thought it was kind of cool that these aircraft were being used as trainers for USAF and FM pilots.

Forum: Introduce Yourself

New old guy here