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I arrived on Kwajalein, March 4th, 1982. After
landing, and doing the necessary paperwork, I had been told I was being
assigned to Meck Island (Firefighter). Never having been there, I
didn't think too much about it. I wasn't sure how to get there...but I
was told to head back to the terminal...thinking they meant the main
terminal. I was informed that I was mistaken...and that I had to
go to the smaller, secondary terminal...not without several people
laughing. I thought that a bit odd, but I headed out to find the
smaller terminal and on approach, asked a gentlemen if he knew how to
find it and get to Meck Island. This gentleman questioned me to as
why I needed to go. Having informed him that was where I was being
assigned, he and several other gentlemen all began laughing as I stood
frowning, waiting for the punch line. This individual managed to
stop laughing long enough to point out three people sleeping on the
terminal benches, "that is your Ass't Fire Chief, your Station
Captain...and a fellow firefighter...and he of course, burst out
laughing again. In fact, these gentlemen pretty much laughed all
the way on the flight from Kwaj to Meck Island. During the flight,
the closer we got to Meck Island...the more these gentlemen kept looking
back at me (me being in the rear of the Caribou). Little did I
know it was because they were waiting to see the look on my face when I
saw the runway and where we were going to land! LOL
I had forgotten about the Pilots flying the planes in sideways until
reading Pat's post, and sure enough he was approaching sideways this
time too. I had a picture perfect view of how very short that
runway looks (and is)...just before the pilot straightened it out, set
it down, and slammed the engines in full reverse nearly the entire
length of that driveway..I mean runway. To be honest...I didn't
really think the plane was going to be able to stop before we ran off
the other end of the Island, lol...but they managed. The ex-Nam
pilots could have done it in their sleep with 70 mile an hour winds, lol...but
if they weren't ex-Nam pilots, plenty of times they refused to land,
lolz....the was skeert, hahaha. I was on Meck going on three years
before we transferred to Roi-Namur. But I'll mention two things
I've never seen mentioned in any posts. You have a picture of some of
the HOE launches....the one that looks like a Sepia print....was the
second launch while I was there. That particular Missile almost
didn't go. The Missile came up out of the underground part of the
silo....and then just sat there bouncing up and down for a few
seconds....it got dead quiet inside MICB, lol.
Ohhh....and ummm Pat, where ever did you get the idea that you might be
safe if things went wrong with a Missle, hehehe. I wonder why no
one ever mentions "Brand X"? If you don't know....that is the snow white
Russian Spy Ship that used to show up every time the mission was on,
(and closer than a three mile limit sometimes). During one
mission...some fellow Firefighters and I decided to do a night dive,
ocean side. Of course, Brand X happened to be there off shore,
ocean side also. One by one, the light bulbs in our dive lights
went out and so we were forced to get out of the water, which was
okay...since a shark swam through the last light beam right before the
bulb burned out, lol. As we climbed out of the water, we could
here people screaming at us to put our hands in the air and weapons
being chambered, lolz. The Security had mistaken us for Russian
Divers...thinking they were trying to sneak onto the Island...told them
we were trying to sneak off, lol. The Pilots used to call Meck the
"Meck Island Social Club"..... sometimes I felt like I was living
in a Baa Baa Black Sheep rerun! I was there at Meck and Roi
all through the 80's and early 90's too...we had some good times on Roi.....Meck
too I guess, lol.
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Scott Rohde - Email:
geradama1@yahoo.com |
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