[CTS] Re: Back to School ?
- From: "Russ Blakeman" <rhb57@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <computertalkshop@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:21:17 -0500
They shut down the airfield after Vietnam - too loud I guess which is what
helped put Chanute AFB on the kill list rather than another ATC base...now
the runways are open for light and medium sized aircraft up to about the
size of a C-123 Provider. I did see one aircraft come into Chanute despite
closed airfield - a B-52D was pulled from mothballs at Davis-Monthan and
made flightworthy, flown ever so carefully into the short runways of Chanute
in mid 83 when I was there for reraining. You don't realize how big those
SOBs are until they fly over your head at less than 500 ft trying to make
their last, but sucessful, landing.
In 90 that same plane was ground into a pile of aluminum allow scrap as part
of the US-Soviet START treatise. What a shame. The front cabin of the other
B-52D or E that was removed for egress training, is still there now as a
display/tourist thingy. I know the curator Don Weckhorst very well - he was
a retired E9 teaching classes at the local community college plus running
the base historians's job and retiree affairs - and still does the historian
and retiree affairs jobs without any pay - he just loves what he does and
his E9 pay isn't bad either for 30 yrs service.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: computertalkshop-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:computertalkshop-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Cuffy
> Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2005 11:10 PM
> To: computertalkshop@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [CTS] Re: Back to School ?
>
>
> I use to fly into Chanute once in awhile and as I remember they had some
> photos of Lindbergh and other Air Corps pilots posted on the walls in
> Base Ops.
> The good old days I guess ?
> I nearly bought one of those biplanes, the Stearman, but the magneto was
> shot and after checking all over the US the cheapest mag I could find
> was $800 from a guy at some little airport in Texas.
> $800 would have bought a new Stearman when they first came out.
> I bought a J3 instead for half that money !
>
> ================================================
>
> Russ Blakeman wrote:
>
> >OOPS that should be corrected - IIRC he said Lindergh ran air mail before
> >that and went to Chanute Field for actual military air corps pilot
> >training....
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: computertalkshop-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>[mailto:computertalkshop-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Russ Blakeman
> >>Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2005 10:38 PM
> >>To: computertalkshop@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>Subject: [CTS] Re: Back to School ?
> >>
> >>
> >>My dad was born 11/32, he was also about 8 when Pearl was bombed. My
> >>grandfather on my mom's side, before he lost it to alzeihmer's,
> could tell
> >>me all kinds of odd stuff about the turn of the century (19th to
> >>20th) as he
> >>was born 1894 and was almmost drafted for WWI but managed to
> volunteer and
> >>get a cushy job in Chicago at Navy Pier when it was still an
> active Naval
> >>post.
> >>
> >>A guy I worked with at Plattsburgh NY would tell me about the
> base we went
> >>to for tech training - Chanute (was field, then AFB, now closed
> >>and public)
> >>in IL. Seems he was one of those people that had a parent that was older
> >>when he was concieved (his dad remarried after being widowed -
> >>MUCH younger
> >>wife) and seems his dad was at Chanute Field back when they did flying
> >>training and it seems Mr Charles Lindbergh was going through air
> >>mail pilot
> >>training in a biplane at Chanute at the same time. He was by no
> >>means famous
> >>then but everybody knew each other and once Lindberg had the
> notariaty as
> >>well as the misfortune with their son, he would write just to
> >>keep in touch.
> >>The guy I worked with had a photo of his dad and Lindberg and a
> >>coupel other
> >>GI's back at Chanute - pretty cool.
> >>
> >>The older man that showed us the property my parents bought out
> >>here back in
> >>72, who was 88 then and still hiking the woods better than us
> 15 yr olds,
> >>would tell us about the area in years past and his father was a
> Civil War
> >>soldier, CSA, at age 15.
> >>
> >>Weird how the world has changed - people can't even sit in their
> >>back yards
> >>on a summer day without passing out yet as little time as back in 66 I
> >>remember when air conditioners were just starting to become a
> normal thing
> >>in Chicago in my neighborhood of working class folks. Color TV was just
> >>affordable about 62 or 63 yet most stations still broadcasted in
> >>BW. People
> >>in my grandparents era married and had businesses or farms or
> worked 60 to
> >>80 hrs a week, had kids, etc starting at age 14, now you can't
> >>get your kid
> >>to leave at 24...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
>
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