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When Hollywood Ruled The Skies - Volumes 1 through 4 by Bruce Oriss


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PostPosted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 11:17 am 
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Here's a site with some neat info on AFTN at NKP.

http://www.aftn.net/AFTN/NKP/NKP-Station1.htm

Sure would be nice to have an actual music lineup played back then to play in the hangar as we work on Kay. We will work from a list of what was popular at the time but an actual list would be cool.


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 9:56 am 
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………….
……….As I remember, all of the ammo boxes were the same size. Randy probably will be the best source since he lived & breathed the gun system while he was there.

I'm with you Bob. I don't remember the boxes being different sizes. I think they were all the same size. I know the manual shows the short long ones on the bottom and the taller ones on top, but I sure have no recollection of that. They also list different part numbers for each one, left and right. The ones I remember were the tall ones, about the size of a 20mm ammo can. They were fiberglass with aluminum frames, corners, etc. The fiberglas was kind of a real dark red. They had a handle on each end to pick it up with.
Like someone mentioned earlier, after lifting 50 or 60 of those loaded boxes off the truck bed and hoisting them into the gun bay, you didn't need any weight lifting at the days end. I know there are pictures and video showing loading the ammo into the boxes on the plane. We found that too time consuming. We had an ammo tent between the ramp and runway which we kept a small mountain of .50 cal belted. We would take the boxes there, load them, then take them back. A lot of our ammo came linked in 100 rd boxes, so it had to be linked together to make up 350rd strings.
The gun nose that Kermit Weeks had at Fantasy of flight did have the two different size boxes. I don't know if I just don't remember the small boxes or of On Mark may have modified the K's to take one size box. In any event, each box held 350 rds, plus what you could get in the belt up to the gun.

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 10:10 am 
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This is the best pic of the ammo box I can find.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:18 am 
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We think we know where we might find some of those ammo feed chutes, but how do they attach to the box? Are the connections part of the chute itself or is it a separate part or fixture? Understand the chutes can be a bear to handle if you get your finger pinched?? Thanks!
On another note, please remember the 9-11 victims of the terrorist attacks on US soil and all those subsequently lost since. Their families deserve our gratitude and prayers. JR


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 7:12 am 
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Don't remember about the belt connectors where they attached to the boxes. I know they clipped onto the guns easily. There was lugs on the side of the gun where they could be attached to either side, depending on which side you installed the gun on. To de-arm the guns, you would open the top cover, disconnect the belt and let it drop into the gun bay. Then, in the underside of the top of the gun bay were two electric air solenoids, one for each bank of guns used for charging the guns in flight. These solenoids have a manual override button on them. After disconnecting the belts, you would push the button to put the guns in holdback and pull the round out of the chamber. If it didn't drop into the brass bay you would knock it out with a big screwdriver. The solenoids are still on Kay, I looked the last time I was there. If you look at the war movies, the tripod mounted 50's had a big handle on the side to manually charge the guns. Air pressure was the only way to charge them on the 26.

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http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 4:09 pm 
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A26 Special K wrote:
Bob, do you have any recollection of listening to the Armed Forces Radio station located at NKP?


Sorry to take so long to answer, but there were Margaritas and a beach getting in the way. Well... in reality, you sparked me to write more than just a couple of lines. So here goes...

We listened to AFN all the time. It was all we had. A lot of folks think we got Hanoi Hanna, but not so. At least I never listened to her and don’t know anyone that did. So if we were going to have anything it was AFN. I should qualify that a little bit. Guys bought a load of stereo equipment while they were there. Nearly everyone had an amplifier, reel-to-reel tape machines, turn-tables and massive speakers in the hooch. Most of the stuff was stuffed in their lockers. So the music played at the hooch was whatever music the guys liked best.

That said, most other places had some kind of radio tuned to AFN. For those of us humping bombs out on the flightline there was nothing. But the guys working in the ammo shack, the fuse shack, end-of-runway (arm/de-arm) there was always a radio blaring out AFN.

Most of the music was top 40 of the day. There was no one as talented as Adrian Chronauer (Good Morning Vietnam) but most of the DJs were pretty good. Of course there was the “Country & Western hour” every day (we turned it off)… some soothing music Sunday mornings (at least I think so; I never knew when it was Sunday; every day was like every other)… and I suppose there must have been a polka hour and a Laurence Welk hour but I never listened to those either.

There was the news every hour and every half hour (I think). We all listened to that. It was sort of sanitized, but not as much as portrayed in Good Morning Vietnam. We seemed to get the good, the bad, and the ugly of the news… just like now.

NKP got one of the first (if not the first) radio stations in Thailand. The daytime and evening broadcasts were from the local station. The rest of the time the broadcast was linked into other locations. I remember working in the fuse shack during the wee hours of the morning and the broadcast was from “AFRS Radio Saigon”.

NKP also got a TV station while I was there. It wasn’t much good to most of us because no one had a television set. Slowly a few TVs started to appear in day-rooms and such… but there just weren’t very many around. My only memory of watching television was during a chow break… I only had a few minutes and there were a lot of guys crowded around a very small black & white TV. It was the first moon landing in 1969. I didn’t get to watch the landing or very much at all… we had bombs to load… trucks out on the trail to kill.

I’ll share a couple of very vivid memories of AFN radio with everyone. As I mentioned, the radio station played “Top 40” types of music. They would also mix in an “oldie” or two. But it was mostly stuff from only a few years back. In 1965 the Animals recorded a song and you always knew when it was playing… even if you were working on the flightline. You would hear it start at the end of the flightline near the maintenance hooch where the radio was always playing… even if no one was in there. You would hear guys on the flightline start singing it. Pretty soon everyone up and down the flightline would stop what they were doing and sing at the top of their voice:

“WE GOTA GET OUTA THIS PLACE,
IF IT’S THE LAST THING WE EVER DO
WE GOTA GET OUTA THIS PLACE
GIRL THERE’S A BETTER LIFE FOR ME AND YOU”

The other memory is ummmm… well, it’s about what young GIs sometimes do in far off lands. (I’ll try to keep this as “PG” as I can.) At NKP, young men being young men, would often seek female companionship in some of the local establishments. Some of the places had names like the “Boom-Boom Club”. (I don’t think there was actually a place with that name, but you get the idea.) Each of the “ladies” working in the establishments were required to have a “health card” and each card had a number. The “ladies” were required to have frequent “check-ups”. If the “lady” was found to need “medical treatment”, the health official would hold on to the lady’s card during treatment and report the card number.

Each day the list of card numbers for the ladies undergoing treatment was read on air. Rather than some announcer just reading a list of numbers, there was “appropriate” music played in the background. So imagine if you will, Jerry Lee Louis’ “Great Balls of Fire” playing as the numbers were announced. Other music I remember with great amusement was Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, and the Rolling Stones “Honky Tonk Women”.

It seems that when the numbers were read, a lot of people stopped doing whatever they were doing and listened intently to the numbers. (Never me of course.) The procedure was; if you had “been with” one of the ladies whose number was called, you were to report to “sick-call” the next morning. I look back on this with a grin on my face these days, but for some back then it was no laughing matter.

(The TLC Brotherhood web site used to sell recordings from AFN of the “numbers” being read. They don’t list it any more but perhaps if someone were to contact Bill Tilton, you may be able to come up with one.)

As far as a play list for when working on Kay, a good start would be the soundtrack from Good Morning Vietnam. Then there are several lists on the web of hits during the years. If you pick all of the top 40 songs from June ’66 through October ’69 you would be doing good. Then add in everything prior to ’69 from Johnny Cash, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, all “girl band” songs, and all Motown. I’m sure I’m leaving out some, but this should give all some mighty fine listening in the hangar.

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Memories of Naked Fanny
More Memories of Naked Fanny (Nov 2013)
609th Nimrod, Bomb loader, Gun Plumber, '68 - '69


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:35 pm 
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Then there was Billy Joe Royals song, "Down in the Boondocks", which got converted to "Down in the Bomb Dump"

Then on the medical side you were talking about, when I went back to Udorn in 67 everyone had to have a "VD Briefing" upon arriving. There was a Lt. Colonel doctor who gave us the talk. His first statement was, "Before you guys show up at the dispensary with this problem and tell us you caught this from a toilet seat, I have this to say. There are only 2 people in the Air Force that can get VD from a toilet seat, and those 2 people are "Officers" and "Chaplains"!!

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:59 pm 
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Still making slow but steady progress while we await the good news on our No.2. Throttles are rigged, warning horn functions as advertised. Thanks to Chuck, the canopy seals are just about perfect. All we need is the water test. No. 1 carb should be good to go. We still need the mounts fab'd for the fuel flow transmitters. We acquired six of the correct Lord mounts. Once this is all installed we should have a 100% functioning (period correct) fuel flow system. Pile-its like to see all those lights & dials work.

Chuck is repacking all the wheel bearings. Now what does that tell you? Would love to have two turning for the VFM Hangar Dance on the 22nd.

Some of the regular crew should be back Saturday. Come see us sweat!

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 9:13 pm 
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Watched the video on facebook of the warning horns being activated. Are they heard thru your headphones also? Would seem to be a pretty noisy place. Haven't flown in an A-26, yet, but the B-25 Panchito is the loudest of the warbirds I've flown in. Can't imagine hearing anything like the warning alarm over the engine noise. Unless there are warning lights also in the mix, to have a visual as well as audio warning. Just thinking. Sister-in-law was just up from Cowtown , got to get back down there to see you guys.


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 7:55 am 
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pjpahs wrote:
Watched the video on facebook of the warning horns being activated. Are they heard thru your headphones also? Would seem to be a pretty noisy place. Haven't flown in an A-26, yet, but the B-25 Panchito is the loudest of the warbirds I've flown in. Can't imagine hearing anything like the warning alarm over the engine noise. Unless there are warning lights also in the mix, to have a visual as well as audio warning. Just thinking. Sister-in-law was just up from Cowtown , got to get back down there to see you guys.


Unfortunately the A-26 predates the "bitch'n betty" device as we called it on the 16s. But the horn is ear piercingly loud and landing is normally with engines at quarter throttle or less so there shouldn't be a problem hearing it. But gear warning isn't intended to take the place of an alert and diligent pilot. It's just nice to have it working. The adjustments were well below the lowest throttle handle travel when we started.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:43 pm 
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Larry called for an alert and diligent pilot to avoid landing with the gear up. Hmmmm, wonder where we could get one of those. Don't think that will be easy to find, so glad he got the horn fixed. It is loud enough to be heard with the engines at reduced power for landing. The B-25 which we used to fly was much louder than the -26. A new update on our engine. It has been reassembled and slated for the test cell this week. More info on the results when we get them! JR


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 5:16 am 
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The crew rigged the main gear up / down locks. We had an "issue" with the right main not going locked in the "up" position. We swapped actuators with the left side and the problem followed. Pulled the actuator apart, everything okay there. So we began adjusting the actuator rod end. Finally after three us us had a bath in 5606 we had an uplock go over center exactly when it needed to. That "click" was music. All that remains are some minor adjustments followed by saftey wire.

Work continued on structural repair to the left nacelle and trunnion panel areas. Pylons are being worked on the right wing.

The RH oil cooler arrived from Grangeville, ID after its "flush." If you don't know, IMO the oil cooler installation is one of the most difficult tasks on the A26. After a clean test cell run, the engine aka "Lisa" is enroute to FTW. Should be here this week. We have another problem. What started as a good deed ended up running our "Ichabod" crane out of fuel. After numerous attempts to bleed the system we have been unable to get Ichabod to run. Note to self, make sure everyone checks oil & fuel before operating the equipment.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:42 pm 
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News not related to the election campaign... our engine passed the test cell phase and is on the road back to us. We hope to have it back on the airplane as soon as possible.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 5:12 pm 
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Great news! :drink3:

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 11:40 am 
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Indeed, our newly repaired engine has returned to the hangar! "Lisa" is beautiful again. The problem with the supercharger drive is all better now. We hope to have the engine and prop back where they belong before the end of the month and ready to test run again. If we can finish the engine fire extinguishing system and emergency brake system, we will be ready for first taxi test. Ahhh, progress!
The Other JR


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