This one is already briefly discussed on page one of this forum topic, but the set-up for this story is a good one.
Once again, there were five teams, so five aircrews were selected to participate in the T-Ops mission immediately following the briefing. All aircraft were on the carrier, the USS John C. Stennis operating in the Gulf of Kosan.
One by one, the aircraft took off, not noticing the six aircraft had also taken off at almost the same precise instant as the fifth aircraft took off. Thanks to communications from AWACS, the sixth aircraft, piloted by the Black Knights, slipped unnoticed into the patrol formation.
The Knight aircraft went undetected for more than fifteen minutes, and then what is reported on the earlier page occured. For the record, Spanky shot down three aircraft in that engagement with Gordo in the pit of 206.
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
As many of you may know, the part of the CAG (Commander, Air Group) was played by Spanky throughout many summer seasons. Spanky's role was designed to make sure the trainees understood who was in charge of their missions and the disdain he had for them.
Often times, he would enter the briefing room and slam a door or something. Then, launch into his tirade about how he was the unluckiest CAG to ever walk the planet with this room full of pukes, etc, etc.
Well, one night Spanky came to Theater Ops with a bunch of stuff on his mind. When Grunt turned the briefing over to him. Spanky comes tearing through the back door, hauls off and hurls a checklist book at the front door, kicks the hatch open, boots a trash can, and proceeds to scream and rant something completely incoherent for about thirty seconds.
There are trainees absolutely shaking.
But, he's not done. He picks up the thrown checklist and throws it again and absently kicks at a discarded soda can on the floor before he begins to give his briefing. With venom - man, he was in fine form that night.
He concludes his briefing and stomps out the backdoor and proceeds to slam it shut - the only problem is that Wedge was in the way, and her back pinched in the hinge of the door. I think Spanky was halfway to the B-52 trailer before he calmed down enough to come back and make sure that Wedge was okay.
When asked what was wrong, Spanky came one of his patented answers. "What? Those kids hardly paid attention in program orientation last night (Sunday). So I wanted them to really pay attention - hell, I wanted to scare them. So what?"
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
I remember wedge she was my night counselor in 96 cool person.
Jason original callsign Loverboy
SC 1991
SA Level 1 1993
AC Intermediate 1996
ASA 1998
Corporate Space Camp 2005
AC Counselor Summer 07 callsign Boomerang
Adult Alumni Camp 2007
Adult Alumni Camp 2008 Official Space Camp Ambassador
I can honestly say I don't know how we started on this idea, but I can say that I'm glad we did it, even though it was more for the comedic value than anything.
One day, we decided we'd do a TOP GUN briefing. Yep, just like the movie.
It had everything a good TOP GUN briefing should have.
What stands out in my memory were the following:
1. The music before hand was the Top Gun theme by Harold Faltermeyer over and over again.
2. We had counselors playing pilots, including Gordo wearing a big cowboy hat just like Cowboy from the movie.
3. Charlie. One of the counselors (forgive me I can't remember her callsign) dressed up as Kelly McGillis' character and was introduced as Charlie and gave the TAGREP briefing. I think I laughed all the way through the briefing. There was something else funny about her briefing, but I really can't go into it. Let's just say a couple of water balloons were ingeniously placed.....
4. Grunt. Man, I still applaud him. He never got out of character and even after the trainees had a good laugh during the briefing, he managed to scare the crap out of them.
There's more, but right now it's too early to remember it all. Spanky needs to jump in here and help out.
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
me too! Nothing this funny ever happened when I was there.
Mach III winter '03- Top Gun Award
Mach III spring '04- Top Gun Award
Mach III winter '04- Top Gun Award
Mach III spring '05- Top Gun Award
ASA winter '06
Mach III summer '06
Mach III winter '06- Top Gun Award
June 1996. The lead counselor staff and management staff of Aviation Challenge turned over roughly 75% after Summer Counselor Training. The Assistant Manager, and two other lead counselors left the program for other opportunities almost immediately following counselor training. A new Lead was promoted to monitor Mach III under a newly promoted Assistant Manager (we love you Aunt Bea).
The counselors for Mach III at the time were a highly motivated group. Spanky, Joker, Gordo, Coon Dog, Grunt, Doolittle, Wedge, Hoser, Puttz, and a collection of others were chomping at the bit to do something different.
One Friday afternoon, we met as a group and tried to determine a way the program should move. Several ideas were brought up, and almost all of them were implemented that summer. The biggest idea was to turn the Mach III experience into a "front line" experience for the trainees. It took some time, but at the end of the month, we were ready.
There was some heartburn out there. Several counselors, a manager or two, and even the SR VP were a little skeptical. Could it really work? We'd never really pressed the military aspect before, and when they'd tried the trainees didn't take to it. Would it work?
After several days of beating the computer keyboard and trying to create the scenario, we were ready. We were very limited the first time out. We had to use a slide projector and a bunch of slides we literally scrounged together and tried to make a briefing from. Until we were able to wrangle a computer projector and a laptop, it was the best that we could do.
We were just about ready, but there were several things missing. We needed to create the atmosphere. How would we do that?
First step - security checkpoint. Grunt, Doolittle, and Grumpy put this together beautifully. With help from Rambler, they designed the basis for this T-Ops staple.
Second step - the facility. The lights were all off (thanks to the techs who let us do it that way) with only the red lights on. From the techshop upstairs (tucked along the wall) we played ominous music from "The Hunt For Red October."
Third Step - the scenario. Everybody who was interested pitched in.
Fourth Step - Aggressors. This concept was the toughest to sell to the management, but we came up with the doctrine of teaching, and not merely winning. The name "Black Knights" came from some different sources. "Knights and Roundtable" were knew would be our callsigns. Black was ominous sounding and there are several Black Knights squadrons across the Navy and Airforce (and around the world). The myth that "Black Knights" came from the movie Independence Day is just a myth - I can honestly say we were a little shocked at it, but we took it and ran.
Fifth Step - The Squadron itself. We had a moniker now, but we needed a designation. All the credit goes the Flash for 77th. Her reasoning was impeccable, and when we all stopped blushing and laughing, we decided that was it.
Sixth Step - Tailcodes. Numbers. We needed brevity codes, and we selected them carefully. I was Knight Six - Six is a commander's brevity code in the Army, and since I was the commander it stuck. Spanky was Three - for two reasons - he was the operations officer (S-3 in the Army) but mainly for Dale Earnhardt I think. And so it went on and on.
Seventh Step - The briefing. We rehearsed it a few times, but until we went through that very first briefing, we didn't know if it would work.
I can tell you that the trainees hearts weren't the only ones that were beating out of their chests that first night. I can't really remember giving the briefing, and who all played parts, but I can tell you it was a blazing success. The trainees loved it, and it showed in their evaluations. The trend kept up for the next several weeks.
The SR VP came for a visit (and I think the CEO, too), and it was officially signed off on.
Without a lot of hard work, from a lot of dedicated people, AC was changed for the better. I can't say too much about current operations there (I left Sprocket in 2001 and had little to do with AC after Fall 2000), but 1996-2001 was a great time to be AC Mach III. We made the experience as real as we could and our trainees really got something from the experience.
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
and these changes to the program, while not exactly the same, are pretty much staples of ac today too, or at least were when i was there a couple of years ago, and i cant imagine the program without them, so thanks guys
ΣX IΓ 229
Mach II-July 6-12, 2002
ASA-July 5-11, 2003
Mach III- July 12-18, 2003
Mach III- July 3-9, 2004 Gunslingers (Callsign:Tiny)
ASA- July 10-16 Oberth
Thanks! Mach 3 when I was there in 2000 and 2001 were the best Mach 3's I had, mostly because I loved that military aspect... Even if it went downhill from there I feel kinda proud that I was one of the ones who had it the best way of all...
Stephanie
Bubbles almost everytime
AC ROCKS!!!
AC:06/99, 07/00, 12/00, 07/01, 12/01, 12/02: Counselors were Moondoggie, Krispy, Ace, Sparky, Montano, Pyro, Lurch, Bean:) I also miss Ballistic, Grunt, Doolittle
Well i only went to ac once and ithappened to be in juy of 96.I remember it was an awesome experiance andthe counselors were a big part of what made it so great. Funny thing is i always thought the black knights name was from independence day also infact it came outtheweek i was at ac and i remember a bunch ofthe counselors went to see it opening night. And if you really want to get technical the program was still called Aviation Chalenge Intermediate in 1996.
Jason original callsign Loverboy
SC 1991
SA Level 1 1993
AC Intermediate 1996
ASA 1998
Corporate Space Camp 2005
AC Counselor Summer 07 callsign Boomerang
Adult Alumni Camp 2007
Adult Alumni Camp 2008 Official Space Camp Ambassador
Umm...I hate to break it to you. Internally, we were already calling the program Mach III. Intermediate remained the official name until week 43 of 1996. We started work on the Mach III checklist in June of 1996. The program was changing, and we referred to it as Intermediate because we had to - and for no other reason. The materials were already printed and we had to use them. The minute those materials were exhausted (around the end of September / early October, the conversion was made. We offered programs in 1997 under the new names.
Come to think of it, we may have discussed using those program names at Christmas Camp. I cannot remember if we did or not, we were too busy rewriting the whole program. Sorry if I can't remember that particular technicality, but I'm at least 99.99% sure I got the rest of them right.
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
We did use Primary, Basic and Intermediate for 1996. We went to the Mach names for X-mas camp that year. We made the material change that fall but we worked on the books that summer. I remember developing the new aircrew checklist late that summer.
"We only have a short time to live, so it is essential to do things that are worthwhile and to do them now."Lord Baden-Powell
Am I'm saying that the change was already in the works. The Mach names were suggested and approved before Counselor Training in summer 1996. And I said we did use the Primary, Basic, and Intermediate because we had to.
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
When I first arrived at Aviation Challenge, there was a black and red Zodiac rubber boat with a wooden floor that sat unused for the better part of the spring of 1996. With a little bit of perserverance and a lot of rubber cement, the Sergeant Major and I were able to patch it up and make it lake-worty.
We even found an electric trolling motor to hook to the transum of the boat and provide a stately three to five knots of forward momentum. This was a great addition to the Friendly Partisan exercises and several different activities we did in the AC Lake....
Well, we're out on the un-chlorinated lake with the Zodiac, tooling along and dragging the inflatable rafts back to the shore for the next team to use. It becomes apparent that there is water in the boat. And it's rising.
We make it to the shore and pass the boats off to the team and head back across the lake, only to arrive at the E&E side with a boatful of water. We get there, and Jerry is no place to be found.
We're screaming and hollering, trying to get the boat up out of the water before it sinks. The teams pull up in their inflatable boats and help get the Zodiac out of the water. Jerry suddenly appears and starts doing his friendly partisan thing and then disappears into the woods with the trainees.
Five minutes later, he comes back screaming at the top of his lungs.
SGM: WHAT IN THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY BOAT?
Me: It was filling with water
SGM: Did you think to bail the water out?
Me: With what? Our hands? We were too busy trying to keep the thing from sinking!
SGM: Did you hit something?
Me: No, it just starting leaking.
SGM: You had to hit something.
Me: No we didn't hit anything.
SGM: Where's Doolittle?
Me: He went home an hour ago.
SGM: It's his fault
Me: Why?
SGM: Why not?
Me: Umm....I don't know...
SGM: He was out here earlier, we'll blame it on him.
Me: He wasn't anywhere near the boat today.
SGM: Are you sure?
Me: Yep.
SGM: Hmm. Let's get this thing back to the bubble and fix it.
Me: With what?
SGM: I'll go get my truck. (Shakes his head)..I knew I shouldn't have tried that.
Me: Tried what.
SGM: Oh, hell. I jumped into the boat from the concrete edge over there before your got out here.
Me: So it's your fault?
SGM: Yeah (smiles) but I'm still blaming Doolittle.
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
Several years ago, we were taking team photographs along the side of the F-111 by the lake when the nurse came to the office and notified us that several trainees had been stung by wasps or bees that morning by the F-111.
Well, we immediately sprang into action.
Imagine five or six counselors, and Jerry, armed with spray cans of waspkiller aiming into various nooks crevices and hatches of the F-111 and spraying quickly, then running for our lives and (mostly) into the lake to escape the buzzing insects.
We tried this for a couple of hours until Jerry rumbled something under his breath and disappeared for about twenty minutes. He returns with a huge smile on his face and strides confidently to the F-111.
And, he proceeds to set off five or six bugbombs (fumigation cans) in various areas around the F-111. The cloud of exterminating chemicals looked like a smoke grenade had gone off. We had to keep trainees away for hours.
Funny thing was, I can't remember ever hearing about trainees or counselors getting stung there again for the next four or five years.....
"You made a fool out of young lieutenants. That's not against Army regulations."
Sandrat wrote:Back To Iron Gump, Stories from the Front:
And that AC LCT - she left soon after.......I can only imagine why?
As I recall the prelude to this event went something along the lines of:
Counselor (future AC LCT): {storms into office after being given her first team} I've had it! I do not like kids, I do not want kids. Take me off of this team!
She was promoted to a "supervisor" position sortly there after.
Counselor: 1996, 1997
Christmas Camp: 1996, 1997, 1998
Got a real life: 1999
