Pilot Promotions

recorded by Dan Stewart, July 2010

We had pilots that were promoted rapidly and we had other pilots that were good pilots, but they couldn't get promoted. And they could never figure out why they were always 2-3 minutes late on take-off.

See, a pilot gets graded on ontime take-offs. Now when you're flying with a cargo plane and you've two engineers and a load master, who want total control over maintenance of the aircraft and control of the cargo. Your job is to move this cargo from point a to point b and that is your only purpose. And you have to do it with a crew.

If your officers function as crew members instead of individuals, then you always make an early take-off. If they don't, well, you make a couple-minutes-late take-off. That is not good for an officer's record.

A squadron commander took crews up, several of them flew up at McChord [Air Force Base]. [He] told the pilots when they got up there and brought all the crew members in. He said, "mandatory crew meeting briefing!"

He turned around to all the pilots and he said, "I'm gonna tell you one thing." He says, "You pilots. You're aircraft commander. What's that job mean?"

Pilot says, "That means we're in charge for everything."

"Wrong answer. Does anybody else have any answers?"

One guy says, "yes, it means we're in charge as long as the enlisted want us to be."

"Correct," he says. "You stand back here. If you treat them as criminals, you will work together as a crew, as a team. A crew as a team that functions as one. As long as you do that, you will get promoted, everything will be smooth. They will never be disrespectvul to you, but you will very seldomly make an ontime take-off." (laughs)

Taking Off Through a Typhoon's Eye

recorded by Dan Stewart, July 2010

[Air Force member ruptures his appendix and needs medical attention to prevent his death, but a typhoon is moving over the base (in the Philipines). Officers come in, asking for anyone to volunteer to fly the man out with two nurses when the typhoon's eye went over the base.]

It was about one of the smartest things we volunteered for. After take-off, and after we climbed up there, we finally were up at 41,000 feet and still looking up at the tops of these clouds and I went back in [to the nurses and man] and I said "hang on, we're going through it."

We had to go through that once, we went through there, and about halfway through, I went go down, we lost one hydraulic suystem to turbulence, so I was down having to check it out. All the engines kept running!

I looked over at the two nurses who were [having a bad time]. They looked like this (makes a scared face, laughs).

The load master just said "Well!" Just another day!

We made it to the Dakota(?), we landed and the flight crew came out and the two nurses, one of them said, "I want the list of your flight orders sent to Main!"

It was another one of those "just a normal day's work" you get. [The flight orders] goes from the commander of the Air Force, down through the ranks, and this one went up and all the way down, and we just get a stack of attachments that said we did a good job.

At that time you could take a 100 of them in at NCO (Non-Commissioned Officers) Club, and if you had two [?] you could get a beer!

Stuck by a Stalled Typhoon

recorded by Dan Stewart, July 2010

We had been in the Philipines, shuttling out, and we were supposed to go up to Japan and we had to go to Japan to get home. Well, we couldn't get to Japan 'cause there was a typhoon stalled off of Okinawa. So, it was blocked off. So what we would do is run shuttles. We go on into Vietnam and back up [to the Philipines] and go to Thailand and back up [to the Philipines] and back to Vietnam.

We'd just stand out there in southeast Asia, and this had going on for a couple of weeks, and this stupid storm wasn't moving.

Finally the copilot said, "Why, I just think we outta fly through it."

Captian burnett said, "Sasse, what's your answer to that?"

So I reached back behind the ladder and I took out the fireaxe and I said, "I think we outta just chop his head off!"

He says, "you wanna do it or should I?"

And copilot says, "I take it you don't wanna fly through it."

Captain says, "that's the most intelligent thing mark has made in three days!"

So we turned around and we went back to the Philipines and we shuttled a few days. He never did mention again to go through it, but every once in a while we'd fly up and take a look. And you're up there at 41,000 feet and you're looking, and you can't see the top of the clouds. You don't go through them because if it's at 41,000 feet, it's severe and they get worse the higher you go.

[note: This particular story was likely about Typhoon Rita in July 1972, which meandered between the Philipines and Okinawa for nearly 2 weeks. A video of it's long-lived track can be watched here]