slow14U

When I was in, nco's would only drive to get out of ceremonies, and when new tow vehicles came in, they wanted to be the first to drive them. I remember when the new dodges cam in in like 99'. Every damn cat had a nco driver that day.

69Nova355

The only time any of the drivers have any idea when a plane is coming down is if you tell them (which most of the time they aren't informed of this unless the expediter actually tells them [don't rely on the MOC]) and none of the drivers have a copy of the flying schedule, much less even know what a flying schedule is.

Never heard of "turnover for lunch"...here at my shop the driver takes a break and eats when he/she can while holding the radio....or if not that then they pass off the radio to the temporary driver for an hour and are supposed to inform the temporary driver of any pending calls.

At best if we are doing a shift turnover, then yes it can take upwards of 15-25 minutes because the oncoming shift has to acknowledge accountability of the truck/tools/rags/run sheets/radio that the previous shift had before they are dismissed.

But I will agree with you the AGE driver should become acquainted with the expediter and find out when the sorties are flying and when/what all the expediter needs delivered to do his/her job....it would help alleviate the calls an AGE driver would get...I try and teach this to my troops when I can but the sad thing is nobody else in the flight tries to....

PotentialZ28

we give a copy of the flying schedule to the age driver, it kinda makes sense too

69Nova355

Oh wow, was not aware that's how you guys did things over there....

Normally over here the expediter calls it in when he needs it or they call the MOC and then MOC calls us, and usually half the time MOC tells us the wrong thing to bring or the wrong spot to bring it to.

I know if I had a copy of the flying schedule and I was driving I'd set you up with everything you needed LONG before you needed it (unless told otherwise), but I know not everyone has the same though process as I do. Hopefully someone is hemming up whoever the slacker driver is for you.

bayer-z28

iTrader: (14)

I don't know anymore.. I was talking to a guy over in Metals Tech that told me not to go AGE..

I'm just trying to find a good job that the bad side isn't that bad... More/less tolerable. I can't PCS due to retainability. I'll have to reenlist as a Dirtboy, then PCS.. But it'd be harder to crosstrain as a career Airman.

farmdawg

Bayer:

We've talked before, and I thought you were doing ok in NM. I've been a Dirtboy for 11 years now almost 12 and love it. Yeah we get **** on ALOT!!!!! That's what CES stands for, Cleaning Everybody's ****!!! I remember being at my first base on my hands and knees with a wire brush scrubbing paint off of the street that a contractor spilled as he made a turn, no one went after him to clean it up, get the Dirtboyz to go out with a pressure washer and something to scrub it up. There were ab out 6 of us in vests with an Armed SF troop directing traffic around us until 7pm. That's the worst job I've had besides having to help Utilities dig up a broken sewer line, with **** all over the trench and the smell, oh how to describe it? It's not a very glamorous job. I've been deployed a few times now, and you get more respect at deployed bases now, everybody respects the Dirtboyz, and is happy to have them. Your shop may be pretty crappy, but you have to deal with the same type of shitty NCO's and crappy work in every career field, you can't run from it.

In light of the recent news from some pretty high brass, I don't think you're going to have much luck crosstraining, PCS'ing may be your only option to get out of Holloman, but you may not like the new assignment, since most new PCS's are going Red Horse now, to build them up. If you can crosstrain then good luck, I hate to see a good worker and good person leave our career field. I don't want to **** on your parade, but that's the news I got recently, they are going to create a bunch of new slots for Dirtboyz and will be crosstraining others to augment and build up.

405dave

[QUOTE=PotentialZ28]To 405dave, thats just what us maintainers love, the flight engineer telling us whats wrong. If you guys always know whats wrong, and how to fix it, why not fix it? FEs wont even check oil......lazy


LOL! Thats one of the reasons I cross-trained. I became an operator and no longer had to maintain. 10 years in AGE was all the oil checking I needed. I believe the motto "smarter not harder". And as I said earlier I only regret not doing it at 4 years. One last thing. Being an Engineer is hard work, but unlike maint. jobs people respect you and treat you as an equal not a servant. And I always try to recruit maint. guys. I never met one guy that crossed over to "dark side" that would go back.

405dave

Hey 69nova355, Fayettenam was one of my 7-8 assignments. I did 3+ years there from 92-95 if I recall. I was there when they brought in the A-10's and F-16's. They also trucked in the worst junk off someones deadline for equipment to support the planes. We worked 10-12 hours a day for almost 2 years trying to get that junk working. Was the worst assignment I had. I did see a F-16 hit the C-141(parked on Romeo row) after a midair with the C-130. Man what an explosion. I ran and climbed up on a MA-3D airconditioner just as it went off. Almost knocked me off the top of the A/C. I had to do a year in Osan to get out of there. It was worth it because I got BOP and went to Kirtland. Hope its better there now. Dave

slow14U

Well keep in mind that i've been out for ten years and if I had to do it all over again, I would go age all over again. It has it's bad sides, but what job can honestly say they don't have a bad side. Do you want a good technical education? Understanding of hydraulic systems, pneumatic systems, power generation, diesel engines and gas turbine engines and general maintenance practices? Like I said before, these are highly desirable skills sought after in the civilian world. I was the same way when I was in, I thought age sucked, but that's cause of the negetivity of everyone around me, but I still had the desire to learn. Good luck in your choice.

69Nova355

I don't know if it's any better now than it was when you were there....

I've been there since '99, they have A-10's but they got rid of all the F-16's years ago...

Alot of the generators/jammers here are still ****. We've refurbed a few of the generators, but alot of them are ragged out. Same goes for the jammers. We do have fairly new light alls and we just did get some new MC-7's to replace the old ones.

We now have a/c'd Ford bobtails. When I first got here we had them crappy Jeeps that were geared to rev to the moon doing 10 mph...and we had the Dodges....their both gone now.

But we still work out of a 47 year old 'condemned' building that serves as a green house in the summer....the building is falling apart and birds live in the ceiling tiles and **** all over everything below....the floors are dirty because they cemented in the drains in the floors so now we can't wash all the dirt down the drain anymore....the chief systems are half screwed up...the yard is still a cluster **** because it's really too small to do anything in...our wash rack backs up every time a good rains falls...we gave the smaller AGE facility (by the flight line) to the incoming reserve guys.

On top of that our manning is below what we need right now, we are not getting in any more bodies and there's talk the work load is slated to increase when we start having to work on the guards stuff....

I wasn't here for the plane crash, but I've heard all about it, one of the guys at the shop said he witnessed the F-16 nose dive down, then up and then down before hitting the C-141.

One of the guys in my shop came from Kirtland a year ago. I probably know a few guys you once worked with....shoot me a PM, I'll tell you if I know them....

405dave

LOL. I did around 65% of all the NF-2 lightall conversions myself. A big crate showed up one day and had a nice new diesel engine and generator in it. The shop chief picked his butt kissers to do the first one. I laughed at them for taking so long and got told to do the rest. I didn't do the rest but I did a bunch.
QUOTE]But we still work out of a 47 year old 'condemned' building that serves as a green house in the summer....[/QUOTE]

It was that way long before I got there. Truely the worst AGE building in the AF.

STILL!?!?!? LOL

I'm interested to know who this is. They have been there a LONG time. I did 4 PCS moves since then.

When I did time there all the supervision was in a trailer behind the main shop, is it still there?

Nite_Hawk

Rich, personally, if i could i'd cross train into something away from the Flight line. Don't get me wrong i love working on Acft. 10yrs in now, and 10 to go. I just found out for my Career field, if your at Holloman and not on a lock (all Crew Chiefs coming to Holloman are on either code 44 or code 39) meaning lock or assignment freeze for 3-4yrs; you'll either have to pcs to either Korea or try for Langley. So, 150 CC's are screwed right now on what they can do. If they decide to keep them, then they must start SAR clearance for Raptor program and wait and see. Then, they might have to be detail boys or girls until they figure out what to do with them. I know this, cuz our Lead Production super is our Career field Functional manager. You talk to him if you want an assignment.

But, look into something in i'd say Med tech, or X-ray tech. Or hell, do weather. haha.

69Nova355

You must be referring to the NF-2D's....when I got here all of the NF-2's were powered by gasoline and all of the NF-2D's were powered by 3 cylinder Kubota diesels. The engine assembly would slide out of the cabinet.


Yeah the building we work in is still dilapidated.....over the years they replaced the overhead heating system and I think they replaced the roof last year as it would leak every time it would rain....we were supposed to have gotten a new building but BRAC killed that idea.

Yeah the wash rack drain still backs up, I guess the oil separator we have isn't worth a **** because all of the good cleaning solvents we used to have (citri-clean) we can't use anymore because "supposedly" it (and any other detergent we use) dilutes the water/oil content down to where the oil separator can't do it's job....which means our equipment is greasier than Mc Donald's french fries....

Does "Howard Paine" sound familiar?

No, but I have heard about that story from another person you might remember as "James Scaccia". He told us the story about the trailer, and how there was one wire ran overhead that ran from the main shop that served as the phone line.

Not sure in what chronological order this happened in, but from what I've heard, at one time the flight chief's office was located inside the main building on the side where an addition was added in 1994....there were several new rooms added on and one of them (towards the rear half of the building) was where the flight chief's office once was....

But now there is a newer office building at the back of the shop, in the same location of the old trailer.

There's a few old farts still here and others I'm sure you probably remember that I once worked with.

405dave

Howard ?!?! LOL yes I do know him. I considered him a friend. I ran into him at some sandy deployment I can't place. Tell him Dave Campbell said hi. Oh yea, ask him the story about how his brand new Mustang LX got stolen. I do remember he was heart broke after that and did not have money left to get another. Tell him I retired and am living the good life in Alabama. I can't place the other guy but may remember his face if I saw him. After 7-8 assignments you meet alot of people.

69Nova355

I heard about the "stolen Mustang" story from another guy you might remember....Oscar Means.

I think the story went something like this: Howard had just gotten the car new from a local dealership and not even 24 hrs after he got it someone dragged it out of his yard, never to be seen again. I think they even said there were tire marks left in the yard where it was drug away at.

Howard now works for mobility so I seldom see him, but I'll ask sometime. Seeing how you considered him a friend I'm guessing Howard wasn't as disgruntled back then as he is now. Doesn't seem like he likes much of anyone.

Was his car the older body style or the newer?

405dave

Oscar Means is still breathing!?!?!?! Holy cow he seemed old as dirt 12-14 years ago. Ask him if Vernon Dew is still alive, I think they were close. As for the Mustang it was a 93 hatch if I recall. I was running a 93 coupe with a vortech and I believe its the reason Howard bought his. Alot of maint. guys ran a 5.0 back then. Man, this is bringing back alot of memories. Howard never seemed disgruntled anymore than anyone else. Just remember he (and I) came in when the Air Force was nothing but fun and 140% manned. We had to watch and live in it as it turned into the shambles you love today. I got out at 20 (Jan07) and can not understand people staying longer. Give the big guy a break and tell him I said RETIRE!!!! LOL

69Nova355

Yes Oscar Means is still breathing, but he is now retired from the AF as he retired earlier this year I think it was.

He said he was here at Pope '85-'94, then he came back in '04 or '05, I forgot which.

Means told me a few stories about the shop, how the floor used to be painted a nice gray color, and how there used to be a BIG parking lot next door to the main building until it was taken away to make room for the new supply building.

Yes I've noticed the 5.0 thing was very common as the first few years I worked here everyone and their brother had a 5.0....was John Golden here when you were here? He's got a 5.0...and Mike Funk, you probably remember him....he used to have a 5.0....sold it to Ron McNair...


I think Howard is going to be retiring soon, and I agree he should, seems like he's the "can do no wrong" guy, always stressing too much about little things....I know I had to work for him for about 6 months once and I hope to god I never have to work for him again. Others have felt the same. He's completely different at home so I understand.

99WS7

iTrader: (13)

Just curious but since your already in CE, have you ever considered going the firefighter route? Im actually at the academy right now and LOVE it. Ive been a B1 crew chief for 8 years and Im so freakin glad to be out of maint! Maybe you would like age and maybe not. But you might want to look into firefighter. Good luck to ya, I know exactly how you feel.

405dave

I don't recall Golden but Funk I do. The name Ron Mcnair sounds real fimiliar also. There was alot of fast 5.0's there from 90-93. Two of us in the shop and one in metals tech. were running blowers, and NOS was as common as, well, 5.0 mustangs. I drove to Rockingham and ran my car about 2 times a month. It was so cool to drive 50 miles outrun big block, big slick cars and drive home. They hated it. LOL I remember the first time I popped the hood to cool it down, after the Vortech was spotted they were 5 deep trying to look at it. Now if your fast and don't have one its rare. I think I'm building a LQ9, Patriot headed, big cam, N/A car. Cheap speed. LOL

69Nova355

Funk once told us a story of how someone in the shop forgot to deflate the tire while taking apart a split rim and the rim shot up and put a hole in the roof of the main building....were you there when that happened?

Oh, and do you remember Joe Beck? I heard they used to call him "sparky" because of the light all incident...