USAF Urban Legends

[maddog2840]

A C-130 was shot down after a crew chief stole it.

Read this thread.

[SixerViper]

When I was at Chanute AFB for tech school in 1969 I heard that the B-36 there was 20 ft shorter than other B-36s so they could get it inside a hangar on base there. This airplane was on static display beside the flight line and the troops would march by it twice a day. It looked like it was full-sized to me.

[maddog2840]

Upon separating from the Army, the first thing the Air Force did was turn it's stripes upside down.

[That_Engine_Guy]

Upon separating from the Army, the first thing the Air Force did was turn it's stripes upside down.

Bar bet on this one?

I know the new USAF retained the Army rank/chevrons for the first year.

Here is Wiki's take:

Although the Air Force became an independent service with the National Security Act of 1947, it retained the Army Air Force rank structure and corresponding insignia of years past. This rank structure provided for seven enlisted ranks: Private, Private First Class, Corporal/Technician Fifth Grade, Sergeant/Technician Fourth Grade, Staff Sergeant/Technician Third Grade, Technical Sergeant and Master Sergeant/First Sergeant. Additionally, Air Force personnel were still referred to as soldiers.
Changes to the rank structure were proposed almost immediately but did not start occurring until the next year. Sometime during late 1947 and early 1948, new chevron designs were tested at Bolling Air Force Base. The style preferred was the one used today, the inverted chevron. Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt Vandenberg approved the new chevron on 9 March 1948.

Besides, they look more like wings and less like tents!

Keep 'em flyin'
TEG

[vegasdave901]

I like the F-111 one. Next time I make a F-111 model I'm painting it like that but I won't be as subtle!

[Unwin]

I've heard all kinds of stories of ghosts on the Andersen AFB MSA from more than a few people. One of the guys that I currently work with found a dead body in the MSA. It was a lost civ. hunter. Also one of Ammo's storage buildings at Lakenheath is a old mourge that is not a myth.

[Tim]

SR-71 # 978/ #2029 * Lost on 20 July 1972 at Kadena AB, Okinawa. Attempting to land with a severe crosswind, USAF Pilot: Capt. Dennis Bush had to abort the landing after deploying the braking chute. He jettisoned the chute and went around and attempted to land again, without the chute. The second attempt was too fast and the SR went off the end of the runway, ripping off the main landing gear and causing considerable damage to the underside of the aircraft. The RSO: Capt. James Fagg and pilot survived safely. This aircraft was known as"Rapid Rabbit". They tried to destroy the aircraft by burning it, but were not successful, it was buried near the end of the runway in a small hill, now known as Habu Mtn.

WOW, I was stationed there from 81 - 83 and I did not know that. I drug out some old pictures I had from there, and yep, I can see where their talking about

[parrothead]

And to add a bit to that, the right rudder from #978 is now the left rudder on #975 which is on display at the March Field Air Museum at March ARB in SoCal

[scorpio110367]

When I worked RC-135V's at Kadena AB, JPN, acft 63-9792 was presumed to be haunted because it was a 'bodybag jet" back during the Vietnam conflict... things started to happen to that jet that was unexplainable. Power would go off, even while the Hobart was still running and the contacter closed, the back of the boom pod area would get freezing cold even though it was warm and humid outside, cabin lights would flicker while I do my preflight insp., the analog dials would start to move while power was off, strange noises would be heard from the nav table and sextant window, I couldn't figure it out. I spent a lot of time at Anderson AFB, Guam for PTTF and typhoon evacs, and the one story that would scare the bejesus out of me was the headless major running around the alert ramp asking crewchiefs where his jet was??? Or if your jet had to go to fuel cell at Andy from the alert ramp, the tow was so freaking long, you could see the runway of Andy was not straight, but like a mogul. Or this one, we Cope T'ed at Clark AB, PI, TA parked our jets beyond the Ops line, more like closer to the helipad, well we had to hurry back to the Ops line so that we could catch the remaining tankers that was due in. We grabbed our toolboxes and launch kits and ran towards Ops, pitch dark, hot and humid, we had to get there to catch the jets... well half way there, close by the helipad, a bunch of us idiots fell into a ditch, come to find out that Clark AB, back in WWII when the Nips had control of the country, was a prison camp for all that survived the Bataan Death March, and that some of the ditches that line the helipad were mass graves of POW's.

[maddog2840]

The golf courses maybe used for mass casualty burials. Base Support Plans have those in them. But they weren't made for that particular purpose. the golf courses are made to play golf!

Of course gold courses are made to play golf on..... . The REASON to fund the construction of and to guarantee that there's a golf course on every AFB is....mass graves. BTW: Anybody have an AFB without a golf course??

Oh damn, I answered myself...Creech AFB does not have a golf course, or base housing, or a commissary or a chapel.

[ATC]

[quote="maddog2840]
Oh damn, I answered myself...Creech AFB does not have a golf course, or base housing, or a commissary or a chapel.[/quote]

...Or real airplanes to fly

[fasurp23]

Cadets are equally as important as the people in the real military that have to salute them because they are investments in our future that we absolutely can not do without

Uh ya, to my knowledge you are not required to salute academy cadets.

[TC]

to my knowledge you are not required to salute academy cadets.

Other than the Academy instructors, and base leadership (i.e., REAL officers), you aren't required to salute anyone at the Academy until the President shakes their hand and the Thunderbirds fly over the top of their heads. Then, they are real officers too. But you see, there is a good part about this too. If you were already an officer before that precise moment, you don't even have to salute them then!

However, within the cadet corps itself, the cadets play their little game, and certain cadets require salutes from the cadets more junior to them...and somewhere, I see a jazz hand being raised by a guy with a pierced right ear, who is listening to a George Michael record.

[Delta]

to my knowledge you are not required to salute academy cadets.

Other than the Academy instructors, and base leadership (i.e., REAL officers), you aren't required to salute anyone at the Academy until the President shakes their hand and the Thunderbirds fly over the top of their heads. Then, they are real officers too. But you see, there is a good part about this too. If you were already an officer before that precise moment, you don't even have to salute them then!

However, within the cadet corps itself, the cadets play their little game, and certain cadets require salutes from the cadets more junior to them...and somewhere, I see a jazz hand being raised by a guy with a pierced right ear, who is listening to a George Michael record.

True. Academy cadets do not salute other cadets unless its for an official hearing or some sort. Cadet having to salute other cadets is a ROTC thing. Also, the only time you see cadets saluting other cadets its either them saluting a friend for the hell of it, as a joke, or patronizing their cadet leadership (at least it's that way this semester out here).

[Shortcut]

"At my last base"...

The one where "At my last base..." an airman got his head pinched between two hanger doors and it popped like a pimple, and thats why they have to be open 10 ft now. (Or somtimes it's the door fell off the top track and the airman ran away from the door in the direction it was falling instead of to the left or right, and thats why you have to stand infront/behind the door when moving.)

Or "At my last base..." a fire fighter (or specialist somtimes) got sucked up an F-16 intake. (Actually a fireman did get sucked up when I was stationed at Homestead. But I did have a guy tell me it happened at his last base.)

OR "At my last base..." after juming chalks the crew chief taxied arround back to chalks. (Or somtimes even took off and came arround.)