Quote Originally Posted by Bawanna View Post
Never knew you was a pilot Old Lincoln. You've been holding out on us some.
Nope not a pilot! Pilots were a dime a dozen, but only 1 crew chief per kc135 and that was me. It was all mine and loving to fly I flew 95% of when it flew. Mostly sat in the jump seat between pilots and silently critiqued them. Had favorites and loosers. Always great jobbed the winners and no comment to others. My altimeter favorite was on who on a calm day would set it down so softly passengers (whe we had them) couldn't tell. I'd quietly tell the one next to me we're down and they'd usually laugh until the spoilers popped up and breaking. The looser's thought dropping my puppy from 3 feet was normal. I absolutely loved my job and the organization was great. The absolute only reason for getting out was 1 rotc worm that carried a Ceasars complex and actually shut down operations to force a barracks cleanup. I was in ear range when the first shirt caught up with him breathing fire. The LT stupidly tried to pull rank on him and boy howdy that didn't last long. The green LT disappeared shortly after. My grief was the possibility of others in a second hitch with no guarantees of deployment. They promised a promotion which was pushed hard by everybody except the wing commander who declared nobody goes nco the first hitch.
Had second thoughts for many years afterwards.