Launch the Fleet

I think it was a quiet Saturday sometime in 1983.  I was assigned as an instructor navigator to the 452 FTS at Mather AFB, California and lived on base.  The morning started with a call from my DO or CC asking me if I had been out partying Friday night.  After some assurance I had not, he asked if I had anything planned for the day.  Again, I told them I didn’t.  We were planning just a quiet day around the house.

At that point, he said he needed me to meet a couple of pilots at base ops to take a T-43A to Illinois and pick up the Wing Commander.  Being a nav school we had a rule that any time the aircraft left the local area it had to have a nav onboard, even for a simple airways flight within the US.  I asked if we were carrying students – he said no, it was just me and the pilots, with the expectation we would pick up about a dozen passengers coming from Chanute.

About 30-minutes later I was at base ops where we laid out the flight plan, briefed the mission and took the bus to the jet.  We completed preflight, launched, and departed for the east along one of the jet routes.  About three hours later we arrived, had the jet gassed, ate our box lunches, and waited for the O-6 and his party to arrive.  Once on board, we headed home. 

The passengers were mostly senior enlisted and a few Colonels who asked about the navigation equipment but were otherwise not too interested in anything other than catching some sleep.

Total day was about 8-hours from phone call to pulling back into the driveway.  The pilots had my info for the 781, we were Alpha 1 with no write-ups, so after saying goodbye at base ops I headed home.  We weren’t gone long enough to file a travel voucher so I didn’t think about the day’s adventure other than considering it a nice break from the routine.  I guess I was wrong.

This was just one of the events that led to an IG investigation and ultimately the dismissal of the Wing/CC.  The flight had been written off as a training flight, even though we had no students, and when the copilot attempted to file a travel voucher for reimbursement the questions started coming up.  All I know is I logged NN time and the IG never bothered to ask me any questions.

Sometimes it is the weirdest things that get you into trouble.