|
|
|
More Anecdotes The name "B-66 Destroyer" by Bill Starnes I do not know who or why it was so named. However, I do know that the B-66B was an atomic bomber and maybe that is where it came from. I got the first 100 hours in a month as and EWO in the machine and I am told I got the first 1,000 as an EWO, but on that I am not sure. I have a Douglas Aircraft Certificate of Achievement on the wall behind this computer that says I completed 1,500 hours on 22 July 1968. It is sighed by Bob Hoyt who was the B-66 Deputy at Takhli. I was under Bob at Shaw in 1953 when he was the Ops Officer of the 16th TRSq that had an ECM Cell of two TB-25J (Jammers) and three hard nosed B-26B (radar busting hunter killers). That ECM Cell was TAC's first ECM organization. By the way, H. Lobdell was the Pentagon Chief of the Tactical ECM Branch at the time after returning from Korea where he led the first B-26 bombing raid from Japan to Korea. Bob Hoyt replaced H at Takhli while I was there. Great guy H. Lobdell. I saw him a couple of years back at a B-66 Mini Reunion at Lackland. Unfortunately, Bob Hoyt died this past year. I did not know we had serious wing fuel leaks in the 68-69 time frame at Takhli. I am passing this e-mail to Polly Parrott who lives near me here in Knoxville. We get together for breakfast from time to time. Polly is the best know of all the Douglas B-66 Tech Reps and I am sure that he can answer your questions about the fuel leaks. Sorry you have such bad feelings about the machine. I was always assigned to tactical twin engine airplanes (TB-25J, B-26B, RB-26C, RB-66C and EB-66B/C/E) and of course the most fun of them all was our EB-57E tour. You may not know that the RB-66C was the first aircraft built from the beginning as an ECM platform. All of SAC and ADC's ECM aircraft were modifications of aircraft originally built for another mission. Also, in 1954 I was shifted to 9th AF at Shaw (still flying the B-25 and B-26 machines with the 9th TRSq(E&W)) I had a hand in the ECM Compartment layout of the RB-66C before the start of the production run which I think was at Tulsa. The 36 WB-66Ds were the last of the B-66 procurement. I always think that the USAF made a big mistake scrapping them after the tactical weather reconnaissance mission was taken from us and given to that despised SAC Commander (LeMay) who incidentally is an Ohio State alum like me! The D model came out with the -13 engines, was lighter and flew faster. I recall well that when escorting F-100s to Wheelus we had to throttle back as the F-100 could not keep up with us at the cruising altitude. The D model with that two place waist compartment would have been a much better platform that the RB-66B photo machines that were modified with Brown Cradle configuration for Vietnam and re-named the EB-66E. B-66 Wing Fuel Leaks by Clifford A. (Polly) Parrott, B-66 Tech Rep The B-66 had wing fuel tank leaking problems, especially during the period of their deployment to Takhli. At that time, the B-66 series aircraft had been in service since 1956 and the wear and tear was becoming evident.The Air Force never properly supported the long term maintenance requirement for the aircraft, but rather funded modifications and higher level maintenance on a fiscal year basis. The B-66 systems that suffered the most from this type of maintenance planning were primarily the engines and the fuel system. Flight deck glass and plastic panels could be classified as problem .2 A I believe that a depot level or contractor level maintenance program was required to correct wing tank fuel leaks. The sealant used to seal the internal metal seams if the wing fuel tanks is obviously not as good as present day sealants. If a tank id found to be leaking, the deteriorated sealant must be removed and the surface to be resealed must be perfectly cleaned. This procedure is extremely difficult to accomplish in the field (i.e. Takhli) by personnel who are not highly trained in this area of maintenance. My recommendation was to have a Douglas-Tulsa team go to Takhli or have the aircraft sent to the depot or Douglas-Tulsa. The Douglas-Tulsa team was not dispatched to Takhli for these repairs and the aircraft were to badly needed in-country for the support they rendered to the Air Force mission. So nothing was done. I personally briefed 9TH AF, TAC HQ and Air Staff on proposals to re-engine the B-66, but, like I said, the modification and maintenance of the B-66 was on a fiscal year basis and no father. I considered high level maintenance was performed on a stop gap basis The replacement engine would have provided higher thrust (takeoff), better fuel specifics and would have the capability to supply 120 KVA power per engine. The name DESTROYER was Air Force initiated. Interesting to note, during WW-II the German Air Force had an aircraft named DESTROYER I ended up my career on the B-66 in 1972 with a total of 2,025 hours in the bird. twenty-five (25) of those hours was in the RB-66A which was a pre-production version of the aircraft. (AFSN 52-2828 thru 52-2832.). The RB-66A had J-71-9 engines which we prone to stall during taxi to takeoff, and the flight deck did not have individual ejection hatches, but, instead, the entire overhead of the flight deck was jettisoned off like a canopy. This was definitely not a good design due to high air velocity in the flight deck area prior to crew ejection. These two (2) areas of concern, along with others, were changed during the production of the B-66 series aircraft This is what I recall of the aircraft sitting here in my latter years. My brain is still getting oxygen and I can remember most of the B-66 happenings, good and bad, very well. In all those years "My Baby" never hurt me. She did one hell of a great job in SEA. The Drag Chute is on the Runway in the Middle of Heathrow Airport! by John Davis (B-66B Bomb Squadron Crew Chief at Sculthorpe, England) I told my assistant to remove the extra drag chute from the utility rack in the bomb bay and to secure it in the communication compartment. I've Got a Launch Light! by Gerald Hanner I flew with Rocky Durniak a time or two as an EB-66 EWO. He tried to present himself as a cerebral type. One of his favorite things to do was suck on a pipe while discussing one philosophical notion or another. He also was one of the shortest officers I have ever met; he must have been at or near the minimum height requirement. When he sat in the EW seat on the EB-66E, I swear, his feet didn't touch the deck. If he had to eject, he'd have left his boots behind. I recall one night we were returning from an ArcLight support mission: giving B-52s in Quang Tri province some ECM coverage. We had just crossed the fence on our way back to Korat and we were in some weather. Rocky was stoking his pipe when the RHAW gear launch light came on. Obviously, it was weather related, but this was in the spring of '72 and the NVA had moved some of their SAMs to unexpected places. Anyway, the launch light comes on; the pilot says "I've got a launch light." Rocky continues to stoke his pipe. The pilot again says, "I've got a launch light;" Rocky continues stoking his pipe. For the third time, this time rather loudly, say, "I've got a launch light." I was half expecting him to execute a SAM break, even though he had no strobe or tone. Rocky reached up, punched off the light, and says "Disregard." Experiences of a B-66 Bomber Crew by Barry Machado (Navigator) Art Jepson was my pilot while I was assigned to the 86th BS at Sculthorpe AB from 1960 to 1962. There is nothing very remarkable about what Art Jepson and I did as a B-66 crew. We did have good results in the Operation Gift contest every month and even was able to win the lottery for the Operations Officer (Don Orr, I believe) once. There is an incident that could have caused us to crash when one rainy day we took off during a practice alert. After take off, as we headed toward France, a loud noise (buzzing) came from the cockpit. Art could not figure out the problem so called back to the squadron and spoke to Major George F. O'Neal (Operations Officer). Now one must understand who George F. O'Neal was. He was a flying Sergeant during WW II and ruled the squadron with an iron fist and loved it. What he said, you did. Every morning briefing he would address the squadron (crews) by starting his lecture with "You F...ing idiots" and then proceed to tell us why we were "F...ing idiots. Usually it was some small matter like how to speak when using the radio. HIS policy included we could not stay at the Columbia Club, an Officer's Club/hotel in London. Well I found out that the other squadron personnel were staying there so I took my family to London and stayed at the Columbia Club one Thanksgiving holiday. When I returned I told Major O'Neal that indeed we could stay at the club and that we had enjoyed our stay. He only looked at me and called my sponsor into his office and advised him to tell me 'how a cow chews cabbage'. Joe Brown told me to stay away from him. To continue my story. O'Neal
asked Art if the rain removal switch had been turned off and just then the noise
stopped (Art had just then turned off the One of O'Neal's laws was that we were never to take a trip, land and remain over night at another location. We had a first line mission taking the nukes to Europe so we must always be ready. Our target was Warsaw, Poland but all crews felt we would never reach our target because we flew at the optimum altitude for surface to air (SAM) missiles. Some crews said they would go in at low level (500 feet), pop up, drop the two weapons and fly to a "safe" area because of fuel consumption. Thank God we didn't have to fly that mission. Once the Polaris missiles were deployed the B-66 mission became obsolete and so were the aircraft. Then we were used to fly a simulated attack against the Spanish so we flew to Italy (Aviano) two days before the mission. With Venice so close we all took the train there and spent the night. On the way back someone bought a bottle of wine and passed it around. The conductor would come through and was also offered a swig. He declined every time until one time he looked both ways and took a big one. The train was held at one stop so more wine could be brought on board. Well most of the crews got pretty knee walking and were the "ugly Americans" when we got off the train. The next day was a low level flight (500 feet) across the Mediterranean and there were some pilots I would not have flown with that day. Each time we took TDY flight I flew with another pilot and don't know why, so I was with Bill Fennizy. The last B-66 mission I flew was to ferry one back to Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona. We were stuck in the Azores for a week before we finally got a KB-50 to refuel us into Newfoundland. We had to use shoran and Bill could not read the dots and dashes correctly when we flew to the Azores so when he gave me the readings it showed we were off course to the right by over 100 nautical miles and did not believe it. Also I picked up a coast line which ran east west instead of north south. I thought I was lost for a moment until I realized it was the ice flow. We made it Davis-Monthan and had to taxi down a city street to get to the "Bone Yard". The plane was flying well and when the ground crew started taking the plane apart I felt bad. Art and I parted ways the summer of 1962 and I never spoke to him or heard anything about him until I heard about the B-57 incident in Vietnam. I was reassigned to B-57s at Rhein Main AB in Frankfort, Germany where we flew the long wing recce flight along the East Germany border. Art Jepson was killed in Vietnam
at Ben Hua while preparing to fly a B-57 mission. This is the story as I remember
was told to me. There were five B-57s on the ramp prior to flight lined up without
revetments. A mortar hit the first one in the line and like a domino effect the
next four aircraft exploded when hit by shrapnel from the one next to it. Art
was in one of the first aircraft in line. Barry Machado [tissemand@earthlink.net]
Copyright © 2002-04 All rights reserved. |
 |