III Corps

Then most of those guys must have been in the 920th Air Refueling Squadron at Wurtsmith because that is where Doug was. And where I was for a while. Doug was a Major and barely made Lt. Col. He decided he had had enough and knew he wasn't going beyond LC. He retired. Good guy to fly with.

you have to scroll about halfway down the page to find this guy retelling the story
on page Bios and More information for Taklhi Roster

And yes, on my second Young Tiger we deployed from U-Tapao to Andersen on Guam and when we arrived one runway was closed and being used for parking. The story was that there had to be at least 2 cells (3 airplanes in a cell) airborne because they simply was no room on Andersen for any more aircraft.

Andersen was where the BUF drivers lived in tents and were not happy flying to the same IP, making the same runs and then coming back to live in tents while the BUF drivers at U-Tapao along with us tanker-pukes were living in air-conditioned rooms. The story then was the commander was briefing some mucky-mucks and said the morale could not be any higher when some 1st Lt Nav stood up and reportedly said, "I am Lt X.. I'm living in a ****ing tent, flying the same routes day after day and my morale ain't worth a ****!" The general reportedly said, "See to it that man's morale improves!" Fun times...

III Corps

I admit I was not the best officer. I got 8-3s on my OERs but was in the first launch for all ORIs and often flew the HHDs as well as with the wing brass. But you're right in inferring I wasn't the best officer. No argument there but it was not to show anybody anything. I had come from a FAC assignment where you were given a task and told to go do it and try not to screw up. It was a very fluid job and SAC was the very opposite. Everything was supposed to be scripted. My Ops Officer told me one big secret to getting along in SAC. "IF you paper work looks good, you must fly good." Granted, a non sequitur but back then we flight planned using the Boeing charts and it took a half day to plot out a flight plan. I would then copy the initial worksheet so there were NO erasures and no mistakes. I NEVER got a no-notice checkride. ??

But the point was our mission was to refuel bombers and the bombers to put bombs on the targets. Most other wings had muffed the ORI and Wurtsmith bombers had tossed multiple shacks. The tankers hit all refuelings. My Ops Officer advised the Command Post he was landing with number 3 shut down. When asked when he lost it, John said "enroute home" What John didn't mention was it blew right after getting the flaps up but since the flight recovered at the same base it launched, technically he was on the way home. And had the horn actually gone off, what would a crew do in war time? Declare and emergency, miss the refueling and RTB? Right...

But the IG was upset because they saw officers without hats, officers not being saluted, etc so the wing, in spite of accomplishing its simulated war mission, had to replay the down. Silly... and you, like the IG missed the point. We should have passed and in the critique mention there were items that needed attention like military bearing. But the IG wanted to show everyone. And they did.. dipsticks.

MD10PLT

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OK I wasn't there so I have missed the point.

Here's a little history for everyone else reading this. The ORI, next to a real war, was the most important thing a Wing would accomplish in any given 18 months. Anyone who spent time in SAC fully knew the importance of this evaluation. They generally came every 18 months and the IG team was usually on an 18-24 month assignment. Thus the exact same IG team, for the most part, would evaluate all the Bomb Wings in SAC. During these evaluations everyone would rise to the occasion, and as mentioned before, great feats of airmanship where often witnessed.

The vast majority of the Bomb Wings would pass with flying colors and lots of accolades.

In the case we are discussing, Wurtsmith failed, and the response was; we failed because we weren't wearing hats. This wouldn't be the first time the Evaluated, blamed the Evaluator for a failed evaluation.

You're right I don't get it. All of the other Bomb Wings managed to do just fine and most did outstanding. To say the IG team came down on Wurtsmith unjustly is to say all the other wings didn't deserve the passing grades they received.

LivingInMEM

We also did not volunteer classified information as easily as we do now in the SAC days. Youtube, wikipedia, movies, etc are filled with inferences and/or direct references to capabilities that have been/should be classified to maintain the system effectiveness. You can't read an article without a reference to "an anonymous source" that couldn't be named because he/she wasn't authorized to discuss the subject.

And I agree with MD10, I am not considered a role model of uniform wear - but, if you aren't smart enough to play the game during an actual ORI, you aren't smart enough to pass an ORI. Even post-SAC - who here does not know that you don't pass an ORI without showing a sense of urgency?

III Corps, I don't think there is a section of the USAF that does not or has not emphasized the paperwork as much or more than the product. You knew from UPT that it was the gradebook that graduated, not you. Proficiency was never emphasized, hitting all your currencies and counters for the quarter, half, and year were. You didn't have to fly a good ILS (except on your checkride), but you did have to log 8 of them per half. You also heard a thousand times that the flight is not done until the forms were signed and the 781's were filled out. That wasn't just SAC.

III Corps

We agree.

No, the other bomb wings were also muffing the ORI. They were tossing bombs all over Nebraska and Kansas. But WAFB hit the targets and refuelings were complete. No argument there. The wing went down on military protocol and bearing. Not my assessment. The wing and squadron commander's.

The second ORI, as mentioned, there were some bad bombs and some refuelings missed and some bad nav legs yet we passed the second. You can assert, allege, assume all you want. That was the debriefing we got from wing and from our sq commander.

And, you will probably take this wrong, but it didn't matter to me if we got a passing grade or not. It didn't change my commitment to the crew and the mission. I got HQs (highly qualified) on all my check rides and my crew was often a lead crew on missions. The guys I worked with wanted to excel and did. It mattered to the upper echelon officers because their promotions were on the line. For me, I knew that I was not going to get the assignments I wanted, that I was locked into a command I didn't want to be a part of and knew I was leaving as soon as I could get out.

And I conceded I was not the best officer; that I frequently didn't wear my cap; called my crew chief Jake instead of Sargeant H-----. And yes I could have been a better example but the old SAC, like most organizations after a while, focused on stuff. Emergency procedures? VERBATIM. If it said, 'Engine cut-off" and you said/wrote 'Shut-off" it was a bust. ??


I later learned that 'selective compliance' (Kern's term) is often an indicator of culture but it is just that.. an indicator. It is NOT a absolute. In our case, our wing could fly. It just didn't salute that often. And that irked the IG.

I could relate lots of stories where guys got chewed for trying to do above and beyond. I sat on the curb of the OClub one night, at a dining in ( typical with probably too many toasts) with a 'full bull' who said he had just come back from a commander's briefing and the new boss had said, "I am just waiting for one of you guys to **** up so I can set the standard. I am NOT going to let you guys keep me from getting a second star." Not making this stuff up. The word came down next week, 'Nothing fancy. Just make the time line and make sure we're filling all the squares." ?? Leadership? No. That is CYA and mediocrity.

Anyway, it was an interesting period. I learned a lot about flying from some greats. My Ops Officer was a great aviator and incredible mentor. And it was 30+yrs ago so it is probably irrelevant today.

But enough about my problems. You say guys don't just follow the rules. CURRENT examples that lit your fire???

III Corps

All true but you have to also remember the era. We were also being sent to Asia for Young Tiger and a tacit admission that the environment there was a different focus was that you were NOT subject to a no-notice check ride for something like 45 days after you returned. I guess that was to get back into the paperwork world and get away from 3 months of focus on the mission, for us tanker pukes it was being there and making the refuelings. (remember too that during this era, a -135 crew did a double refueling and was almost grounded for making up stuff [up north and they wound up refueling a Navy A-3 which then was refueling some F-4s. all low on fuel]). (_ http://tiny.cc/vlzoc )

You're right. Funny story. I was charged with falsifying training records as a -135 IP. I got called into wing and asked to explain why I was logging more training than anyone else. I explained how I was breaking up the :90 required flying to do consecutive departures, holding at arrival fix, air work, penetration, approach, missed approach and then repeat that until we had all the airwork out of the way and could focus on approaches. And that we were going to nearby joint use fields where there weren't any other SAC machines flying 15 mile finals at close to approach speed. I was told I had no authorization to do that. SAC was the epitome of 'If we don't say you CAN, YOU CAN'T!"

But as I have related in all these old war stories, I was the rogue. I was frequently in the wrong. But I learned. Canning a new wing commander for muffs and a culture in place before he got there seems like some others have not. I could be wrong. Again.