T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
Australia, 1968, Part 2
Dave Kutulis, CMS (RET)
In October 68 I made my second trip to Australia
along with another crew
chief and a crew from either the 14th or 15th MAS
I'm not sure which but the
Aircraft Commander on this crew was a 180 degrees
different than the one on my
first trip. He was an older Lt. Colonel who looked
like he had a few miles on
him. He was courteous, did not raise his voice but
once on the whole trip and
treated everyone the same no matter what their
position. In the right seat we
had a Butter Bar who thought he knew the ways of the
world.
Leaving Norton we
headed to Travis to pick up our cargo, which
consisted of equipment for the
NASA tracking station at Alice Springs. Enroute to
Hickam the two guys in
front where in heated debate with the old guy making
a statement and the kid
telling him he was wrong. It's night, no it's day
light, that's water down
there no it's cloud cover. Finally the rest of the
crew took off their headsets
and let them have at it.
Leaving Hickam the next day after we leveled off the
old guy asked the
loadmaster for a cup of coffee.
The load responded with "We are not having
coffee on this leg, I don't drink it but have been
serving it for years. We are
serving iced tea". Could have heard a pin drop.
After a few minutes the
intercom came to life with the old guy asking the
load to bring him an iced tea
when he had time. You could feel the tension drain.
Our arrival at the speck of
land in the middle of the ocean was uneventful but
this time I made sure some
one would get food for the other crew chief and
myself. While we were
preparing to depart a guy who looked older than the
old guy showed up and asked
which way we where going. He was wearing one-piece
white coveralls with T/SGT
stripes on the sleeves. His story was he was the
last of a deployment of the
58th WRS that had been doing high altitude air
sampling of the latest French A
Bomb test. He had fuel bladders full of fuel and
equipment that needed to get
back to Kirtland AFB and he could not go home until
the task was complete. The
old guy told him that presently we were supposed to
be empty on the return trip
but that he would see what he could do. When we
reached cruising altitude the
load announced that he would now be serving coffee.
I think the Flight
Engineers told him bad things would happen if he
served tea again.
On our decent to Richmond we had to put up with some
pretty high winds. The
Butter Bar was at the controls and the old guy kept
telling him to "get it down
Lt. you're too high" after the third "get it down"
the old guy said "my airplane" and pushed the
control column forward.
I was in the jump seat and the corn stalks in the
field at the end of the runway were coming up pretty
fast.
Finally he pulled back on the controls and set us
down as if nothing had
happened. Later that night in the hotel at Kings
Cross the TV reported winds in
excess of seventy miles per hour.
The next day at Alice Springs everything was
fine until it came time to crank the APU, seems
someone with FE after his name
forgot to build up hydraulic pressure for the #3
system before he shut down the
power. It was well over a hundred degrees and we all
shared in the hand
pumping.
Fast forward to the little spot in the water. When
we landed we were directed
to the fuel bladders were a thirsty sliver bird had
her fill. While we were
refueling everyone on the flight with the exception
of the navigator (he was
sleeping) became air freight specialist pushing and
pulling all the rolling
stock on board. I told the old guy that the nose
tires were pretty beat up and
I thought that they should be changed but he said as
long as they had air in
them they would be fine. As we taxied out that old
T/SGT waved goodbye. Little
did I know that in a few years we would become good
friends.
At Hickam I told the other crew chief to take off
and I would handle the plane,
after refueling they towed me off the pit to 24 row
next to a EC-135P doing
engine trims. I had to use the radio and have Hickam
ground contact the MAC
maintenance control when ever I needed any thing
since not at any time did an
expediter stop by. I was stuck there all night.
Since two years earlier I
crewed the 135 parked next to me I spent some time
talking with them (didn't
know any of them) but they ran me to the terminal to
get some food and coffee.
I was not a big fan of the enroute support at
Hickam.
The next morning the old
guy was concerned when I did not show up to meet the
crew bus and no one know
where I was. When the crew showed up the old guy
took me to the terminal for
breakfast. Sometime during the night the load got
switch and we left for home
with pallets.
The day before I left on the trip I was told in no
uncertain terms that I
better not bring the plane back with Red Kangaroo's
painted on it like on my
first trip. In 1971 I was assigned to the 58 WRS and
met up with the old T/SGT,
we spent two ten-day deployments at Mendoza
Argentina together courtesy of the
French and their toys.
A check of Wikipedia shows that France did not sign
or
ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty until 1992.
Dave Kutulis CMS (Ret)
63rd MAW 67-71
58th WRS 71-74
62nd MAW 74-75
Lancaster Ca.