Harley Lawrence - KK4SIB/N8NW (SK)

I started my Air Force career flying a 45,000 pound twin engine airframe in 1963 and finished up flying a 45,000 pound twin engine airframe in 1988. The aircraft in this picture is a Convair T-29D Bomb/Nav trainer. It carried the ASQ-38 Bomb/Nav system out of the B-47, a crew of five, two pilots, two student navigators and an instructor nav. The ASQ-38 was so heavy that it was mounted in the aft of the aircraft, and the max crew complement was 11. That's not me in the picture but a navigator friend who's career and mine kept crossing paths over the years. We served together in the 3535th NTW at Mather Field in the 60's, the 442nd TAW/MAW at RG AFB, and the TWA Jack Frye Training Center in the 80's. I'm glad Ron found an old T-29D sitting in a park in California, otherwise I wouldn't have a picture of one.

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Here is a row of Hogs from the 442nd TFW. The jets only had 500 to 700 hours on them when we got them. They still had a new seat cover smell. The A-10 came as a real shock rather late in my career. The Air Force decided to convert the 442nd MAW from C-130s to A-10s. At the time, I was a 42 year old senior Major. I looked up the requirements to go to fighter lead-in, discovered I met them, and put my name on the list. I walked into Fighter Lead-in just over 20 years from the date I graduated from pilot training. I flew the A-10 for six years, and logged just shy of 800 hours in it. I loved every minute of it. It is a little slow but it's capable of some very cool tricks like vertical rolling scissors, and bat turns. I hadn't even completed my four ship flight lead check out before I chased a F-106 into the vertical and ate his socks!

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Here is my Fighter Lead In class picture. I'm the 42 year old guy (circled) in the bottom left corner of the picture. The rest of the guys are 10-20 years younger!

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This is a picture of me during my tour as an ALO/FAC with the 5th ARVN Regiment, I Corps, RVN in 1965. I was part of a MACV advisory team with the 5th regiment. The regiment was based on Hill 29 in the Tam Ky district about 100 k south of Da Nang. While I was there, four months, the war shifted from local bandits, VC, to regular troops from the North. Shortly after I left, the regiment was overrun and destroyed.

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The last picture is along the North Vietnamese / Laotian border.  We are flying the trail looking for trucks. We are flying out of the infamous "Naked Fanny" Laotian airbase (NKP) along the Mekong river. While here in 1966, I logged 10 missions over North Vietnam in the little Bird Dog. Of course this was another one of those deals where I'm on top secret orders without a top secret clearance so I'm wasn't allowed to know what I was doing. We did some wild stuff here. We started the trail runners with Laotian nationals, later to be taken over by US forces, flew cover for Ranch Hand Spray missions on the trail, and I logged IP time on the first night time checkout for the AC-47's on the trail.  I had two aircraft blow up just off my left wing, a Navy A-1H, and a Thud. We got both pilots out.

I will always be grateful to Colonel Sam Poole. We went through FAC U together in 1965. He was the Commander  of the 20th TASS in I Corps. When it came time to come home the Air Force had decided to send me to C-123's and add a year to my commitment. Sam saved my ass by getting my orders changed to come back to FAC U with him as an IP. That was worth a year and a thousand numbers on the TWA seniority list. In 1971 TWA had furloughed 925 of the pilots below me and I saw it was time to look around for part time work and a fallback position.  That started an 11 year tour in the C-130.