Robert E. Irion, Sandy, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, September 20, 2002: Saving the legacy tape no. 537, 538, and 539

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Robert . Irion ptemb r 20'h 2 02 And Russ was in his 30's. They called him 'Pops because he wa o much ld r than the rest of the crew chiefs and the young guys- they were all young· early tw nti s, you know. But he was a farmer from Manton, Michigan. You know, it was fun to work with him. He just- he wouldn't quit on an airplane until he was satisfied it was right. And I've had him come to my hut at 9:00 or 9:30 at night and say, "Well, we've been working on this thing ever since you got back from the mission at 2:00 and I think we've got it figured out now. I think we've got it. And we'll see you in the morning!" He'd work and work and work you know. He was just that type. And he had an assistant crew chief who was a kid from Oklahoma who was a little bit- I'm glad he wasn't the crew chief! Good enough kid, but he was a little bit on the slack side as far as wanting to really put in armorer, worked on the guns, the gun cameras and his name was Charles Hammerle. They were a good crew to be with and I liked them. But this Russ Peasley, he was a jewel. But anyhow, my introduction to them was not that great because I met them this one day and got the little oil leak okay, fixed up. The next day I'm on a mission. And I come back from the mission and we're coming in to land on the runway that ran southwest to northeast and our squadron was over here, on the right side of that runway our parking area. And then up the hill at the top was the main, big maintenance hangar and the tower is up here. On your little map there I was coming in and here's our area right here. I was coming in to land right this way. And see, up in here was the tower and the maintenance hangar and all. 60