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Scott85625
420 Member
Ty for the welcome. Ya have to crawl before you can walk so let me crawl around some before I try SIPS. I do have to ask, Whats the origin story of your Skunk Works?
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Scott85625
420 Member
TY for the welcome !!Wlcom to 420man buddyWishing you the best of luck on your new grow journey
I find simply saying, "Thank you for your service," is trite particularly when asking what somebody did with their service to their nation is so much more interesting.Never been big on tooting my own horn but will try. You want the AF adventures in a separate thread?
You can message me if you'd prefer.
I never served. I was ready to go, but Nixon called off the war 6 weeks before my scheduled induction. Draft #13.
Account Exec buddy of mine was an Army Lt. in 'Nam. My late brother-in-law flew in the Navy. I have a few biker buddies who were all Navy photographers. Another monster marine bicycle racer I competed against. Dad served on the Hornet (CV-12) in the Pacific during WW II. Oh, a few others who never came back. God Bless them All.
So instead of TYFYS, I just want to know what I'm thankin'. Just taking an interest.
MGM
Originally Lockheed Martin but now any small secret testing program
So Skunk being a type of weed - its basically where I do stupid stuff. 15 plants in solo cup under a 1000w HPS in a 4x4, a trash can sized SIP, 12 OG Kush in Solos to get 1KG and 12 plants in 110oz Solos under a 1000w LED trying to get 2KG in a 5x5 My more normal, regular for sale grow “Graduation” (20 plants in 5 Gallons) I’m just closing off - one plant left to trim. One lab result left to get.
Veterans are killing them selves at an alarming rate and nobody is doing anything about it. I don’t know why anyone would join the military the way they treat veterans. Smh CL
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Scott85625
420 Member
Fair enough, looks like you have a good line of military in your family and friends. Bless them all. My grandfather was a tan commander in WWII say some pretty good action but he would never talk about it. Found out his unit was one of the first to come across concentration camps. My dad was in the Air Force during the Cuban missile crisis. Our family is from upstate NY near Rochester. He joined in 1960 wanting to see the world. The Air Force knowing this assigned him to Plattsburgh AFB a 5 hour drive from his home. I joined up in 1981. Was in basic training when Reagan got shot. They shut the base down, herded everyone back to the dorms and pulled out an old black and white tv that I dont think had been turned on since JFK got shot. I then went to school for my job in Keesler Mississippi by Biloxi. The locals didnt like us and I actually saw "Keep Biloxi Beautiful, Kill An Airman" bumper stickers. My 1st actual assignment was Pope AFB next to Ft Bragg in Fayetteville NC working on C-130E aircraft, cargo planes. We had 51 at our base so we were busy. Air Force wasnt exactly liked there. Started learning my job and they started sending me places. Spent 90 days at a forward operating base in Egypt all I saw was sand. 2 days after I got back from there they sent me on a 30 day trip to Northern Greenland. Talk about extremes. Next big trip after that was to England. While I was there I got orders sending me to...England for a 2 year assignment working on TR-1. No one knew what that was so the commander of the TDY told me to go up to the other base check it out then tell him what that plane was. So I went up there, found the squadron and my shop and introduced myself and was there when they received their 3rd aircraft. Turns out a TR-1 was a brand new fresh off the assembly line U-2 spy plane. Per orders I was to spend 2 years there. I actually spent 5. Loved my job, loved/hated the plane, loved the mission we flew real world missions while the rest of the Air Force flew training. If you have any questions concerning the U-2/TR-1 please ask. Most of whats classified is moistly sensors aboard the plane and where it was flying.I find simply saying, "Thank you for your service," is trite particularly when asking what somebody did with their service to their nation is so much more interesting.
You can message me if you'd prefer.
I never served. I was ready to go, but Nixon called off the war 6 weeks before my scheduled induction. Draft #13.
Account Exec buddy of mine was an Army Lt. in 'Nam. My late brother-in-law flew in the Navy. I have a few biker buddies who were all Navy photographers. Another monster marine bicycle racer I competed against. Dad served on the Hornet (CV-12) in the Pacific during WW II. Oh, a few others who never came back. God Bless them All.
So instead of TYFYS, I just want to know what I'm thankin'. Just taking an interest.
MGM
After 5 years in the UK the AF decided it was time for me to move on and wouldnt let me extend so they sent me to Minot AFB in North Dakota. There I worked on B-52, KC-135, and UH-1H. There is a saying about the base. "Why Not Minot? Freezins the Reason" It got cold there. There was a rule that they couldnt make us work if the temperature got colder than -75 windchill and there were a few nights where that was enforced. While there I volunteered for every TDY "temporary duty assignment" so that married folks or ones pursuing college didnt have to go. Started seeing the world. One of the strangest things was did a trip to Guam and Australia. that was for 100 days. We left Guam to return to ND on my birthday, we landed in Hawaii on the day before my birthday. We refueled and took off again landing in ND on my birthday. So Im not sure if Im 61 or 62 because I had 2 birthdays in 24 hours. While at Minot they decided I needed to go to the desert for something called Desert Shield/Desert Storm. We all had to see a shrink before we went 1st question was "How do you feel about going to a p[ossible war zone?" I told them I had nothing better to do and it would get me out of there during the winter. So they sent me. We were at King Khalid International Airport. If you remember from CNN they would show scud missiles landing on an airport. Thats where I was. 1st Scud attack was quite thrilling to say the least. 6 Scuds, 14 patriot missiles all in the air at the same time. The patriot launcher wasn't too far from us. Closest explosion was about 100 yards our and about 100 feet above ground. It shifted our bunker that was made from a few tons of sandbags. I discovered that when my life expectancy wasnt too certain my personal reaction is to crack jokes. Weird thing is we all discovered who we were during that 1st attack. During the heat of the attack, everyone is tense and I mean tense, Scuds had a ton (1000 kilograms) of explosives. we could hear/feel fragments hitting our bunker, we had been living of MRE's, and one of the things in an MRE was a cheese spread for the crackers and other sundries, 3000 calories per meal and they made everyone constipated. MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat, we called them Meals Refused by Ethiopians. Anyway in the middle of the attack missiles flying explosions happening tension is 1000 degrees I blurt out "Man if I wasnt so constipated Id crap all over myself" that lowered the tension temperature a few degrees, our bunker was actually 3 bunkers that were connected, so I start going from bunker to bunker cracking jokes the best I could and easing some of the tension. The patriots, me cracking jokes, and everyone discovering who everyone was, we had 14 people on Gold 3 crew and we were from 6 different air force bases, made the other attacks a hell of a lot less scary.
Ok dont want to tie you up with a 24 volume set of who I am at the first meeting. If you want further installments let me know. And if you have any questions please ask.
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- #28
Scott85625
420 Member
Ok had to ask as its also where Lil Abner had his still in the cartoons. As for Lockheed Skunk Works I worked on the TR-1/U-2 for 11 years in the UK, Korea and California off and on from 1983-2001.
WOW! WOW! WOW!
Thank you for all of that -- all you have done to keep our backsides safe. Most of that sounds either fun, boring, or terrifying.
Closest I ever got to a U2 was a museum.
MGM
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- #30
Scott85625
420 Member
My favorite U2 story for ya. When my father was stationed at Plattsburgh AFB in New York, my grandmother would send him his hometown newspaper just so he could keep up with local things. As I mentioned he was stationed there during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the articles in the paper was describing how a lot of what we knew about the missiles came U-2 flights, and the U-2 flights originated out of Plattsburgh. It was so secret my dad was stationed there and had no idea. So one weekend he and some friends decided to drive around that back side of base to see if they could find the U-2's. Needless to say the U-2s found him, or should I say the security forces that guarded the U-2 and next thing you know he is jacked up laying on the ground with an M-16 pointed at his head. He talked his way out of it and was told what they were looking for didnt exist and this spot on the base also didnt exist and Im sure his military record had a special annotation made. This was approx 1962. Fast forward to 1999. Im stationed at Beale AFB working on U-2s. He comes out for a visit. And one day thinking of something to do I ask if hed like to go on base and see some U-2s flying around. He didnt think it was possible to do that and for sure they didnt fly that plane during the day, so I take him out to base. He was amazed at all I had to do was sign him on base as my visitor and off we went. I drive by my shop on the flight line and theres 3 U-2's flying around doing training flights. He is amazed. I get a brilliant idea and ask if hed like a soda as we had a full snack bar. We go inside and I have him come to an office with me, it was the Duty Officers office. We go in I introduce my dad then ask if its ok for me to show him a plane. He asked if I had my access badge and I pulled it out and showed him I was authorized to escort people. I tell him there should be a slick (no secure systems) bird at Juliet shelter, the closest one to the entry point and he tells us to have fun. So we walk out and my dads going "no way" every other step. We get to the plane and he is speechless. We walk around the plane, Im pointing out all the areas my job is responsible and some other gee whiz stuff then I ask if he wants to see the cockpit. He tells me he cant do that, so I open the cockpit and give him the tour and telling him not to look at this one display as he wasnt cleared to look at it. He worked on KC-97 air refuelers, and he says "This is just a smaller version of what I worked on"> I told him 50's technology was 50's technology, if it worked why change it? I had 1 more idea for the day and was pretty sure I could pull it off. The U-2 is about the hardest plane there is to land. Its 105 foot wings and its landing gear are only 8" apart yes inches. It has wheels in the wings called pogos, but those fall off as it takes off. There is also not much forward visibility and they pretty much have to stall the aircraft when its 3-5 feet above ground. The problem there is the altimeter is plus or minus 50 feet so the pilot needs help landing. Thats where the mobile crew comes in. As the plane starts landing and flies over the runway the mobile crew chases after him telling him how far above the runway and how far left or right of center the plane is. The training flights are used just to practice landing and usually its a 1 hour flight with 10-12 landings. Any way, We finish our tour of the plane and we walk back in and I go thank the Duty Officer and ask if there is a mobile going out and would they like company? My dad didnt speak our language and had no clue. The DO tells me that he was doing mobile in about 5 minutes and go to assembly and hed pick us up. So I grab dad and we walk out the building and I say to stop and just hang here for a couple minutes we can watch the planes i the pattern. Dads looking up when the chase car pulls up. Brand new Camaro SS with a speed chip and performance package. I tell dad Im getting in back, hes got shotgun. So we start driving and I mention dads u-2 story to the pilot and he gets pysched up about that so he starts talking to dad about the plane the history of the plane , what its like to fly it, and as a caveat to me, how much they rely on us maintainers to keep them flying. So dads focusing on the pilot and next thing you know we are at the end of the runway, and the pilot goes "Ya ready?" dad goes "What f....." and next thing you know we are 120 mph chasing down the plane about 20 feet behind it. Dads freaking but I can see hes smiling ear to ear. We do this 11 times and dads asking questions and the pilots answering everything hes allowed to the entire time. After the last one they put the wheels back in the wings so the plane can taxi back to its parking spot. I tell dad that when Im deployed with the plane I am usually the leaper for that process. The leaper jumps up to grab the wing tip of the plane, hold it level wile a person puts in the far wheel, then when thats done I crawl under the wing and lift up so they can put the near wheel in.WOW! WOW! WOW!
Thank you for all of that -- all you have done to keep our backsides safe. Most of that sounds either fun, boring, or terrifying.
Closest I ever got to a U2 was a museum.
MGM
This was 1999, my dad passed away in 2018 and he would tell that story to anyone who would listen and how much fun he had that day.
