The Day I Held Blue Section "Hostage"

Once upon a time, in the "never-never land" of Blue Section, back in 1985, I was the Crew Chief of F-111A tail # 67-074.

Hangared one time with severe avionics problems, Supervision ok'd it to be a "K-Ball" bird for awhile. "K-Ball" was a short word for "cannibalism" of parts for other airplanes, as long as mine was gonna be down for awhile anyway.

I was working the nightshift, and one morning, after the airplane had sat for about three months, got a call around 0800 from Jeff Smith (my Assistant Crew Chief) and in a hurried & concerned voice, he said "You better get out here-----our plane is out on the ramp and there's 5 or 6 guys trying to slap it together to get it up in the air this afternoon!!"

You don't take an airclane as complicated as an F-111......replace all the parts you robbed from it ovr the past 3 months, throw it all together and hope it all works in just a few hours.

I didn't even take the time to shower or shave. I lived in town and was on the ramp about 20 minutes later, going nose-to-nose with the Production Super. They had gone right OVER my Assistant Crew Chief and just grabbed the first 5 dudes they could find with speed handles and told them to get it slapped together.......it was Friday....and this "Pro-Super" figured to put "One More" up on the "sortie-board" so he'd look that much better at the Monday Morning "standup meeting."

Well, this was MY airplane, and I didn't want a half-dozen people stumbling over each other in a "blind panic." I asked the Pro-Super "who was going to sign off the Pre-flight for this gaggle?"

You're the Crew Chief, Bradbury.....You're gonna sign it!"

"NO I'M NOT.....Neither is Jeff......and if you try to get somebody else to "pencil-whip" it, I'll have Q.A. (Quality Assurance) down here in the next 10 minutes!" HE got mad----I was ALREADY mad, and if he'd gotten out of thar pickup, I'd have probably wound up in the Brig!

I stormed out there to where my plane was parked, and wasn't quite as "cordial" as I should have been maybe, but I told every one of them to get the "heck" off my bird........NOW!!

Jeff asked "What NOW?"

"Lemme see the forms.....everything that's been done out here is gonna get UN-done!"

"But it's supposed to fly at 2......."

"No,it WAS supposed to fly at 2, Jeff........did you SEE eveything UNDER these panels before they started IN on it this morning?"

"No" he said......"there wasn't time"

"If this airplane CRASHED because somebody was in so much of a hurry, he MISSED something, ya know who they'll HANG??..........the guy who was DUMB enough to sign off the preflight............MY name's painted on the left nose gear door, and YOURS is on the right.............and WE aren't going to jail for ANYBODY!

Jeff & I "pulled several panels back off....NONE of which were torqued. We found one or two actuators that were NOT "safety-wired", speedbrake door wasn't even SHIMMED, the actuator on the left seat wasn't even pinned.......we found a LOT of stuff.

A lot of stuff----that in their last minute haste to "please" our Pro-super, had NOT been done correctly-----LOOSE SCREWS FORWARD OF THE INTAKES-------and between the FIVE of them, they weren't very far from telling the "powers that be"...."Ok......send the AIRCREW, it's ready!"

Needless to say......074 did NOT make that "surprise" afternoon takeoff. I gave Jeff Saturday off, and I MYSELF worked on it all day, and part of Sunday. Then.......when BRADBURY was satisfied with it, I signed the preflight, and it flew the next day and only had a radio-squelch write-up when it came back.

I didn't know it at the time, NOR DID I CARE........that NOT making that last flight Friday, prevented us to at least TIE for "AMU of the month." The "Pro-Super" was really upset that I rained on his parade.

Tough. Deal with it. My plane, my call, and 2 lives at stake every time I pull the chocks. It's easier to explain to the DCM why we didn't make that "last sortie" (that NOBODY KNEW ABOUT until that morning!).......than it would be to explain to 2 widows why their husbands wouldn't be home for supper that night........or any OTHER night.

In terms of TODAY'S language........our "pro-Super and everyone of the REST of the "Elite" would have accused me of holding Blue Section "Hostage" because of my unwillingness to just "sign the thing and look the other way----just wait & see how it all turns out."

The same Congress that has FAILED to come up with a budget for the President to review and sign for nearly THREE years now, are the same jokers who didn't make a "public awareness issue" of the impending "DEFAULT" until just shortly before the clock ran out.

They wanted John Boenner to do in 2011, what Mike Bradbury was expected to do in 1985............"just shut UP! Don't worry about it....it's ok.......just SIGN the thing so we can make that 1400 take-off. We'll take care of the rest of it when it comes back."

Yeah--------IF it comes back!

NO planning............and then BAM!!....Last minute.....we've gor the public caught up in the panic now too..........they'll DEMAND that Boenner hurry up & sign it. Which he eventually did. I would NOT have.

I stood with John Boenner because I'd been caught in that same "squeeze play" myself, on a cold dreary day just outside of Hangar 211. But however history treats Boenner as a House Speaker.......he would not have been a good Crew Chief.

As we're finding out week after week, there are things popping up in that 2,000 page, lawyer-written Obamacare Bill now, that Pelosi didn't want us to read.

I hope we don't get "surprised" some more with this LAST fiasco.

But if the "Hostage holding" happened to allow the Congress to dig into the Senate version and throw out any garbage at ALL.......the "ransom" will have been worth it in the long run.

And if that makes me a "terrorist?".................well, like I told "IdahoGrumpy"...........that's ok-------I've been called everything else!

And on that strange day in 1985, I was probably called some names that NONE of us ever heard of!

And that's ok too. I sleep well at night. And so did the aircrew that flew it 3 days later.