Engineer Memoirs
There were formulas to lengthen the runway based on average temperature and altitude.
The standard was an 8,000-foot runway at sea level and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. What
happens if you go into Turkey and you are up at 5,000 feet and the temperature in the
summer is at 100 degrees. The runway has to be a hell of a lot longer. In fact, there is
one out there that is 11,000 feet long because for the F84 to get off the runway in
summer, it had to be longer.
I put this document together--wrote almost all of it--and learned a lot about airfields
in the process.
Q:
And that is something that you came back to later on.
A:
Yes. That's right. When I became involved with the Israeli air bases, I had been there
before.
Q:
You stayed with that for the rest of your tour there?
A:
Yes. I was in infrastructure for two years, working on the airfield program. My
immediate boss was an Air Force colonel named [Major General Joseph E.] Joe Gill,
and his boss was Rodney Smith.
Q:
This wasn't a normal CorpsAir Force customer construction agent--
A:
No. All that was done somewhere down the line. This was a combined headquarters
where we put together what the program would be. We resolved these issues of the
standards. We dealt with one other thing called the deviations from standards.
For example, the French had a runway. Off the end of the runway, fairly near the axis,
not right on it, was a church. The basic agreement was that the infrastructure funds
would pay for these airfields only if they met standards. The French brought in a letter
saying that this church was built in 1382 or some such date, and they could not consider
moving or destroying the steeple. Will you approve a deviation from the runway
approach standard?
We argued for months and finally approved it because the senior officers decided they
couldn't tough it out. The pilots were fit to be tied. Perhaps in clear weather it was one
thing, acceptable. But can you imagine trying to land in bad weather with this church
steeple sticking up in the glide path? There was a lot of that.
Q:
Were the French the toughest to deal with, in general?
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