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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 18, 2023 7:24:35 GMT 12
A great field trip.  |
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boz
Sergeant
Posts: 15 
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Post by boz on Jul 20, 2023 17:56:12 GMT 12
During Triad 84 I was rostered on the Hobby baggies bar. After the first night of having the yanks come in and throw down great handfuls of what they called "funny money", no kiwi paid for a drink for the rest of the week! Giving them slugs of "purple death" was fun to watch. They were great company, very friendly, and always happy to talk. There was a few stunned looks from the americans when they discovered that rather than the 16 crew to an airframe that they had for the F15, that kiwis generally had only 2 or 3 at best for anything we had. They took specialisation to a scary level.
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Post by skyhawkdon on Jul 21, 2023 16:04:52 GMT 12
Yes I remember a discussion with one of the USAF AWACS guys and asked what trade he was and what he looked after on the aircarft. He said he was the "Panel A" man. He only looked after whatever was behind "Panel A"! I guess there was some security reason he didn't elaborate what was behind Panel A being an AWACS aircraft, but he didn't seem to know anything about any other part of the aircraft!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 21, 2023 18:23:37 GMT 12
I remember being told that they had one trade that only repacked brake chutes, nothing else, and they'd been amazed to hear my trade packed brake chutes, large and small cargo chutes, man-carrying chutes, emergency escape chutes for ejection seats, life rafts, life preservers, survival packs, plus maintained survival vests, QRF's, helmets, harnesses, etc.; plus all the spray painting and upholstery design and build stuff...
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Post by tbf2504 on Jul 22, 2023 13:55:21 GMT 12
There are many stories along the same lines where we have turned up with minimum ground crew to effect and engine change etc. However, what we tend to forget is that the american manpower systems are based on a rapid mobilisation requirement so that you can induct masses of personnel and train them very quickly on just one aspect of servicing rather that have to train them in-depth before they can be deployed, by which time the baddies have probably overun the US of A and they would all be prisoners of war!!!
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Post by machina on Jul 22, 2023 20:37:30 GMT 12
There are many stories along the same lines where we have turned up with minimum ground crew to effect and engine change etc. However, what we tend to forget is that the american manpower systems are based on a rapid mobilisation requirement so that you can induct masses of personnel and train them very quickly on just one aspect of servicing rather that have to train them in-depth before they can be deployed, by which time the baddies have probably overun the US of A and they would all be prisoners of war!!! Thanks for the interesting insight. |
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Post by StuArmourer on Aug 18, 2023 4:26:14 GMT 12
I remember talking to an egress guy he didnt know what or where the gun was. It all seems a little wasteful. They were also shocked that we cross trained to help out the other trades. They were fun though
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