Vietnam 1969. I’m a newly assigned naviguesser on the EC-47 aircraft at Tan Son Nhut AB This is one of the oldest aircraft in USAF inventory – 1933 vintage. Also most reliable. No engine maintenance cancellations in my 143 combat missions. ( you impressed yet).
No. Well there’s more. My first mission so I had an instructor nav to show me the job. We flew low and slow. About 2500 ft and about an astounding 120 mph. Wow. And we flew with the rear side door open. Breezy. My navigator position was a three-legged stool in front of my nav equipment table with no seat belt. I just wrapped my leg around my table for take off and landing. ( I was expendable lol). One piece of my equipment was a driftmeter from which I could see directly below the aircraft and could guide it directly over known positions. That was necessary to update my navigation equipment. I needed to know my exact position in flight. Sometimes there were clouds below us and driftmeter was blocked.
My instructor said. When that happens you just go to the rear open door, wrap your leg around a pole near the door and stick your head out of the door to guide the aircraft. I said stuttering. You do what? He wasn’t joking. That was the procedure.
I got pretty good at it ( after about 50 missions). But three times I got carried away and got my head too far out in the 120 mph slip stream and it blew my headset off. ( Imagine the poor Viet Cong dude who got hit with a pair of Mickey Mouse ears from the sky. ).
I had to request three new headsets.
I did carry a 38 on each mission. Holstered it but never loaded it. I figgered I’d have more luck throwing it at the enemy if I bailed out.
BTW I didn’t wear my chute in flight either. It was too heavy and I needed to maneuver. Luckily and Thank God, I never needed it.
Marjorie called me the Reluctant Navigator RN. Cause I wore my gun belt higher than most of my fellow crewmembers. Hell I aint Quick Draw McGraw.