Recently, I realized that I haven’t been maintaining and nurturing
this blog as much as I should be. To help acclimate myself to the Christmas season, I decided to adorn this blog in festive colors of green and red.
During Veterans Day, I met a veteran FB-111 crew chief from
the 509th Bombardment Wing at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire. Murph served with the 509th from 1982 until 1990 with a brief one year stint at Suwon Air Base, Korea during that time. I was amazed by some of the war stories Murph told me.
For example he told me that after the April 1986 raid on
Libya, Operation El Dorado Canyon, aircrew of the 509th were placed on
cockpit-alert in support of Strategic Air Command's Single Integrated Operational Plan
(S.I.O.P.) and Emergency War Orders. I
suppose this was only a contingency to preempt any threats to national security
as a result of the Libya raid.
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| An FB-111A Aardvark in the alert shelter at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire. Via FB-111A.net |
The second interesting story was about an FB-111 that came
back from a mission. Apparently the
aircraft had flown such a low TFR (terrain following RADAR) profile that it
came in contact with the top of pine trees.
Pine needles were actually found on the bottom of the aircraft.
 |
| The TFR patch. Via CodeOne Magazine. |
Thanks Murph, I salute you!
