All quiet on the southern front.  Still hot and dry, had some thunderstorms, but nowhere near enough rain.  Still taking care of the little old ladies in my family, but at least everyone is healthy.  Took a weekend trip up to Michigan to see the oldest of my two younger brothers, nice relief from the 90’s and 100’s, only in the 80’s and clear skies, no haze.  Doing well and enjoying the single life, like me.  My youngest brother, who is approaching retirement from the Air Force after a 20 year career as a crew chief and flight engineer, is looking hard for a new career and working on a master’s degree in Business Administration.  He’ll retire as a Tech Sergeant, such is the life of enlisted aircrew.  He knew that if he stayed as a crew chief, he’d get promoted more, but he wanted more travel and excitement in his life, and boy did he get it.  At one point, a couple of years ago, he had the most days TDY for his KC-10 squadron than anyone else, and that’s pretty hard to do for an AMC squadron.  If my memory serves me right, he had 421 days TDY over a two year period—and this was during the time when they were suppose to limit TDY’s to less than 400 days over a two year period.  He’s just gotten tired of the enlisted harassment program (similar to the old aircrew harassment program we used to experience on alert.)  The morning after he submitted his retirement application (done over the Internet these days), he was called into his commander’s office and asked why he didn’t tell them he was going to submit retirement papers—no question of why he was retiring, what he was going to do, or any sources of disaffection. I hate commanders like that.  His experience was obviously different than mine, an enlisted guy versus an officer, but he’s going to have a great future in any event.  He’s already had inquiries stimulated by his resume from companies like Norfolk Southern and US Airways about his experience in logistics movements and training (he’s a KC-10 flight engineer FTU instructor at McGuire AFB.) 

Our family research into our genealogy has traced our ancestry back to 1792, to Joseph Blackwood who died that year in what was then called the 96 District, of which Spartanburg County was a part.  He was my great-great-great-great-great grandfather (8 generations, 10 if you include my son and grandson.)  I’ve also been doing a lot of reading about the history of Spartanburg and South Carolina.  No historical figures stand out except the SC governor, I. C. Blackwood (a great-great uncle), during the Great Depression. 

Chuck, I like your article (actually, I like all your articles).  I remember that the aircraft commander was responsible for everything that happened on the aircraft, and we knew that as we got higher in rank and responsibility, we were going to be held accountable for everything under us, and we accepted that.  We didn’t like it, but it kept us on our toes.  That’s why pilots got promoted in SAC (oh, that’s going to piss off the nav’s), our willingness to accept the responsibility and respond properly to it.  I made mistakes, but the chain seemed to always pick up whether it was an error in my training or an attempt to break the rules and disciplined accordingly.  I’m hoping that Gen Raaberg has that good sense—I knew him at JSTPS when he was a Lt Col and I was a Major, and he always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders.  Does anyone know if it was a Barksdale aircrew or Minot aircrew that flew with the weapons?  I know it was Minot who prepped the weapons and loaded them, but then I think of the chain of events and where the error could have been detected and stopped.  The missile prep crew made the big mistake, not properly preparing the missiles for transport, but none of the commanders and supervisors along the way were asking the right questions, or any questions.  I was never surprised to see a white-top car in front of my aircraft during an alert swap-over.  We’d scoff that they were covering their a**, but we made sure we dotted the i’s and cross the t’s.  It was the right thing to do—you can trust your people, but you still need to get out of the office and check things yourself, whether you’re a colonel or a MSgt.

Pontification over, peace out, as Reed says…

Elwood