AlbieF15
F15 Ret/FDX/InterviewPrep
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Posts
- 1,764
SR,
I'll drop the fighter bravado now that you acknowledge a few good bros still serve...'nuf said.
141 warhorse was a neat bird, too--especially if it took you for 3-5 years to Charleston...not a bad life.
OV-10 was fun, but after assignment night when you get your RIPs and see "AGOS" you go "WTFO?" You learn about 50% of your job is on the ground with the Army as a ground FAC. You know your aren't in Kansas anymore when part of your job description is keeping qualified in the M-16 (and I'm NOT kidding). Let me tell you...the Army REALLY listens to an AF 2Lt when he makes suggestions on using Air Power during an exercise...(NOT!)
My OV-10 bought me several ground TDYs, including REFORGER and Hoenfels Training Excercise TDYs to Europe. You haven't been cold until you've been a wet, sleeping on the ground, Germany in the winter cold. I never appreciated the WWII footage of the battle of the bulge until I did that REFORGER one January.
The airplane was a hoot to fly....sort of a cross between a King Air and a citabria, if that makes any sense at all. Big and turbine like a King Air, slow and acro like a a citabria. You could stop the plane in 600 feet with reverse thrust. Single engine was its only threat...like many light twins it would roll and its back and kill you if you got below Vmc and ignored your feet. Otherwise...it was a slow, forgiving, fun little plane. (Eagle guys turn your heads away and don't read this...) and dropping bombs and shooting rockets on the range was a blast.
Now...the other thing the assignment got me was a front row seat with the Army during the Gulf War. Let me emphatically state I DID NOT FEEL LUCKY AT ALL about that at the time. Everyone I knew was flying, and I was in a war on the ground, for heaven's sake! I later learned the Marines lost one of their OV-10Ds (and maybe two...any Semper Fi types know?) early in the campaign. The airplane was simply not equipeed to deal with the the SA-7/14/16 type threats, and was slow enough to get DRILLED by triple A if you got too low. So...maybe I was in a better place on the ground... Anyway...like most USAF OV-10 guys, the good news was your ALFA tour was done, you learned a bit about yourself and your sister services, and you typically moved on to a pretty good fighter job afterwards. After the war, we flew about another 10 months, then parceled off our planes to the boneyard, the Phillipines, Columbia, Venuzula, and the BLM.
As for the 141...I guess we answered the question "what's the worst that can happen if we keep flying them another 5 years?" Glad nobody got hurt...
Fly safe....
I'll drop the fighter bravado now that you acknowledge a few good bros still serve...'nuf said.
141 warhorse was a neat bird, too--especially if it took you for 3-5 years to Charleston...not a bad life.
OV-10 was fun, but after assignment night when you get your RIPs and see "AGOS" you go "WTFO?" You learn about 50% of your job is on the ground with the Army as a ground FAC. You know your aren't in Kansas anymore when part of your job description is keeping qualified in the M-16 (and I'm NOT kidding). Let me tell you...the Army REALLY listens to an AF 2Lt when he makes suggestions on using Air Power during an exercise...(NOT!)
My OV-10 bought me several ground TDYs, including REFORGER and Hoenfels Training Excercise TDYs to Europe. You haven't been cold until you've been a wet, sleeping on the ground, Germany in the winter cold. I never appreciated the WWII footage of the battle of the bulge until I did that REFORGER one January.
The airplane was a hoot to fly....sort of a cross between a King Air and a citabria, if that makes any sense at all. Big and turbine like a King Air, slow and acro like a a citabria. You could stop the plane in 600 feet with reverse thrust. Single engine was its only threat...like many light twins it would roll and its back and kill you if you got below Vmc and ignored your feet. Otherwise...it was a slow, forgiving, fun little plane. (Eagle guys turn your heads away and don't read this...) and dropping bombs and shooting rockets on the range was a blast.
Now...the other thing the assignment got me was a front row seat with the Army during the Gulf War. Let me emphatically state I DID NOT FEEL LUCKY AT ALL about that at the time. Everyone I knew was flying, and I was in a war on the ground, for heaven's sake! I later learned the Marines lost one of their OV-10Ds (and maybe two...any Semper Fi types know?) early in the campaign. The airplane was simply not equipeed to deal with the the SA-7/14/16 type threats, and was slow enough to get DRILLED by triple A if you got too low. So...maybe I was in a better place on the ground... Anyway...like most USAF OV-10 guys, the good news was your ALFA tour was done, you learned a bit about yourself and your sister services, and you typically moved on to a pretty good fighter job afterwards. After the war, we flew about another 10 months, then parceled off our planes to the boneyard, the Phillipines, Columbia, Venuzula, and the BLM.
As for the 141...I guess we answered the question "what's the worst that can happen if we keep flying them another 5 years?" Glad nobody got hurt...
Fly safe....
