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#11
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A couple of weeks ago, at a meeting of airtanker pilot in Reno, Walt Stewart
was a guest speaker. He was a pilot on B-24, and his bombs were actually the first to hit the refinery. "Utah Man" was the name of his B-24 and there was a documentary video made about it a while back. He talked about how on the way there, his navigator realized that the formation had turned about 40 miles too early, using the wrong railroad for point to start the turn. They were 2nd in their particular group in the formation, and they were completely sure that turn that was made was wrong, but was unable to question it on the radio, due to radio silence. Shortly afterward, the #1 plane in their group turned back out of formation, and headed towards the right target, which they were happy about, because they knew it wasnt just them that knew a navigational error had been made. He did stress how gutsy it was though, to just turn the particular group out of the formation like that, and its a gamble that if you are correct, you are a hero, and if you are wrong, off to Ft Leavenworth you go. Ron Pilot/Wildland Firefighter I meant to say it was Ploesti I was talking about... Ron Pilot/Wildland Firefighter |
#13
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In message , ArtKramr
writes Subject: Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort From: "M. J. Powell" landed snip Art, I would like to ask some stupid questions. Why keep radio silence then? If someone had put a quick question to the lead a/c what would have been lost? Your radio frequencies were changed for each mission? It would have been amazing if the enemy heard the transmissions. If he had, what would he have gained? There wouldn't have been time to DF you. And he knew where you were anyway. Mike -- M.J.Powell Of course they knew we were there. They were shooting at us. And every one of us thought just that. But we can't have a situation where radio silence must be kept unless someone thinks other wise. In that case everyone would be blabbing over the radio all the damn time. So the rule is trict and allows for no exceptions. Radio silence. Always radio silence. No exceptions. No matter what. It is the way we were trained. and that is how we flew our missions. For better or for worse. Weeelll......I hate to criticise, but surely real emergencies can take priority? The formation captain (?) can close down any chatter, as on an intercom. To lose a couple of planes and crews for want of a short comment, seems a very high price to pay for prohibiting something that serves a useful purpose. Mike -- M.J.Powell |
#14
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Subject: Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort
From: "M. J. Powell" Date: 2/11/04 7:54 AM Pacific Standard Time Message-id: In message , ArtKramr writes Subject: Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort From: "M. J. Powell" landed snip Art, I would like to ask some stupid questions. Why keep radio silence then? If someone had put a quick question to the lead a/c what would have been lost? Your radio frequencies were changed for each mission? It would have been amazing if the enemy heard the transmissions. If he had, what would he have gained? There wouldn't have been time to DF you. And he knew where you were anyway. Mike -- M.J.Powell Of course they knew we were there. They were shooting at us. And every one of us thought just that. But we can't have a situation where radio silence must be kept unless someone thinks other wise. In that case everyone would be blabbing over the radio all the damn time. So the rule is trict and allows for no exceptions. Radio silence. Always radio silence. No exceptions. No matter what. It is the way we were trained. and that is how we flew our missions. For better or for worse. Weeelll......I hate to criticise, but surely real emergencies can take priority? The formation captain (?) can close down any chatter, as on an intercom. To lose a couple of planes and crews for want of a short comment, seems a very high price to pay for prohibiting something that serves a useful purpose. Mike -- M.J.Powell I agree. But Ike thought otherwise. (sigh) Arthur Kramer 344th BG 494th BS England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
#15
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In message , ArtKramr
writes Subject: Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort From: "M. J. Powell" Date: 2/11/04 7:54 AM Pacific Standard Time Message-id: In message , ArtKramr writes Subject: Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort From: "M. J. Powell" landed snip Art, I would like to ask some stupid questions. Why keep radio silence then? If someone had put a quick question to the lead a/c what would have been lost? Your radio frequencies were changed for each mission? It would have been amazing if the enemy heard the transmissions. If he had, what would he have gained? There wouldn't have been time to DF you. And he knew where you were anyway. Mike -- M.J.Powell Of course they knew we were there. They were shooting at us. And every one of us thought just that. But we can't have a situation where radio silence must be kept unless someone thinks other wise. In that case everyone would be blabbing over the radio all the damn time. So the rule is trict and allows for no exceptions. Radio silence. Always radio silence. No exceptions. No matter what. It is the way we were trained. and that is how we flew our missions. For better or for worse. Weeelll......I hate to criticise, but surely real emergencies can take priority? The formation captain (?) can close down any chatter, as on an intercom. To lose a couple of planes and crews for want of a short comment, seems a very high price to pay for prohibiting something that serves a useful purpose. Mike -- M.J.Powell I agree. But Ike thought otherwise. (sigh) I wonder who his Chief Signals Officer was? Mike -- M.J.Powell |
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