The White Falcon - 15.04.1977, Page 1

(White FalcoiT)
Volume XXXIII Number 15 Keflavik, Iceland April 15, 1977
REACHING INTO THE OVEN, Gay Taylor and Karen McMillan prepare bread at the
932nd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron Dining Hall Kitchen. Assisting them
are Betty Curl, Elaine Meyer and June Young (left to right), (photo by Lieu-
tenant Colonel James G. Young).
Until ‘baker's man' arrives
Volunteers rescue ‘sweet tooth’
A baker's wife allergic to flour?
Resulting from this occupational
hazard, Rockville and Naval Receiver
Site personnel would have had no
baked desserts since December.
To fill in for the missing baker, a
group of volunteers have willingly pro-
vided such pastry. Some volunteers who
participated are: Gay Taylor, Karen
McMillan, Betty Curl, Elaine Meyer and
June Young. Others who contributed are
Ellen Jared and Maggie Tierney.
Until a new military baker was as-
signed, a number of wives and even a
visiting mother from the states have
donated time and skills weekly.
Through their efforts, 200 Rock-
villites have been supplied with cakes,
pies and other desserts.
According to Mrs. June Young, wife
of Lieutenant Colonel James G. Young,
932nd Aircraft Control and Warning
Squadron commander, this beneficial
contribution has been one of the most
rewarding things they have ever done
after seeing the happy expressions on
their faces.
Arriving last week, the Rockville
site has its own resident military
baking specialist who, of course,
will have several assistants at his
disposal if needed.
The site's "baker's man" is
Sergeant Michael J. Walker, who will
be stationed at the site for a year.
The new baked goodie producer
specializes in cookies, cakes, pies
and sweet rolls.
Sgt. Walker remarks about his
potential patrons, "The people at
Rockville seem to be really nice.
It is a very closely knit organiza-
tion."
‘Murphy’s Law’ keeps
57th FIS Maintenance Division on its toes
The glamour of flight traditionally
belongs to those who fly.
There is a tendency to forget that
modern aircraft are complex machines
with thousands of parts and thousands
of things that can go wrong. No flier
would fly very long without a skilled
maintenance crew backing him up.
The pilots of the 57th Fighter Inter-
ceptor Squadron place their trust in the
seven officers and 334 enlisted men and
women of the 57th Maintenance division.
The job isn't an easy one. The F-4C
"Phantoms" and T-33 "T-birds" of the
57th are subject to tremendous stresses.
A Phantom, for example, cruises at twice
the speed of a bullet from a .45 caliber
automatic. This stress, aggravated by
adverse weather conditions pushes the
average maintenance time on each of the
NEWS
BRIEFS
Flea Market
Tickets are now being sold through the
month of April only, for Family Services
Super Drawing. You can buy the 50 cents
tickets from a volunteer.
- Daily at the Commissary Store
- Saturdays and paydays at the Main
Exchange
- At the Top of the Rock, Tuesday
night bingo.
There are 40 prizes offered, so this
could be your lucky day.
57th's fighters to 50 manhours of labor
per flight hour.
The key word at 57th Maintenance is
teamwork. Since no one man can hope to
know everything about a machine as ad-
vanced and complicated as a modern jet,
the job is divided up. Different
specialists work on different systems
within the aircraft.
For example, one of the most impor-
tant parts of a Phantom is its inertial
guidance system (IGS). The IGS is an
on-board computer which keeps track of
the aircraft's position, based on mea-
surements of forces acting on certain
instruments. It sounds complicated, and
it is. When a pilot reports trouble
with that particular "black box" it is
removed from the plane and taken to an
electronics shop, adjacent to the hangar
which is specially equipped to diagnose
and repair the problem.
Another critical component of the
Phantom is the Weapons Control System
(WCS), better known as the airborne
radar system. This package contains
some of the most sophisticated com-
ponents in the F-4. Without this system,
the 57th aircrews could not perform
their primary mission of interception
and identification of unknown aircraft
which enter Icelandic airspace. Hence,
when the aircrew discovers a problem
with the radar, WCS technicians apply
maximum effort to correct the problem
immediately.
Similar separate shops work on
weapons, communications, propulsion,
life support and other systems. Some
are physically removed for work; others
are left in the airframe.
Windbreaker
The Windbreaker Club will host an
Hawaiian Luau on April 30. Dinner will
start at 6 p.m. A floor show will follow
at 9 p.m.
PTO meeting
A general membership meeting of the
A. T. Mahan Parent-Teacher Organization
(PTO) will be held Monday at 7 p.m. in
the high school auditorium.
All parents and teachers are welcome.
Item to be considered are: Approval
of the 1977-78 PTO budget, selection of
a scholarship committee and selection of
a nominating committee.
The Job Control Office coordinates
these activities. In addition to staying
constantly up-to-date on the operational
status of each of the 57th's aircraft,
JCO keeps tabs on aerospace ground sup-
port vehicles. It also feeds parts re-
quirements to Air Forces Iceland Supply.
Maintenance is an around-the-clock
job. Soon after landing until immedi-
ately before takeoff, 57th Maintenance
personnel are never very far from the
planes.
Someday, computers may replace men as
pilots, and the day of the glamorous
aviator will draw to a close. But, to
maintenance crews, the robot pilot
would be just one more thing to fix.
Staff Sergeant Robert Curtis of Plans and Scheduling reviews the previous
day's documentation of flights to ensure that all applicable data is correct.
Technical Sergeant Kenneth Warwin from WCS Shop and Technical Sergeant
Horace Cheek from the Electronics Shop check out a wire bundle in the left
variramp of an F-4C aircraft.