The Forum

This ABCCC site is outstanding but there is a blatant lack of participation from flight deck folks or at least from my era in the 7th and 42d accs. Probably 99 percent of the names and and pictures are from aft of the 245. Its no big secret that there was childish unwarrented animosity between the front and back end (at least thru the 90’s)-- front enders refusing to wear leather jackets when the battlestaff got theirs etc.  However, It would be nice to hear from a few more of the glorified bus drivers.  P.S.  I probably would have made it past Major if I had more tact.

Buck Rogers
5000+ hr Naviguesser

Hey, That’s too bad that the frontender’s and the backenders didn’t get along.  Back in Korat, and I know, Udorn before that we got along great.  They used to come back to relax and one A/C in particular let me drive his airplane.
Steve Littlefield

Dear friends, I am a front-ender; a flight engineer.  I am wondering when and where the next 7ACCS will be?  I appologize for not being too active this year, but having been unemployed for a while my priority was to family and job search.  I am once again gainfully employed and loving it.

I agree with Steve here.  Though I was initially a crew chief at Udon 71 before becoming a flight engineer 74, we all seemed to get along and when I was at Keesler we all seemed to get along as well.  Guess it was a matter of not caring if you were sitting in the front or back, all that mattered to me was that we were doing a job that needed to be done.  I have a great attachment to 62-1809 and will forever remember that aircraft and the many time she brought me/us home safely.

As maint and a flight engineer in the 7th and 42nd ACCS, it seemed to me that when I got to the 7th the shift had begun, there were front and back enders that got along, but when I arrived in Tucson, it was a true and total shift.  I think it was a combination of younger flyers being in the back, and a lot of older, more experienced guys up front!  The backenders only thought we were bus drivers, and we thought they were only mushrooms who primarily slept the whole mission!  A couple of my good friends were guys from the back, but I didnt care!  Then there was the whole crew brief issue, nothing brief about 3+ hours of non-sense!  I have been here representing since the start, but this site seems pretty dormant for the most part, with only the occassional post here and there.