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Superman Technician

Contributed by: Bob Rotruck on 12/3/2007

THE LANDLOCKED SAILOR
By Bob Rotruck, CWO3, USN (ret)
Castle Rock, Colorado

In 1968 as a Chief Petty Officer, I was attached to Attack Squadron Sixty-five. Just before departing for detachment to the USS KITTY HAWK berthed in San Diego, I received several new, young Aviation Electronic Technicians into my shop. Most of them had very little experience and were fresh out of "A" school at Naval Air Technical Training Center, Memphis, TN. We were deployed to WESTPAC to work in the waters off of the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

One of my new guys was already a third class petty officer (E-4), because he had been in service a little longer and had some "special" training. I investigated his service record as I did for all my men. I discovered that Pearson was a medical washout from Navy Seal School. He had injured his knee during the final week of training which rendered him medically unfit for Seal duty. He was broken hearted at not being able to pursue his dream. He was moody and a loner, but had the physique of a Greek god.

One of the multitudes of jobs for a deploying squadron is to have a couple of designated people to be "flight deck" troubleshooters. These are people from individual shops that attend to the aircraft and crew just prior to launch, fixing anything minor discrepancy or determining that the aircraft is unable to carry out its mission. They actually have the authority to "down" the aircraft and cancel the flight.

One of the many pieces of sophisticated electronic equipments aboard Navy aircraft at that time was designated as ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) equipment. On board the A6A Intruder, there were two ALQ-100s. At the time, this was classified equipment designed to save pilots' lives in the event of an attack from a ground based missile. It was so advanced that before it was installed aboard the aircraft, it had to go through the Ordnance Shop to have "destruct packs" placed on each side of it. The intent of these was to explode if the aircraft fell into enemy hands so that they would not be able to exploit the technology inside the "black box!" The unit was made up of two boxes that were strapped together at the aircraft just prior to installation. When ready to install on the aircraft, it weighed about 140 pounds.

During preparation for a major launch, I got a call from Pearson saying that aircraft 506 was down for a forward 100. I told him that there wasn't enough time to yank it out and install a replacement. He asked me to call the Ordnance Shop and see if they had one ready to go. Now the Ordnance Shop was on the hanger deck level and the flight deck is four stories above. I called Pearson back and said they had one, but it would take an hour to get it up to the flight deck, assembled, and installed. Pearson said, "Chief, I'm on it!" I headed toward the Ordnance Shop from my shop located three stories above the hanger deck. The route involves a decent of ascent of ladders (nearly vertical steel stairways). As I headed down, I found Pearson running up the ladders with a complete ALQ-100 on his shoulder. Amazingly, we made the launch cycle and Pearson saved the day. I was very blessed to have "Superman" on my crew.

Fair winds and smooth seas!


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Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Michael Rule
posted on 12/5/2007 @ 10:18:32 AM
Rated Story
Good story!
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Bob Rotruck

Castle Rock , CO

Bob Rotruck has posted 60 stories and 2 comments since joining on 7/26/2006. Bob Rotruck 's average story rating is 4.89.
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