When Secret Mystery Planes Landed At The Air Bases Where I Was Stationed

a reply to: Blackfinger

Something along those lines. With the associated personnel.

originally posted by: Blackfinger

Interesting side note, with regards to the original article, there's a very good chance that it wasn't a secret aircraft at all. Certain groups that don't like people seeing how many there are, or their equipment are also known to close things down while they go through.

Stealth Hawks?Quietbirds or some other transport for the Teams?

In my opinion, the most likely explanation for the stories in the OP is that whatever was supposed to show up never did. It's not uncommon for an aircraft to be expected to divert to another landing area and then continue on to its original destination, for any number of reasons.

If I were involved in a black project, I wouldn't think telling hundreds of guys that don't have clearance for that project "Don't look out the windows" is a secure-enough environment for my aircraft to land unless it was an extremely critical emergency (although I'm sure it has happened before). Aircraft declare IFE (In-flight Emergency) and divert to land for all kinds of silly little things. Maybe that happened, and then after they had time to think about it they simply decided, for the security of the project, to just not land there after all because whatever reason they were diverting wasn't that critical.

I was in the Air Force for 13 years, as a fuels guy. There were plenty of times we were told something was inbound and would need fuel and then it never showed up. I don't remember any instances where we were told not to look out the windows though. That doesn't mean this person's story is false though. In my opinion, he sounds truthful, precisely because it doesn't contain all the spectacular details people usually include when they're making something up.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Interesting side note, with regards to the original article, there's a very good chance that it wasn't a secret aircraft at all. Certain groups that don't like people seeing how many there are, or their equipment are also known to close things down while they go through.

For sure. I was stationed at Pope AFB (later Pope Field, basically absorbed by Fort Bragg) from 2007-2014. We would get what we called "secret squirrel" missions flying in a few times a month, sometimes every week depending on what was going on in the world. Other times it wouldn't happen for months. We would get a call that some aircraft were going to be landing and we needed to have fuel trucks pre-positioned and ready to fuel them as soon as they arrived. We wouldn't get an arrival time, we would just get a showtime when we had to be there. Usually the aircraft wouldn't arrive for at least an hour after we were told to be there. Sometimes it would be 3 or 4 hours.

This was extremely inconvenient, not necessarily because of having our guys sitting over there waiting (that's part of the job sometimes) but because this always happened during mid-shift and they were often our only guys we had. Our overnight crew was usually only 2 or 3 drivers and 1 controller. So inevitably other aircraft would call in for fuel and we'd have to tell them they had to wait because our only drivers were otherwise engaged. If we complained to the Maintenance Operations Center, they'd tell us the secret squirrel aircraft took priority over anything else. So our guys would just sit over there waiting for these birds to show, and sometimes they never came.

I never did find out for sure what these missions were. Most people you asked would simply say they didn't know, or they'd make something up, or just give you a sarcastic response. The two most common explanations I heard were
1) spec ops
2) some kind of nuclear mission

I think #1 is the more likely explanation, especially considering Fort Bragg has a number of special forces units. And there were other times we supported special forces deployments that were somewhat hush-hush at the time but became known shortly thereafter, such as when we first started going after ISIS.

Interesting to note though, in 2014 when the Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal was approved, it showed up on my virtual ribbon rack. I contacted personnel because I thought this was an error and I didn't want to be walking around wearing a ribbon I wasn't authorized for. They looked into and told me it wasn't a mistake and I could add it to my rack. I have no idea when or where I earned it.

ETA: Just to clarify, where I was going with my story was to back up what Zaph said about the aircraft not being the big deal. The aircraft themselves weren't secret. They were always C-17s. It was their mission that was hush-hush.

a reply to: face23785

Excellent description of how exciting activities in the military can become mundane.

"Hurry up and wait."

Cheers

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2
a reply to: face23785

Excellent description of how exciting activities in the military can become mundane.

"Hurry up and wait."

Cheers

Oh yeah, there's a whole lot of that! Especially if you're in 24/7 shops like fuels. We pretty much always gotta have guys on, cause you never know when something is gonna need fuel. But when nothing does, what the hell do you do? There's only so much cleaning, reading manuals, etc. supervisors can make their airmen do.

If your supervisor is cool about it, in the wee hours of the morning if it's completely dead, the Xbox or PS2/3/4 comes out. As long as it gets paused immediately when there's work to be done. We even had our unit commander show up a few times and catch us using it, not only did he not care, one time he sat down to play.

a reply to: face23785

Yeah, I was in a support role. Some missions at odd hours. Nice part was how the units we helped out were genuinely glad to see us. After things got fixed, it was nice to have a cup of coffee with them.

Wake-ups in frozen forests, solving problems in "sparse" environments ... sometimes the mundane was quite attention-grabbing.

Thanks for your service!

Cheers

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2
a reply to: face23785

Yeah, I was in a support role. Some missions at odd hours. Nice part was how the units we helped out were genuinely glad to see us. After things got fixed, it was nice to have a cup of coffee with them.

Wake-ups in frozen forests, solving problems in "sparse" environments ... sometimes the mundane was quite attention-grabbing.

Thanks for your service!

Cheers

And you for yours.

Being on the flightline never got old for me. I was always fascinated by aircraft, especially military aircraft, since I was a kid. Getting to work around them was as cool for me in my 30s as it was when I was 18. I had to take early retirement in 2014 because of some medical issues. I went out to do one last refuel as a TSgt, put some gas on an F-22. Was a little emotional if I'm honest. I enjoyed the job. Some of the bull# that went with the job got old, for sure, but I wouldn't change a thing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

EXACTLY! That was the best part of an article!

I've lived practically anywhere from 1 block away from Miami Internation Airport to about a mile. And when it's quiet you hear even the small business jets spinning up to take off. What's going over everyone's head here is the fact that he didn't hear anything. So even back in that day we had "something" that was either a completely or a almost completely silent jet airplane or something that wasn't a jet airplane at all. Maybe even some aircraft with exotic propulsion.

Or it could have been a whack a mole game looking for someone to stick their face out. 30 Minutes seems quite short for anything less than the Galileo

borg.com...

a reply to: grey580

Or "something" that never showed up at all...

a reply to: face23785

There have long been intermittent rumors of something operating out of Diego, beyond what normally operates there. No one is saying what, only the occasional rumor floating around that something went into there, and back out within a day or two.

a reply to: mikell

You'd be surprised how fast you can quick turn with a good crew. The two VC-25s came through on a quick turn once. I think it was Bush. He was supposed to get off the plane, go jogging, to the Officer's Club for breakfast, then back out about an hour and a half after landing. The two aircraft were ready to go, fuel, ice, lavatory service, in just over an hour. Something smaller, that only needed fuel could be done in 30 minutes, easily. Crew wouldn't even have to get out of the cockpit.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: face23785

There have long been intermittent rumors of something operating out of Diego, beyond what normally operates there. No one is saying what, only the occasional rumor floating around that something went into there, and back out within a day or two.

I believe that. But there's such rumors about a lot of places. What do you think about my theory that maybe it was just something that was going to land because of an IFE but then decided to continue on? I'm sure you can shed a lot more light on the kind of mundane things IFEs get declared for sometimes. If it was a secret plane, maybe they initially declared IFE but then they were like "Ya know what, screw this, we're not landing and exposing our project over something silly."

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: mikell

You'd be surprised how fast you can quick turn with a good crew. The two VC-25s came through on a quick turn once. I think it was Bush. He was supposed to get off the plane, go jogging, to the Officer's Club for breakfast, then back out about an hour and a half after landing. The two aircraft were ready to go, fuel, ice, lavatory service, in just over an hour. Something smaller, that only needed fuel could be done in 30 minutes, easily. Crew wouldn't even have to get out of the cockpit.

Truth. We used to hot-refuel F-15s at Lakenheath. They'd land, taxi to a waiting fuel truck, take fuel and be back in the air in under 30 minutes. Did it with A-10s at Pope too until they took our A-10s away! They were even quicker. A-10s don't need near as much fuel as a 15 usually does.

a reply to: RadioRobert

True as well..... but that's not a cool story. lol

a reply to: grey580

Haha I hear you.

a reply to: face23785

I suspect it was less IFE, and more mission equipment issue that they were able to resolve before landing so continued on.

As for times, yeah, you can really crank out some fast turn arounds depending on aircraft. My father taught me initially, and he was absolutely the best I've ever seen. We had a DV come through, and one of the crew was flipping out because if they didn't get airborne within a certain time, they didn't have enough crew duty left. The DV told him to get on the radio and find out if my father was going to be there. Guy came back and said "He's already there." DV looked at him and told him to sit down and stop worrying, they'd be fine.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's a fair possibility as well. Always appreciate your stories too.

a reply to: grey580

It's a military base ffs, of course it has secret stuff.
Not everything has to be a freaking alien ship!

a reply to: RadioRobert

"The peeping toms had no frame of reference and were stunned by the sleek lines, which even now look very futuristic."

How would you know this if it is second hand knowledge?

originally posted by: Violater1
a reply to: RadioRobert

"The peeping toms had no frame of reference and were stunned by the sleek lines, which even now look very futuristic."

How would you know this if it is second hand knowledge?

Because I have also seen an SR-71?

a reply to: ziplock9000

Maybe you can point out where he said anything about aliens. Because apparently my reading comprehension is off, because I sure as hell didn't see any mention of aliens.

And it's quite a bit different to have "secret stuff" and to be ordered inside away from all windows, and put on lockdown. That's not normal by any stretch outside of a testing location like Groom or Tonopah.