Udorn, 1975.
After the Fall of Saigon we had a few months of 'normal ops' before the student riots and 'Palace Lightning' ..the U.S. pull out of Southeast Asia.
That F-4 off my right shoulder chucked a few turbine blades out the left engine one night just after sundown during an engine run.
I was workin a couple revetments down, heard the engine fire up, a few seconds later throttle was advanced and it 'coughed' ..
..bright flash out front of the revetment.
Engine returned to idle ..then crew cheif ran it up again.
Bright sparks overhead in high arcs as several turbine blades departed the aircraft,
..engine sounded like a roaring fire instead of a jet engine this time,
..much brighter out front and flames/smoke comin over the top of my arc of view
( I had glanced up and seen the sparks arcing into the sky at the sound change)
I shut my bird down, peeked around the corner, saw the crew cheif beating feet off to the horizon
..and the flashing light parade off in the distance headin my way.
I exited the area post haste.
The bird burnt to a greasy spot.
Investigation revealed the crew cheif had failed to install the engine screen lower safety lock
(big gnarly steel lookin thing with a safety pin to keep the lower half of the screen hooked tight to the bird)
When it coughed apparantly it sucked in that big steel safety lock.
Just another day on the line.
-GE aka Frank
