On 3/30/2020 10:57 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/30/2020 10:44 AM, John wrote:
On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:28:33 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:
On 3/30/2020 9:49 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 17:40:59 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:
Today is National Vietnam War Era Veterans Day. It is a US holiday
observed annually on March 29. It recognizes veterans who served in
the
US military during the Vietnam War.
A neighboring town up here has a park dedicated to to Vietnam Era
Vets.
I didn't know this until a few months ago that I have
a "brick" in the park walkway.
No clue how it got there or how they got my name.Â* A friend
of mine noticed it when she was at the park and took a
picture of it.
https://funkyimg.com/i/33uvj.jpg
===
I noticed that one of the bricks near you was for a parachute tester.
Assuming that wasn't a joke, and not knowing how they test, that must
be one heck of a hazardous specialty.
Actually it's a rating in the Navy called "PR"Â* (parachute rigger)
but the full job title is, "Aircrew Survival Equipmentman".
A Navy pilot on an aircraft carrier (or even land based) has a
crew of enlisted people who maintain, repair and prep the
pilot's particular aircraft.Â* One of my sons was an
Aviation Electronics Tech who maintained the avionics
on the his assigned pilots' aircraft.
A "PR" is one who packs the parachute ... checks for any
defects and makes any necessary repairs.
A pilot never wants to **** off his PR.Â* :-)
They are a tight knitted crew though and feel responsible
for the pilot's safety.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircrew_survival_equipmentman
I would have expected a rigger section that handled the chutes for all
the
aircraft. A separate rigger for each aircraft sounds like overkill. In
the Army
we have one company of riggers for an entire division.
In the Navy it *is* a department in which the riggers all work
however each pilot has a crew assigned to him from within the
department.Â* A pilot's PR may not have done any recent repairs
but he still inspects and signs off on his pilot's parachute
before each flight.
Omar the tentmaker was a popular guy on my ship. I'm not sure if he
worked alone or not. I'm guessing he was responsible for 50 or so
chutes. His skills were a hot commodity in the bartering market onboard.
--
Pity Fat Harry. His ability to produce rational thought on his own, no
longer exists, if it ever did at all.