On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 10:00:26 -0600, in rec.aviation.military "Danny
Deger" wrote:

What is your favorite "lost" story?

EC-130 Airborne Command Post, Nellis Ranges, about thirty years ago. I
was an enlisted swine (Life Support) who went along for the ride.
Boring, actually... flying around and around in a racetrack pattern
hour after hour after hour... zzzzzz.... Suddenly the all-hands
intercom clicks on and an aggrieved voice exclaims "I'm the navigator,
goddammit; I have a right to know where we are!"

This got everyone's attention. Are we not where we belong? Have we
strayed into a live-fire area? Finally the pilot comes up on the
intercom and reassures the crew that we are where we need to be.

Back then, the flight deck intercom had two switches: flight deck
only, which linked pilot (Capt.), copilot (1Lt.), navigator (Maj.) and
flight engineer (TSgt.), and "all-hands", which transmitted to
everybody in the aircraft (some enlisted, some junior officers, a
light colonel, two birds and a two-star, and your reporter, he of the
paired stripes).

Seems our navigator, having nothing to do, decides to kick back and
take a nap. Not usually a problem, since all we are doing is going
round and round and round... Anyway, he wakes up and asks the pilot
where we are, to which the pilot - being the sarcastic sod that he was
- replies "You don't need to know." Of course, our navigator is highly
offended at this, grabs the intercom to reply... and presses the wrong
switch.

Needless to say, the stars and birds were not amused. Heads did not
roll, but our intrepid flight crew was markedly subdued after the
postflight debrief.

The unit identification, and the names of those involved, will not be
revealed to protect the guilty.

--
William Hughes, San Antonio, Texas:
The Carrier Project: http://home.grandecom.net/~cvproj/carrier.htm
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