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40RatRod

(562 posts)
Fri Jan 10, 2025, 03:02 PM Friday

What I saw on Air Force One

When I was a young air force member stationed in Puerto Rrico I tested Jet Engiines. Just before I tested on day, I saw my supervisor running from the main hanger toward the test cell so I ran to meet him. He said "Don't ask questions. Go home and put on your formal uniform and go to the Air Terminal. It was on the otherside of the runway so it took me a while to get there but a senior NCO saw me and had me stand with three other airmen also in dressed uniform. We were still told nothing. After about 15 miniutes, we saw Air Force One coming in for a landing . He told the four of us that when the President comes doown the ladder to salute the president as he comes down.
After the aircraft taxied up to the terminal door, Lady Bird Johnson stepped out of the plane. LBJ immediatley pulled her back in and he came out and walked doown the ladder with her following LBJ.
After they left, I was getting ready to leave, a Seargent in the doorway of the aircraft caught my eye and motioned for me to come up so I did. He said he wanted to show me the inside of Air Force One. As we enterd and turned left and a few feet away was LBJ work dest which inclued a package of Air Force One Matches. He gave me a hand full and then he showed me the rest of the room which was beautiful. He then took me forward on the far right to enter another room. I was shocked. It was like paradise to me with incredible all the furniture which also had recliners which I had never heard of. He told me he could not show me the cockpit but had one more thing to show me. We went back to door by the ladder that I came up on but about six furhrer back he showed me the Dome Room which had seats circling the entire room and down and up. He said in case there would a crash, it woud protect anyone on board except for the Pilots.
I paased out the matches to my friends because they would not believe me.
By the next day, LBJs plan for the next couple of days and since Sunday he was going to church, my wife and went so she could see him. There were hundreds of people on each side of the sidewalk to catch a glimpse of LBJ.
After 20 of military service, it seems like a dream that security was so slack.

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Diamond_Dog

(35,466 posts)
1. What an exciting experience!
Fri Jan 10, 2025, 03:15 PM
Friday

And it just eats me alive that a POS like Trump gets all this available to him now.

LogDog75

(226 posts)
3. I knew someone who flew on Air Force Two
Fri Jan 10, 2025, 03:30 PM
Friday

In the mid-1980s, I had two NCOs who worked for me. One, a female, knew the CMSgt in charge of the Air Force Stewards for Air Force One and Air Force Two. She asked him to for an autographed picture from the President and got it. The other NCO, a male, applied for and was accepted, to be an Air Force Steward. He flew in Air Force Two with the Vice-President. He was single and had a dorm room to himself with a telephone and a pager for his use because he was always on-call. He told us about how he'd stay in the same hotel as the Vice-President and he's eat the same foods he ate. He loved the job.

usonian

(15,168 posts)
5. How "funny". I was in the Coast Guard and my first job when I finished my enlistment was testing jet engines.
Fri Jan 10, 2025, 04:32 PM
Friday

For G.E. Small engines. The big ones were in Ohio.

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