30 May 2008

"Back At George ... "

8th Tactical Fighter Wing Flightline

George AFB, Calif. & Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand

To anyone assigned to the flightline of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, from approximately July 1964 (George AFB, Calif.) - September 1966 (Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand), the term "Back at George" had a certain meaning. 

After the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing deployed to Thailand, in August 1965, replacement maintenance personnel

were soon to be arriving from the U.S. to take the place of personnel being reassigned to the U.S.   I remember

a lot of new mechanics arriving from Air Training Command bases, where they had worked mainly on T-37 or T-38

trainer aircraft, and other new arrivals that had worked on various other aircraft, but none that had worked on the

F-4C Phantom, which was what we had.

Whenever something came up that offered a little controversy as far as the way things were done, the "old hands"

that were training the new arrivals were very likely to preface anything they said, with the term, "Back at George,

we did it like this ... "    Well, as you can imagine, the new arrivals (from low ranking Airmen, to higher ranking

NCOs) got sick and tired of hearing that!  After a period of time, it just became a way of getting under the

fingernails of someone, and after a further period of time, when the higher ranking NCOs started being put in

supervisory positions, it was a good way to get into trouble.  But, it was all in fun, and just a way of passing the

time, waiting to "get short" (getting closer to the time when a person returned to the U.S.).

                                dan walters

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Last Updated:   30 May 2008