Kevin told me:
We, were a group, that were ordered for RAF Bentwater's, UK, 81 TFW, 81 AGS, 510th AMU....to support all weapons loading at the FOL during the war.
A-10A 78-0594 from the 353rd TFS/354th TFW "Panthers", tail code "MB" - Myrtle Beach AFB, SC - King Fahd Airport, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Kevin M. Michalik)
Keith Sanders showing off the kills this A-10 had over Iraq. (Photo by Kevin M. Michalik)
A-10A 78-0668 loaded for another mission. (Photo by Kevin M. Michalik)
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I am Kevin's sister....What great pictures...He was proud of what he did.. So glad to read what he had written and to see all the pictures...He made us so proud and so did his AirForce Buddies.....
ReplyDeleteSincerely, Regina Ann Michalik Colligan....
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Kevin M. Michalik, photographer of these photo's.
ReplyDeleteWhile we in the 2951st Combat Logistics Support Squadron (CLSS), A-10 Aircraft Battle Damage Repair (ABDR) teams http://www.2951clss-gulfwar.com deployed at KKMC along side the A-10 units did not specifically work with the Weapons Load crews such as Kevin's, we did all live and work together in a very small FOL were everyone pretty much knew everyone. It was an honor to have known him.
What about ( the so called sucide row! when the A10's returned with hung bombs...ect that were too dangerus to head to EOR, It was just a small bumker outside the explossive range of the rest of the flight line, completing CMBT.s Away far from the FLT line in a little sand bag bunker were I Rick Martinez and a female named Bonnie-Carter. known one on the entire Fricken base wanted to be assigned to that position, Except Bonnie and I excepted the volunteer position. I remember a call on the radio call into us that an A-10 was to land with a hung 500lb bomb and was directed to us for grounding evaluation and safety proceedures, to our surprise when the pilot arrived to our station......lol once he had the chocks in place, he jumped out of the cockpit and started running to the revetments, leaving the engines running. I jumped into the cockpit..since I was engine run qualified and switched the armament pnl in the all safe position...this was common with several other aircraft that came to our site. This sentence is directed to CMSGT Jefferson...here goes, one hot day he pulls up in an air-condictioned Toyota, with an ice-cooler containing sodas and candy bars he asked us if we would like the goodies..we both said yes.. when Bonnie and I had a soda and a candy bar.. he say's that will be a dollar for the soda and candy bar, bonnie and I looked at each other in you've got to be kidding me, he got the sodas and candy that was allowed by ration and sold it for a profit at no cost to him..Bonnie and I looked at each other and put it back in the cooler...After he left without making a dime.. we looked at each-other and started laughing.. here our chief in war-time wanted to
Deletemake a profit, of what he got for free...even so! come-on Really, now that I look back..it seems how greedy some people can be even in the time of WAR.