Once I got to Ubon things happened pretty fast. I was put to work right away on the flight line. Hot, noisy and dangerous. Completely alien environment for me. It didn’t take too long to get into the swing of things.

The short timers were a little depressing though. “2 digit midget, one digit midget, FIGMO, back to the world”, etc. Once into the routine I really didn’t give a crap about being “short”. I was having too much fun.

The work we did wasn’t routine. Stateside was routine. I never forgot what we were doing. Live bombs hanging on the wings made it perfectly clear. Napalm canisters, 500 pounders, CBU’s, gravel pods, laser guided 2000 and 3000 pound bombs was some pretty heavy shit (no pun intended).

 

I was there about a week or so when I was summoned to the flight office to meet Chief Miers. Luckily my haircut was OK but I looked like crap from working. Doc Blanchard said don’t worry, the chief was an OK guy. Having never met a CMSGT in person before I was scared shitless anyway.

I went into the office and reported. He told me to have a seat as he was expecting someone. I didn’t mind because the place had air conditioning. A few minutes later 2Lt. Sherbinski, the new maintenance officer, arrived for his inbrief. Although he didn’t report it seemed obvious that this was the first Chief he met as well.

Chief Miers talked to him, not with him, for a few minutes. When he was finished with the briefing Lt Sherbinski stood there as if expecting more information. The Chief looked up at the Lt, waved his hand at him and said, “That’ll be all Lieutenant”. Sherbinski saluted, did an about face and left. I almost crapped myself. Here is a sergeant dismissing an officer like he was God. Of course I found out later that he was.

It was my turn next but to my surprise the Chief couldn’t have been nicer to me. I don’t remember seeing him around too often but I was very impressed with him and I always measured other chiefs I worked for by CMSGT Miers.

 

About 2 or 3 years later I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall, UK working in Transit Alert. One day a WB-57 landed and my crew took care of it. After it blocked in, the canopy opened and in the back seat was, now, Capt Sherbinski. Small world. We reminisced about Ubon for a while and had a few laughs.

That incident stayed with me because it reinforced the brotherhood I belonged to. Where else can someone you know from way back drop out of the sky and say hello. There are many similar incidents in my career but that’s for another time.