My job in the Air Force was that of a "Screwchief", afsc 43151c. As I've seen there are many of us and we've had many different names. After finishing Tech School at Shepard AFB in 72 I was assigned to the 49th TFW at Holloman AFB, NM and after 6 long days on base went for a 6 month TDY to Takhli RTAFB. Our very first job was to pick up FOD for what seemed like an eternity, as soon as we were done, the "Powers to Be" decided that we didn't have enough to do so they knocked down some stripped-down revetments so we could pick up FOD again. We finally heard the planes coming in and got down to business readying about 240 F-4's for their upcoming missions. I worked the flightline for about 3 months before being sent to the Phase docks where we would turn out a plane about every 24 hours. Back to the line again for the last month there. The next year was a blur of TDY's, both stateside and Germany. After that I went back to! Udorn where I worked the flightline, end-of-runway and finally the Alert Pad. I spent 3 1/2 yrs working on the Phantom, the last 5 months of my enlistment were spent at Davis Monthan working for SAC on T-33's and training new mechanics, mostly females. Real hard to get used to a plane that was about the size of a mid-sized car and requiring a creeper to work under. After reading the other mail, my job seemed pretty boring, well, not always. Watched my buddy's F-4's fuel truck catch fire while I was taking on bombs or the time an Aim-9 shot off the rail on the EOR just after pulling the lollipop pin. Had a great time visiting the country of Thailand and getting to know the people there.

Alan Henry 43151c
49th TFW Holloman AFB 72-73
432nd TFW Udorn RTAFB 73-75
100th SRW Davis Monthan AFB 75