War Stories.

War Stories contributed by alumni

We currently only have two stories but I am sure that more are to come as we expand the "active" list of alumni.

War story Number 1 by Randy Hessler.

War story Number 2 by Larry Washbur.
Possible War stories:

Visit to the Pig Farm, I do remember you had to be DRUNK before you went!

Getting lost in Japan , Roy Eaton and one of his many cycle trips. Doko KoKo (Japanese equivalent of "Where here?")

Adventures on the hon.

War Story #1 TDY to Pago Pago written by Randy Hessler

It was around June 1st of 1971 and 56 WRS was dispatched to Pago Pago, American Samoa to conduct air sample missions in the Pacific. This was because the French were testing their version of an A-bomb. I was part of the first team to go down TDY and set up the operation base for the missions which would fly over the next two months. It was a 2 week assignment at which time you flew back to Yokota on our plane and at the same time a new team and plane was sent down. We set up our base of operation at the International Airport and bunked two to a room in a facility near the airport. Can not remember what the facility was there for? Maybe part of the hotel in town. But they were nice rooms!

I represented the AGE shop but as anyone who was there knows, you did whatever it took to get the plane launched, recovered and ready for the next day. It was one hell of a team effort and I was proud to be there with those guys. SSgt Franks(I believe was his name) was our leader. When the plane landed after its daily mission we would turn it around, fuel it, fix it and have it ready for the 7am launch the next morning. We broke into 2 teams that would switch off every other day to launch the aircraft while the other team got to sleep in and sleep off their hang overs! It was a good system and when it was your night to party the Samoans knew how to treat their American cousins. And the women, well they were not pretty but they were very sturdy!

2 days before our TDY was up and we were due to return to Yokota a special Air Force C-135 aircraft arrived from Hickam AFB. None of us had seen one like it before. It had been converted just recently to an AWACS aircraft. Most of us didn’t know what it was really for but we knew it was something important. They were on a shake down mission after receiving the plane from somewhere in Ohio where the dome and electronic equipment had been installed. We helped their crew with turning the aircraft and later that evening they joined us in some serious partying, Samoan style. Next morning we watched as the plane took off for its return flight to Hawaii. Later that day the next team arrived from Yokota and we briefed them on the operation. We boarded our plane the next morning and arrived back at Yokota late in the afternoon. No one had a clue what we would hear when we hit the ground.

As we deplaned we started to hear the news, that an AWACS plane had gone down 700 miles off of Hawaii and there were no survivors! It was later determined that the special dome that had been installed on the top of the fuselage had ripped off and took the tail section with it. Apparently the conversion was not engineered correctly and as such 24 people perished in the Pacific. For all of us who had just a day before been with that plane and its crew it left a very strange feeling in our gut and a memory that has stayed with me all these years.

I had barely returned to barracks 333 when the First Shirt(Yeager?) tracked me down like a Ogre after a cold beer and instructed me to call home immediately. I figured the worst, and that Grandma had passed(I kept thinking why couldn’t she just have waited 4 months until I returned home?) I ran across to the airmen’s social hall or whatever they called it, and placed a call to Los Angeles. It would be 4 in morning. My mother answered and upon hearing my voice she started to cry. There had been an article in the LA Times the day before about an Air Force C-135 going down off Hawaii and she was sure it was our plane. The article said it had been on a classified mission!! At that point the impact of that plane going down hit me and I realized there for the Grace of God go I.

In conclusion, I may not have all the names and details exactly correct but its been over 32 years and I’m happy to remember what I remember after 2 beer soaked years in Japan. I welcome anyone to add to this memory or any of the other TDY’s to Pago Pago. We were so young and naive…….

War Story #2 Smitty tackles the Christmas tree outside Bks 333 on Xmas Eve 70 By Larry Washburn

Daryl Smithson (Smitty) was living in bks 333 and had been at 56wrs for a few months before his wife was due to come to Japan. I was not at the scene, but Smitty told me about it the next day. Seems that Smitty was getting very happy that his wife was arriving after months of separation while Smitty had prepared for her arrival. Smitty had at least a few drinks and was talking to some guys on the ground from a second story window of the Bks. For some reason Smitty wanted to go with the guys (probably to the Hon) and he thought that with the added liquor he could just jump out and tackle one of the large pine trees and skinny down the tree instead of going back in and coming down the stairs like normal people in unaltered states. Smitty swung out on the window sill, put his one foot on some trim above a window on the first floor and was just about ready to push himself away towards the pine tree, when the trim broke off under his weight and Smitty came crashing down. Off to the hospital and a 6 week cast. I think his wife showed up in a few days and Smitty was smiling again, cast and all.