I was a young airman assigned to the 509th MMS at Pease AFB, New Hampshire. After a few year's working in the M&I, I volunteered for Storage and Handling.

The 509th flew FB-111's, and our weapons were stored on MHU-141 trailers. Bombs on the upturned rail decks with chocks and secured with turnbuckles, and SRAM on railsets. It was our job to do crossloads, rolls, inter-area transports, and convoys. The main vehicle was a 2 1/2 ton truck, but for inter-area movements we also used forklifts and a farm tractor with H-721 towbar. The shop was manned with 461's, 462's, 463's, 311's, and AGE troops. It wasn't uncommon for us to do a dozen rolls on a Friday afternoon for trailers due for maintenance the next week.

One bright sunny day we were tasked with crossloading two trailers of B43's. Everything went as normal getting a work order, tools, pre-announcement, keys, code of the day, etc. The minute we authenticated, our bright sunny day turned into a downpour (as if out of nowhere). Not having field jackets, we continued to work in the pouring rain performing the crossload. It was so bad that even our leather work gloves and tool boxes were soaked through.

Eventually we finished the task, pushed the loaded trailers inside, re-checked the tiedowns and updated the log. Pushing a loaded trailer was great exercise, two of us could push a loaded bomb or SRAM trailer into a structure. The second we closed the igloo, locked it up, re-authenticated, and pulled out the jackphone, the downpour stopped as if on cue, and the sun came out. Every team member was soaked to the bone and looked like a drowned rat. And you wonder why we got separate rations!

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NWTA Mailing Address

The NWTA mailing address has changed, as our Treasurer has moved from Missouri to New Mexico. This address will be valid for the next year, perhaps a bit longer.


The new address is:

NWTA
c/o Neil Zampella
PO Box 897
Dexter NM 88230-0897