| OCR Text |
Show WES ORDGREN BR 23 2004 in at the time, were quite old. They were built in 1928- pretty old airplanes. But I was assigned to one of those planes at first. All we did was keep them cleaned, gassed and oiled, and then every time our plane went out, we'd help guide it out while they were taxiing out because they weren't very easy to maneuver on the ground. We'd have to run along, grab hold of the wing, and run with the plane out to the end of the runway so he could take off. BEC: No kidding? WES: Then when the planes came in again, about an hour later, we'd run out there and be at the end of the runway and when they'd land, they'd come up to us and we'd grab hold and run all the way back in. It involved about three or four miles running every day. Then we finally got some new airplanes. Well, we got ten at first, just to start with, and I was fortunate enough to get one of the new planes, become plane captain on that. So that ended our running (laughs), also our having to crank them up by hand. One day ... they had a heavy crank and you'd crank that thing and if you stopped or hesitated then it would slip out of what they call a dog. As long as you cranked the starter, it would hang in there, but if you hesitated then it would slip out. My foot slipped one day and that crank caught me and broke my nose. That was minor. Then we started to run the new planes and they were much better. They had the electric starters on them and everything. But I spent-oh, after a while I took the test for third class, first rating, as a petty officer, they call them. I passed that no problem. When I had time in grade then I took the one for second class, passed that, then finally had been in long enough that I had enough time that I could go for first class. So I was first class machinists mate, aviation machinists mate. 7 |
