T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
OLYMPIC EXPRESS
Dave Kutulis, CMS (RET)
In late May of 1969 I along with other maintenance
personnel headed north to
Travis on a big sliver bird where we picked up
additional maintenance personnel
from Travis and McChord. We were headed for
Nuremberg Germany to participate in
the up coming Olympic Express NATO Exercise. The
exercise would deploy Army
personnel from Germany to Greece to participate in
war games. 22nd AF
maintenance would be at Nuremberg while 21st AF
maintenance would be in Greece.
The ALCE at Nuremberg was headed by an O-6 out of
England and was staffed by
ALCE people from the three 22nd AF Wings. On arrival
the O-6 told us what was
expected and that we would have two days to get
settled before the big event.
The only maintenance officer was a Captain from
Travis who decided that all the
Travis people would work days (12 hour shifts) and
the Norton/McChord people
would work nights under the supervision of the CMSGT
from Norton. When the
Chief asked about switching shifts half way through
the Captain said that would
not happen.
The games began and it was kind of hectic for a
while until we got in to the
flow of things. I think it was the second night when
I was getting ready to do
a ground maintenance run when two Lufthansa flight
attendants came by and asked
to look in the aircraft. While they were there we
were getting ready to start
so I told them to have a seat until we were
finished. As I was getting ready to
start a loud voice from behind me said, "Kutulis
what the hell do you think you
are doing". It was the Chief and I said I'm going to
start the engine when the
guy standing behind the Chief said "not with the
women on board". After seeing
that the guy had Captain bars on I saw that I was
over matched so we said
goodbye to the to the girls.
It seems that the O-6 decided that he should have
another Maintenance Officer
so the new guy was sent from Incirlik.
The next morning at shift change he introduced
himself to the Captain from
Travis and the first thing he asked was "what's your
date of rank" when the
Travis guy answered the new guy said we change
shifts half way through.
Needless to say the Travis crowd was not happy.
The next night I was trying to park a bird but the
AC would not follow my
signals (parking was tight) so I turned off the
wands and he stopped real
quick; after a few minutes the wands lite up and we
started over. When he was
parked I climbed up to the flight deck to check his
maintenance status. The AC
said, "Who the hell was directing me I want his name
and serial number". I
looked at him and said "TSgt Kutulis # 12345678"
about that time there was a
loud roar behind me wanting to know who the idiot
was that was driving this
thing and why can't he follow hand signals. I left
the flight deck while I was
ahead, as the AC was stammering trying to answer the
O-6. The O-6 was pissed
because the guy almost hit the roach coach.
At one time we had an inbound on a C-133 and were
trying to see how we could
fit him in the parking plan but he never showed up
which was a relief.
A few days latter the O-6 gathered us up and said
that the next week we where
free and that the First Sergeant had three lists,
one said England, another
said Spain ant the third said Germany. On Sunday
there would be a C-130 in the
morning to take him back to England, latter that day
there would be an
additional C-130 going to Spain. We were to put our
name on a list and if we
were going to England or Spain that there would be
C-130's a week later to
bring you back. But God help the guy who is not back
by 1800 the following
Sunday.
The Chief, a Captain, another guy and I decided to
tour Germany so we took the
train to Munich along with another Captain who was
stationed in Europe. His
wife was to meet him at the train station. When we
got off the train there was
a drop dead gorgeous blonde standing on the
platform. She was wearing black
leather boots a black leather skirt and a black
leather jacket along with a
cream colored sweater with a big collar. She was
getting a lot of attention.
She walked to our group and put her arms around the
young Captain and planted a
big kiss on him. Lucky dude. After introductions she
asked if we were hungry,
which we were so she said she knew just the place
for lunch.
We followed her from the station down an alley and
in to a crowded feeding
establishment. Turned out it was a kitchen run by
nuns and for a very few marks
we had schnitzel, boiled potatoes and drinks. After
lunch the happy couple went
their way and the rest of us spent two days checking
out the town before
heading to Berchtesgaden.
The following Monday the First Sergeant reported to
the O-6 that everyone had
returned with in the allotted time. I would have bet
that some of the guys who
headed to Berlin would have made the Russian gulag.
The next week was a reverse of the first with us on
days. It was the normal
stuff until one bird said he had a nose wheel shimmy
on landing. After checking
it out we could not find a problem so one of the
Lt.Col's on the ALCE staff
decided that a high speed taxi check was called for.
One problem all the crews
were in crew rest so the Lt. Col and another rated
guy said they would do it,
only problem no Flight Engineer for the panel. So
with the blessing from 21st
AF I became a engineer for an hour. We could not
duplicate the problem.
Somewhere in one of the articles on C-141 heaven
there is talk of the shimmy
dampener freezing at altitude; must have happened
here.
The only thing worth mentioning before the exercise
was complete was that my
Captain had met a Flight Attendant who flew for an
Italian Air Line. She had a
place in Nuremberg and invited him over. So being a
Southern gentleman from
Alabama he had the hotel kitchen put together a
dinner for two and when last
seen was getting into a cab with the food, drinks
and flowers. The next morning
he said without going into details that the evening
was money well spent.
We left Nuremberg on a Norton bird full of Dover,
McChord, Travis, and Norton
troops. A Dover crew had the duty to Dover where a
Travis crew took us to
Travis and then one of the Norton crews took us
home. It was one of the best,
if not the best deployment I was on while assigned
to MAC.
Dave Kutulis CMS (Ret)
63rd MAW 67-71
58th WRS 71-74
62nd MAW 74-75
Lancaster Ca.