We Came, We Cleaned, We Left

While Suwon WAS, overall, a pretty good assignment, it could have, and SHOULD have been a lot better.

Because the A-10 is a very good airplane, NOT requiring an astronomical amount of maintenance like the F-111 did, the "Supers" always seemed to find "dog & pony things" to fill in the rest of the time out on that ramp.

Remote assignments tend to lend themselves WELL to the "wannabe leaders" that you run into occasionally during your active duty career. The main reason for this is "perceived power."

On small remote sites an ocean away from the "Big Air Force", a Senior Master Sergeant, who might be a shift supervisor at Eglin, can suddenly be running an entire Maintenance Unit, Job Control or Quality Assurance.

A Major, who back in the states, might carry a clipboard and make coffee for a General on a "REAL" base, could easily wind up as the DCM on a REMOTE site.

On a small off-the-beaten track airfield, he gets to "BE SOMEBODY." and it often goes to their heads. These are people who often EXTEND for two or three tours on that same base...........they don't WANT to go back to a real stateside base, where they don't get to big the "big cheese" anymore.

There usually aren't many of them though, because the smaller the base, the less "upper-ranks" you need. But many of them set up their own little "empires," yet they rarely get any "meaningful resistance", because by the time YOU've had enough of the stupidity, half your tour is over anyway and you're just looking to run out the clock and leave.. The "tyrants" count on that and look forward to the NEXT batch they can try to run ramshod over.

At Suwon, when we weren't flying, we were painting, anything that didn't move. E-9 Ron Davies had this great penchant for "PURTY"............not pretty........"PURTY" He and Major Doty would ride around in their little flightline pickup all day while we were inspecting, flying and servicing airplanes, and they would LOOK for whatever little "penny-ante" crap they could find.

Captain Jennings, our section commander, wanted FLOWERS planted all around the flight shack. The ammo guys' area gate entrance was right across the road from ours, and the two section heads were in competition with each other to see who could come up with the better overhead design. OUR "-----detail" dug down a little TOO far for the supports, busted through a main waterline, and flooded EVERYTHING!

Q.A. (Quality Assurance).........the inspectors who get to write things up. Not ALL are jerks, but MANY of suddenly get those little imaginary "sheriff's badges", and they're out there writing you up for everything they can think of. Here again....THEY are among the "chosen elite", and rarely want to return stateside after THEY'VE had a "little taste of glory."

BUT......you learn to avoid, and/or work around these "jerks with no jobs" as we called them.

Barracks life was good, chow wasn't bad, and the Korean people outside the gates in the towns and villages were genuinely warm and friendly to us. After Italy, South Korea would be my SECOND favorite overseas tour of the four.

But they'd come out there in sub-zero weather.............(and Korea is STINGING cold.....if you've never been there).........and they'd want THIS painted and THAT painted, or "armorall-ed", they'd come out there and annoy guys who were working, because the maintenace stands weren't lined up exactly so as to look "cosmetically just right."

THESE were Officers and NCO's who'd be someone else's FLUNKIES back home at Travis, Barksdale or Tyndall, but for some of these guys, it was nothing short of an EGO trip.................THEY had one or two more stripes than YOU did, and some equally-jerk Major to back them up, and there wasn't much you could do but just put 'em on "disregard" when you could, fly airplanes, enjoy your off-duty time in town, mark the days off the calendar and go home.

HOME...............Where WAS "home" gonna be? With my new A-10 Identifier code (522) in my hot little hands, I'd filled out my "Dream Sheet" for Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, in hopes of not having to go back to F-111's AGAIN. When I got my PCS notice to return to the states, it was Mountain Home again!

Enough was enough...........The F-111 was not only a hard, aggravating aircraft to work on, it also was NOT "promotion-friendly" Out of 100 questions on the SKT half of the WAPS test for promotion, there were traditionally only TWO questions that ever pertained to the Aardvark. Nearly a THIRD of that test dealt with the F-4 Phantom, because most guys had WORKED the F-4 by the time they were testing for Tech and in my case, Master. I wanted OFF that airplane.

So........I managed to use our overseas phone system and call Randolph AFB, Texas..........where the "giant dartboard" is maintained. I talked to a Master Sergeant who TODAY, I guess we'd call the "fighter plane maintenance Czar." I told him I'd worked F-111's on three bases in a row.......I NOW had an A-10 code as well...........so WHY was I getting Mountain Home a FOURTH time??

His answer was basically that there was a shortage of F-111 maintenance people, and that's where I was the most qualified! (Of COURSE there's a shortage-------it's a maintenance nightmare!)

We haggled a bit, and he said "Look, if you really want to go somewhere ELSE.......hang on a minute, let me see what I can do"..............

There but for a moment, the sun began to shine through the clouds..........then he came back on.........

"Bradbury?"

"Yeah"........

"Tell ya what, we've got a definite slot for you at Cannon if you want it"............

CANNON????..............CANNON????.............ARE THEY NUTS?????

Cannon AFB, New Mexico.........the ARMPIT of Tactical Air Command, and home to the F-111D..........the "D" model.........the WORST F-111 of the entire SERIES!

"NO!", I said sharply and defiantly............."if THAT'S my only other choice, I'd be better off back at Mountain Home!!"

"Not a problem, sarge.........have a nice day!"............CLICK!

Career-wise, the year in Korea achieved nothing. I only got a "taste" of the A-10, and I actually didn't even get THAT, as I ended up in the Expedite Truck for MOST of that year.

I DID enjoy my off-duty time there, though. Made some friends, played a lot of guitar and froze my butt off in the winter!

December of 84 finally came, and it would be time for somebody ELSE to clean, paint, and play the other silly games.

TWO pretty memorable things happened while I was there though. We got to see televised highlites of Richard Petty scoring his 200th NASCAR win at the Firecracker 400 in Daytona, with President Reagan in attendance. And 4 months later, we got to watch our absentee ballots count, as Reagan got RE-elected president by a 49 state to 1 landslide in November.

A couple of months later, I'd be starting my final active duty tour.............and it would be time to say goodbye.

It would be time.