Mark Conley
Active member
The Air Force is a young service..less that 60 years compared to the Army or Navy. But we are getting some customs worth writing about...slowly.
Take the ritual for pilots that have absolutely finished their last career flight in a Military Aircraft. The Base Fire Department is waiting on the flight ramp with its largest monitor truck, waiting. As soon as the target is away from the aircraft, the monitor or hose crew literally hoses the pilot down from top to bottom. This is to symbolise that the pilot is finally "all washed up" for his flight career.
Another thing done with water was saluting the people who left special duty assignments in far off places. For each freedom flight that left Shemya AFB on shemya island in the alaskan alueitians...the Fire trucks used to form a line down the side of the runway and blast water in the air over the runway and the plane as it took off, as a kind of last day salute to those that were leaving. The had to modify this a little later on, when they accidently shut down one turbojet engine on a four engine plane with water as it was taking off down the runway... :shock:
Take the ritual for pilots that have absolutely finished their last career flight in a Military Aircraft. The Base Fire Department is waiting on the flight ramp with its largest monitor truck, waiting. As soon as the target is away from the aircraft, the monitor or hose crew literally hoses the pilot down from top to bottom. This is to symbolise that the pilot is finally "all washed up" for his flight career.
Another thing done with water was saluting the people who left special duty assignments in far off places. For each freedom flight that left Shemya AFB on shemya island in the alaskan alueitians...the Fire trucks used to form a line down the side of the runway and blast water in the air over the runway and the plane as it took off, as a kind of last day salute to those that were leaving. The had to modify this a little later on, when they accidently shut down one turbojet engine on a four engine plane with water as it was taking off down the runway... :shock: