One of the email’s I got based on yesterday’s post reminded me of the crew I once flew with…

Back in the 80’s I had a crew of malcontents and troublemakers, who also happened to be DAMN good at what we did…

At one point, three of the five officers were prior enlisteds (and we had all known each other as enlisteds), plus two USNA graduates.  We were a ‘junior’ crew, e.g. no LCDR or above on the crew, and the other eight regular crewmembers were all E-6 and below.  Our maintenance detachment did have one Chief, but the rest of the kids were pretty young.

We used to do some ‘roadtrips’ that got interesting to say the least! This particular one, we went on what was supposed to be a three day det from our deployed site.  At one point, we ended up in Sicily (I think that was day 12), and the band Kansas was there on a USO tour.

At that time, my Sensor One operator was a fanatic for the band, had every album, etc…

BUT, he’d never managed to see them on concert!  Sooooo, he of course is over the moon, he’s FINALLY going to get to see them!!!

Or not, because we got launched at oh dark 30 for a 12 hour mission… Of course we missed the concert…

To say he was pissed was to put it mildly!!!  So we end up a day later flying an operational flight and terminating in Rota, Spain that night (Day 14).  We head for billeting to grab some sleep, as early the next morning we’re due to launch for yet another location…

The twist to the story starts here; as we’re grabbing a bite in the O’club bar, we notice a bunch of long haired hippies off in the corner.  One of the pilots says, “Damn, I think that’s the band ‘Pup’ has been wanting to see!”

So we go over and sure enough it IS the band! We sat down with them for a bit, and it turned out Phil Ehart, the founder of the band was a former USAF brat, and he knew what it was like to miss bands, etc.  He was the one that got them the USO tour, saying it was his way of honoring those who served! When we told him about ‘Pup’, they decided they would do something for him.  Since we were all leaving about the same time the following morning, we agreed to meet down front at something like 0700.

I called the Chief, and told him rather than meeting at the airplane, for him to bring the E’s over to the BOQ at 0700, and we’d all go in together.

The next morning they show up, and the band is ‘hiding’ inside the lobby. As I gathered everybody around, I told Pup there were a few folks that wanted to meet him.

And the band came out and sang this song a capella for him…

He was literally in tears, and couldn’t thank them enough, but they also gave him a signed CD, and some band swag, and we took a few pictures…

It was a pretty special moment for him, hell for all of us! I ran into Pup about 10 years ago at a function and he reminded me of that morning. I asked, and he said that CD STILL has a place of honor on his mantle, and he’s told that story to his kids!

Twenty-six days later we finally got back to our deployment site, for a whole 12 hours, then went back on the road for another seventeen days…

Anyhoo, enough nostalgia, I’ll try to get a real post up for tomorrow! Go read the folks on the sidebar, they’re GOOD!!!