482nd F.I.S.:


Circa 1964, L to R: A/2C unk, S/Sgt Charles L. Skipper,
& A/1C Royce E. Brown (ID from Isaac Twiddy).

Charles Skipper sent the photo, and comments, "This is an official Air Force photo of two airmen and myself taken on the flight line at SJAFB sometime between 1963 and 1964. I do not remember their names, but we made up a weapons load crew for the deuce. At the time the squadron was critically short on weapons people, as was the Air Force I suppose. Management decided to fix the problem by training other specialist to perform load crew duties. I was drafted to perform those duties. Each team consisted of three persons, one weapons technician and two augmentees. As a SSgt I was the Load Crew Supervisor and responsible for safe loading and down loading of all missiles including the AIM 26. I was an Instrument Technician and had no knowledge of weapons and really no interest in them, primarily because of the potential hazards involved. I was always fearful that one of us would make a mistake and light off one those missiles. It was a successful operation though, they trained us [the augmentees] and we were responsible for loading missiles for about 18 months. I was glad when that detail ended."

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482nd FIS Webmaster: George C. Willick