FORT BRAGG 3

We were at Bragg a few times and actually got to do some level 3 maintenance.  That was mainly swapping boxes and antennas.  a few of us were looking at the inside of an H-19 or H-34, I don't remember which.  One of the guys was climbing up the inside stairs from the cabin to the cockpit and he spotted a relief tube.  That was a flexible rubber or plastic tube with a funnel like thing on the end and mounted below the pilots seats.  Yes, that's exactly what it is for. That's why they call it a relief tube.   Anyway, the guy pulled it over to his face and was talking into the funnel like thing and saying things like testing, testing, etc.  He said that with all the electronic intercom stuff he wondered why they had to use a rubber hose to talk....... We were all laughing so hard that it took a few seconds to tell him what it was used for.  He climbed out and spit for 10 minutes.  Ignorance is dangerous. 

I was fortunate that while I was at Bragg I was able to fly home for the weekend a few times.  I would go to operations on Friday and see what, if anything, was going from there to Atlanta and what may be coming back on Sunday.  They had an L-19 (Bird dog) going Friday evening and returning on Sunday night.  The Birddog was a hopped up two place Cessna observation plane.  I have seen them put full flaps and lock the brakes, and rev the engine to red line and just about jump off of the runway hanging on the prop.

 You could fly, space available, on any military aircraft at that time if you were in class A uniform (Dress Uniform) .  Some of our guys in the radar platoon were helping them install G.C.A. (Ground Control Approach) radar at Simmons Field.  They were telling us that it was not going well and was not reliable. 

L-19 Birddog

I caught my flight with no problem and my Father picked me up at the Fulton County Airport 3rd Army flight detachment that night and brought me back on Sunday.  All went well until we had some fog and the pilot said that we may have to land at Fort Jackson.  He was on the radio and said , no problem because they had the G.C.A. up at Simmons now.  I didn't say what the radar guys had been telling us.  It was socked in pretty good and you couldn't see the lights on the ground.  I knew what the instruments did and was keeping track of what was happening.  We passed the marker beacons at the proper time and altitude but I didn't trust it.  The pilot pointed the nose down and followed the needle on the I.L.S. (Instrument Landing System).  The G.C.A. operator was telling him "your azimuth is good, your altitude is fine, stay on glide slope, blah, blah.  You couldn't see anything.  I was sort of, .....tense!  The operator calmly said "4 seconds till touchdown.  Take over manually".  I still didn't see anything but then we broke out of the fog and it was clear as a bell near the ground and we were over the end of the runway and landed with no problem.

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.
Christian Nestell Bovee 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_fear.html#YCEU4Vrc2mIH8ly2.99