Vietnam War Stories -- Wow -- That sucks

[Stuart]

That's really sad that - all because of a bloody cartridge starter.

[Gary Brantley]

My late father-in-law, Jack Terhune, was a young airman stationed at various airbases around the Texas Panhandle (I always wonder if he did or said something to get himself assigned to those "remote", windy places... but hey, perhaps it was better than an assignment to Korea in the early '50s) and he described a visit they had one day by an RAF Canberra. He was on the flight-line when the engines were started, of course by that bloody cartridge starter. When that cartridge fired, he said it scared the crap out of him as he had never been around the type before, and hearing it, was sure the plane had blown up in someway! I heard him tell that story several times.

[BlackSheep214]

Well, that takes FUBAR in another whole level....

[Stuart]

That's really sad that - all because of a bloody cartridge starter.

My late father-in-law, Jack Terhune, was a young airman stationed at various airbases around the Texas Panhandle (I always wonder if he did or said something to get himself assigned to those "remote", windy places... but hey, perhaps it was better than an assignment to Korea in the early '50s) and he described a visit they had one day by an RAF Canberra. He was on the flight-line when the engines were started, of course by that bloody cartridge starter. When that cartridge fired, he said it scared the crap out of him as he had never been around the type before, and hearing it, was sure the plane had blown up in someway! I heard him tell that story several times.

I can imagine!

It's bound to be a typical British invention, I can imagine the conversation at Rolls Royce... ''So what we need chaps, is a bloody big shotgun cartridge...''

[Stikpusher]

I want to say that several aircraft types used those turbine engine starter cartridges. Particularly those types tasked with nuclear alert scramble response or air defense interceptors.

[Medicman71]

In the wake of the Forrestal and Enterprise fires, the Zuni rockets were banished from carrier board useage. They are still used by land based USN/USMC aircraft, but not from ship based ones.

That and all bombs have the thermal protection on them.

[Glamdring]

A common train of thought with those who reach a top chain of command position is, “oh that won’t happen again… that’s the last war…”
Until, of course, the enemy proves that wrong

I vaguely recall some quote about generals always fighting the last war though....go figure.

[Stikpusher]

Some generals do, some generals do not. We can look to the last and current wars for lessons to be learned, but not for what will happen next.