A few years ago I found myself doing time on an island in the South Pacific, maintaining a handful of B-52’s. We were there as a show of force visiting the DMZ of North and South Korea, after the North fired a missile over Japan. We had been there for months and were really missing our families and loved ones back home, but we had a job to do and did it proudly.
Well, one of our jets had an external fuel tank problem requiring us to remove the tank for a repair. This was a tough job even back at our home base with the proper equipment; here we were in the middle of a jungle and with out the proper equipment for this particular job. We were in a jam and we had to get this plane back to fully mission capable status as soon as possible.
So we put our heads together and come up with a safe work around to get the job done and not damage the aircraft in the process. As it always seemed to happen the timing of the major repair coincided with a monsoon that was dumping unbelievable amounts of rain on us. We had been on the jet all day and most of the night in blinding wind driven rain; cold, tired and hungry.
I felt like my maintenance crew and I had been forgotten in our own little piece of the world, as all we could see in the dark jungle night was the wing tip of our jet as we were trying to reinstall the external fuel tank by flash light. You could imagine our surprise when out of the dark night walked a figure in a poncho. As the figure got closer we recognized our Chaplin; He had walked almost a mile in “Forest Gump” rain just to bring us some hot coffee and some sandwiches. He said “I kept seeing you guys flashlights out here between rain squalls and figured you might be hungry”
For some reason that moment in my military career stands out to me; I guess because it’s a reminder of how many ways there are to serve your country. We did safely repair the jet that night, and in a way, I kind of felt God was on our side that night.
