The Life of a US Air Force Firefighter 1960–1980
by
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On another morning we were sitting at our standby position and a flight of four F-4 Phantom jets was preparing for takeoff. These jets were originally built for the Navy; however, the Air Force began testing them in 1962 as fighter-bombers and this was just supposed to be another test of a weapons delivery system. They were sitting there a few yards away, their engines running and canopy’s open doing the final checks before they took off. Suddenly, as the canopies began to close the rear seat crewmembers ejected for no apparent reason. This was before “zero altitude” ejection seats had been developed and parachutes still didn’t deploy at low altitude, so he simply went up and we sat there mesmerized as the poor guy was launched about 100 feet in the air and then plummeted down onto the tail of the airplane and fell to the pavement still strapped to the heavy seat. We radioed our dispatcher, requested an ambulance and quickly went over to the aircraft. The crewmember had landed in the hot exhaust area at the aft of the airplane. The pilot was still inside, and we motioned him to shut off the aircraft engines so that we could get to the injured crewmember. When we reached him, he was unconscious and bleeding from the eyes, ears and mouth. He was hurt bad and later we heard the crash ambulance over the radio say he died on the way to the hospital.
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About the Book
When I entered the air force so many years ago, I would never have guessed that life would take so many twists and turns. I would meet colorful people, have ten different duty assignments in three countries and four states, see many nice places, and have some rewarding experiences. With so many different jobs, I would learn that leadership is a combination of being able to follow orders and lead the team with the same enthusiasm. The US Air Force firefighting force is much different today than when I was in uniform. Gone are the converted military trucks that passed a fire trucks; now the equipment is state-of-the-art and the best that the fire equipment industry can provide. Firefighters at all levels are trained to meet standards established by the National Fire Protection Association, a consensus organizations of fire department leaders from small communities, large metropolitan areas, and the Department of Defense. I was proud to have been associated with the firefighters I worked with in those twenty years but wish that I had been able to participate in the organization that exists today. This book is about that adventure and those experiences.