Ex USAF myself. Mostly in Germany and loved driving the Autobahn. Don't think the MRCC would've been very practical on that. Nor would BLIS.

 

You can appreciate and understand some of the humor in this short story then?
After he was transferred to fly KC-135 Stratotanker , later then HC130 where he was awarded a Purple heart and silver star and then demoted from Major to Capt. for the act getting him the silver star. LOL I was to young to ever know about these events until later years. So, the fun starts, he was flying jets and while in a combat training exercise his wing man did a bad low altitude (100 feet) maneuver and damaged my dad's aileron. He was ordered to eject from the plane, but my dad decided a landing was better option. So, he nursemaid his plane at bare minimum thrust and landed the plane. Although he saved the multi-million-dollar plane and did not have to eject, he still disobeyed a direct order and was delayed being promoted to Capt. and also as punishment reassigned to a Tanker. KC135. So in one respect being transferred up until he was transferred to HC130 he never saw combat. The funny thing is he flew the HC130 like it was a fighter and his crew loved and admired him. The funny thing is he was later promoted back to Major and then again demoted for flying a HC130 from Australia back to US with unknown to him the Aussies painted extremely Large RED kangaroo on the bottom of the fuselage. The Aussies liked him and his crew and wanted to give him something special to bring home. LOL Then just before he retired, he was again promoted to Major (3rd time) he and my mom at a formal dress banquet at the officer's club my mom drinking a bit to much (martinis was the drink favored for the time period) and the base commander wife as a bit boozed- up got into a verbal argument later leading to my dad again being demoted to Capt. LOL My dad finally retired out of Hamilton AFB relocating all the HC-130s to Travis AFB in Sacramento CA and as part of the base forecloser and also decommission the last 2 “Shaky” aka Douglas C-124 Globemaster II after decades of support service.
BTW he is still alive and coming up on 93 years of age.

 

Incredible. Did he retire as a major? Do you know when he relocated the 130's to Travis?

 

I see Hamilton was decommissioned in I think 1973. When did he retire?

 

So great that your dad is still with you. And a great story about him. Here's some unsolicited advice - videotape him. Get him to tell as many stories as he can recall. A major regret that I have is that, though dad lived to be 89, and my mom 82, I don't have a single video of them. You probably guessed that I'm not into tech. Nor on social media, almost no selfies, yada yada, no videos of my deceased German wife, or even of our cats that lived to be 19 and 21. Take videos, get more stories!

 

The decommission of Hamilton AFB took a few years
Many of the HC130s transferred to Travis were recommissioned into the Coastguard still used by them today . Some are flown regularly close to me out of *McClellan AFB (*now mostly privately owned really dumb Clinton decision ) but realigned to US Coast Guard as CGAS Sacramento

He retired in 01/01/1970


Yes this is a great idea for all reading that have parents that are getting very old. I started all of your suggestion a few years ago. Regrettably not soon enough. He know remembers sporadically past evets but we are ready with pen paper and cell phone to record stories that come to his thoughts.
Btw he is also one that joined the Air force fresh out of High School as a "private" and worked his way up to become a pilot.

 

I was an air traffic controller at Vandenberg AFB mid 86 to mid 87. VAFB was prepped as a space shuttle base for launch and landing but all that changed after the Challenger disaster. Since the runways had been extensively widened and lengthened for this, it became a major field for military flight practice. All the nearby bases including Travis would send their aircraft here for practice. Was hoping your dad was one of the pilots since that'd mean we've spoken! He retired much earlier though.

I have some collectible militaria. One item is a reproduction WWII leather flight jacket made in Seattle. In the 90's the jacket maker, John Chapman, took a jacket to a local air show where there were a handful of WWII pilots. He had several veterans sign the lining of this one jacket that I own. Some were purportedly aces, plus flight crew and other pilots. Here's a photo of the lining where they signed. It's been cleaned and they're not easily read. One or two signatures at the far bottom are at an angle and very faint. Do you see your dad's signature here? Long shot I know.

 

His call sign was Pregnant Needle, and sorry no it’s not on the jacket
Did you ever hear about the UFO chase near Vandenberg ? Several USAF planes involved including one HC130. 😉
The details were released under the freedom of information act. But good luck actually finding the info. But I am sure as a traffic controller their even though it was years before you heard about it.👽

 

Well that was a long shot. Pregnant Needle, haha, can't say I recall that one. Can't say I recall that UFO incident either, but I know of others. I was actually involved with one in 1997 over NYC. There was a Discovery channel special including it and even a little book written. There used to be more audio of it online but there may only be a small portion of it on YouTube nowadays. It involved Swiss Air 127 (SWR127), a 747.

 

My dad is 6'2 and 155/bs and at the time when he flew jets he like most drank beer. So that combination gave him a slight beer belly but on his from the side... "Pregnant Needle".


So the thought often answered now by more available information by many now ... the belief in UFO's! LOL such a interesting topic on the Quantum Physic's forum I belong to, LOL

There was a conspiracy underground tape that was circulated in the late 70's early 80s from the person only named as Dr.Baiter.. These were primarily under the entertain topic of "cover-up by well you know who. In it inside from the usual information about worldwide so called "secrets" there were occasionally recordings of cockpit pilot and tower communication chasing UFO which included radar tracking from several triangle points or tracking origin. ALL participants were sworn at the time for national security Not to ever talk about them. I have listened to many of them and for the most parts "LOL" but now with all the interesting information that has come about makes you really wonder?

Ok so now I got go and see if the silver paint is dried on my Frisbee yet so I can toss it around in the air today.