I came from Houndog, and made TSgt in July of ’71 in my Houndog AFSC (31670Q). Since I had seven years in, that caused a little heartburn; the P shred-out (drone) analysts had about 14-18 years time in service for tech that cycle. I made it the same cycle as Drager, Jacobs, Schmidt, and several other long-time 100th guys. We all got past it somehow.
I arrived at the 100th AMMS in April 71, and roomed in the barracks with George Van Meter while I house-hunted.
We bought a house on 32nd St, just up from the Craycroft gate. We had one son at the time, just beyond three years old. Our second son was born in ’72. We lived in the same house until we left in June ’79. I bought the house for $17K and sold it for $42K…
I was picked to run the operational testing for the R model, so I had the factory school, but unfortunately right there at D-M. Dana Robin was the other analyst working the R with me, and we had a good time working together.
As part of my participation in the R model testing, I was read into part of the Combat Dawn program that most people weren’t allowed to know. For that reason, all of my OL tours were restricted to Osan. I made five trips and was there at the closure. I was identified as the courier for the C-5 that brought our equipment home so I ‘owned’ two CH-3 helicopters, three AQM-34R drones, a TPW-2 van, and the HARC van. I was a multi-millionaire TSgt for about 36 hours.
When the writing was on the wall that SAC was getting out of the drone business, we all started getting orders. Charley Zink was up at SAC by then, and he told me I was under his control for assignment. I immediately requested instructor duty at the 512th FTD, and since it was an on base PCA without PCS he couldn’t stop it. I taught analyst classes for the M and V, as well as ARCO, DRO, and LCO courses for both drones. I even taught the full bird that took over the tactical drone group. I was the first Master Instructor in the drone side of the house, and that motivated George Black, John Crittenden, and Don Wadsworth to catch up. We all made MSgt together in ’78.
I stayed at D-M from April ’71 to June ’79. I was then sent to W-P, to the B-52/ cruise missile program office. I managed the development of the tech orders for the aircraft, missile, and support equipment. Later, I picked up the B-52 electronic countermeasures and automatic test equipment. I also managed the automatic test equipment manuals for the B-1, B-2, and B-52 including the test packages for all carried missiles. I made Senior in ’81 and Chief in ’84. I retired in ’86 and went to work immediately as a support contractor. I helped put the new attack radar and terrain following radar on the F-111 just in time for Desert Storm, and then worked the digital flight control system for the F-111. When the F-111 was retired, I moved to the C-130J program while the first contract was in work. By then, my resume qualified me to work all aspects of logistics. I wrote major portions of the contracts, the logistics plans, and the test plans. In the twelve years since, I led the site activation team, the field support team, and solely managed the reliability and maintainability programs. I saw the C-130J deploy to the sandbox and perform much better than the older models, and that was very rewarding.
My sons have grown, and Peg and I now have five grandchildren. David III is a Dayton police officer, and Bill is a restaurant manager.
Career chronology:
Jul – Aug 64 Basic – 3706 BMTS
Aug – Jun 65 Chanute AFB, IL, Houndog tech school – 3348 StuSq
Jul 65 – Feb 67 Turner AFB, GA, Houndog Analyst – 484th AMMS
(Mar – Sep 66 Anderson AFB, Guam, ARC LIGHT bomb loading crew)
Mar 67 – Apr 68 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, Houndog Analyst – 17th AMMS
Apr – Aug 68 Homestead AFB, FL, Houndog Analyst (108 day PCS!) – 19th AMMS
Aug 68 – Apr 71 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, Houndog Analyst – 17th AMMS
Apr 71 – Dec 75 Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, SPA/Drone Analyst – 100th AMMS
Qualified on AQM-34H thru V. 14 Months at OL-OA, also Holloman, Pt Mugu, Edwards and Ft Huachuca.
Jan 76 – Jun 79 Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, Master Instructor, RPV – 512th FTD
Taught M, M(L), V analysts, R and V LCO, V GRCO/RCO, including new TAC Wing Commander.
Jun 79 – Nov 86 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, Technical Order Management Agency – Strategic Systems Program Office.
Aug 86 – Nov 90 Dayton OH, Atlantic Research Corp. F-111 logistics planning for new radar and flight control systems. (92 days terminal leave allowed me to start before retirement)
Nov 90 – Nov 09 Fairborn, OH, Project Manager – LOGTEC Corp. Continued F-111 tasks until completion in Feb ’95. Transferred to new start program for C-130J. Prepared logistics planning documents, led field support and site activation teams, managed 14 direct employees and over thirty sub-contractor staff. Retired Nov 09.