Saturday, January 2, 2010

freezin's the reason




I was stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota for 7 fuckin years. I worked on that flightline, wrenching on the KC-135R and the B-1B in the middle of winter in -60 degree temps. Maintenance Ops could not officially send us inside till it was -65 degrees. yeah, 5 fuckin degrees difference. I remember one time trying to fix a fuel leak on a tanker and it was frickin cold. The wind was ripping from the north at about 40mph and the snow was swirling around my feet like desert sand. There was a valve or something leaking on the belly of the plane in this little access door and the only way to get to it was to take my arm out of my nice warm parka sleeve, my BDU shirt sleeve, and jam my arm up in that hole to reach the part. You only have about 10 minutes to work before you have to put your fuel soaked arm back in your jacket and warm it up again.

When you live and work in cold ass places like that, you often ask yourself things like..."what the fuck am I doing here?" or " who's fuckin bright idea was it to settle in a place this cold?" or "Shouldn't I have my bare feet in warm sand or mud right now?"


After my first winter there I spent the next 6 winters trying like hell to get stationed somewhere else.

8 comments:

Tony d. said...

fuck. that.

Big Dirty said...

Thats the truth!!!! I went to the USAF Fire Academy in Chanute Illinois.... Nothing like playing with water and fire in minus zero temperatures!!! Like you said, everyday I stepped outside, I was like "I'm ready to go back to Cali now."

Rudder & Chris B. said...

6 or 7 winters in north dakota weather/temperatures like that... and you moved to the lake michigan shoreline? wtf were you thinkin, bro!

Livingston Montreux said...

I feel you. 5 years at F.E Warren running the missile field, fuck the cold!!!!

Mike
folkdevilsmc.blogspot.com

Michael said...

Mitch, that sucks man. Like ther guy said, I'm sure that lake effect is up there with shitty weather for you.

The AF has sent me to Texas, Nebraska, Hawaii, and now Las Vegas. I work in Intelligence so I'll always be inside. I can't wait til I'm where you are, OUT!

Beaner said...

Yeah, I hate working on a flight line in the freezing ass cold. We left Little Rock where it was in the 70's once to go to Griffis AFB in Rome, NY where there was 2 inches of ice on the ramp and 20 foot snow drifts and -19 with the wind chill well below that.

Hell, I worked at O'Hare where it was -40 so Chicago isn't much better.

Nothing beats being in the Army though and sitting in and hanging out of a Chinook with the freezing ass cold and +80 mph wind coming off the rotors and there's nowhere for you to go.

CycleDelicCycles said...

fuck man, I need to get to the beach this weekend!

d-smoke said...

Being from southern CA, I hated being stationed in Jersey (McGuire AFB) so hot AND so cold. Then I got stationed in Guam, which totally made up for it! Glad the whole thing is long over with though. Thanks for serving brothers ...and sisters!