August 24, 2019
After getting moved yesterday Joyce went out to lunch with some friends and I just hung out at the RV. Later we had supper Bud’s Pub & Grill in Dixon, one of our go-to places when we lived in Vacaville.
August 27, 2019
On Sunday we packed up and headed up to the Calistoga RV Park to visit Joyce’s mother Judy and family. After getting settled in Joyce, Joann, Joyce’s sister-in-law and Judy went over to the Graton Resort and Casino while I just hung out here at the park.
Before we left Travis our sewer macerator system plugged up when I was emptying the holding tanks. I worked on it for a while but decided to take the rig on over to Calistoga and finish the job there.
So yesterday morning I got up and got that task accomplished. Had a devil of a time getting the main hose connected but finally got that done but discovered there was a very small leak in the hose. I fixed that problem with some Eternabond tape. If you have an RV and don’t have at least one roll of that stuff you need to get some. That tape will fix just about anything.
After getting cleaned up after the messy sewer job we went to Saint Helena to visit with Judy. Later we went to the Tra Vigne Pizzera for supper. This restaurant has good food but as with most all places in St. Helena it is pricy.
I’m going to break away from the traditional newsletter and write about something in my past. I hope this doesn’t bore anyone.
I’m going to break away from the traditional newsletter and write about something in my past. I hope this doesn’t bore anyone.
This past weekend the Loring AFB Heritage Center hosted the 25th anniversary of the base's closing. I was stationed there for three winters and would like to share with you a little about that experience.
Loring AFB was named after Major Charles J. Loring Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient that he was awarded during the Korean War. More about Maj. Loring here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Loring_Jr.
I arrived at Loring in February 1972 after three years at Clark AB, Philippines. Loring was located a few miles north east of Caribou, Maine, basically a long way from nowhere. To say that it was a shock to my system is an understatement since it was about 10° when I arrived. The next morning I signed into the 42nd Organizational Maintenance Squadron and was assigned to the bomber branch working on B-52G’s (nicknamed "The BUFF, Big Ugly Fat Fellow/%^$#@*") an aircraft I absolutely knew nothing about but learned very fast from the “older troops”. I was also a certified flying crew chief so I did some of the more unusual missions during that time including flying some missions to RAF Mildnehall, England.
After 18 months working on BUFF’s I was assigned to the Alert Branch, where I had the duty as an Alert Controller supervising B-52 and KC-135 tanker crew chiefs when they were on alert with their airplanes. The controller’s worked a 48 hour on and 72 hour off schedule that really gave me a lot of time to explore Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.
After three years at Loring I cross trained to flight engineering flying the C-141 at Travis AFB, CA. And as they say, “the rest is history”.
Main Gate
These signs and others like it were all over the base:
Loring's tower as it is now and the weapons storage now:
B-52G at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA
Buff's on the ramp, winter 1972
A Loring KC-135 doing a low pass
I could not find many pictures of the Alert Force airplanes for obvious reasons, but here is one of the Buff's starting engines with the starter cartridges during an alert exercise. We had one of those every week, always unannounced and at all hours both day and night. They were always a pain in the butt, especially in the at night in the winter but we all knew the reasons for them.
This is a picture of a B-52 being loaded with weapons before being cocked on alert in 1972. We loaded them with a SRAM nuclear missile rotary launcher loaded with six independently targeted missiles and with two "iron" nuclear bombs. When the bomber was standing alert they had to be checked everyday and the aircrews would sometimes have to "retarget" the missiles depending on the that days targets.
It was COLD in the winter at Loring. I saw the temperatures drop down to -30 to even -35 degrees. It was routine to go for weeks at a time and not see anything above -10 degrees. And it snowed a lot!
The snow really pilled up in the housing areas. I lived on Meham Drive and sometimes would have to kick the back door to get out of our apartment. Of course I couldn't get the car out of the garage so I road my snowmobile to the flight line.
Here are some pictures of Loring today:
When assigned to Bomber Branch, I spent a lot of time in these.
This is the large Arch hanger that we used a lot. One time we had an ice storm come through that dumped so much ice on the Alert Force that we had to downgrade the complete force and move them into this hanger. That included down loading all of the weapons off of the bombers and taking fuel off of the tankers before towing them into the hanger. As you can imagine this was a big deal with the Wing Commander and at Strategic Air Command headquarters.
Arch Hanger today.
Some pictures of inside Arch hanger now:
During the reunion there was a flyby of the B-52 61-007 "The Ghost Rider" that is now based at Minot AFB, ND.
More reading about Loring AFB:
B-52H, 61-007: “The Ghost Rider"
August 29, 2019
This morning we hooked up around 10:15 and made the drive down to the Travis AFB Famcamp. We plan to be here until Wednesday 4 Sep. We also made some changes to our route after leaving NAS Fallon, NV.: Wells, NV, Spanish Fork, UT to visit friends, Cortez, CO, Gallup, NM and then Kirtland AFB, NM. A tad out of the way but we’re really excited to see Ron and Katie Cutler who we met several years ago when we were volunteering in Temecula, CA. We have visited with them a few times over the years and have become very close.
August 30, 2019
This morning we drove down to Fresno to visit my mother. Mom is now 89 years old and lives in a board and care facility that takes very good care of her. We plan to be here for a couple of days so we can see my brothers Alan and Richard as well.
September 2, 2019
We got back to Travis AFB yesterday afternoon. Mother is doing good and is in very good hands at the board and care facility.
Right now we are closely monitoring hurricane Dorian that is bearing down on Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. We are scheduled to be at Lynch’s Landing RV Park in San Mateo, FL on 1 October. The park is only 36 miles from Michelle’s home in St. Augustine and is right on the St. John’s River so we’re very concerned about the damage in that area. We’ll wait and see what happens and are always ready with Plan 2 ion necessary.
Later,
Barry & Joyce
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