Posted on 02/09/2007 10:56:28 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
February 9, 2007 (by Franklin Fisher) - Two airmen - including one who pleaded guilty to trying to throw a frog into a running jet engine - were punished in separate courts-martial at Kunsan Air Base, officials there confirmed Tuesday. The other airman was punished after pleading guilty to breaking into a dorm room and stealing property.
In the incident involving the frog, Senior Airman Welland Wilkerson, an aircraft maintainer, was sentenced to reduction from pay grade E-4 to E-1, 30 days in jail and a reprimand. He's assigned to the 8th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, part of Kunsan's 8th Fighter Wing, also known as the "Wolf Pack."
The incident occurred sometime last year and was reported to authorities in September.
Officials said Wilkerson tried to throw a frog into the engine but missed, said Master Sgt. Anthony Davis, a wing spokesman.
Another airman subsequently threw a frog into the engine.
"After this incident, our wing checked the engines," Davis said. "They did a scan … for damage and no damage was found from the incident."
The incident was videotaped in an area where filming is banned without authorization, Davis said.
In September, Kunsan-based agents of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations were told by their OSI counterparts at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, that a video clip had been posted on a personalized MySpace page showing "an individual throwing a frog into a running F-16 engine intake," Davis said.
"Subsequent investigations revealed Airman Wilkerson was involved in the incident," Davis said. "Because of the nature of the incident, Airman Wilkerson was removed from any duties that required him to perform aircraft maintenance."
"There's still an ongoing investigation," he said. "So more details about the event are not something we can talk about right now."
He could only add that an investigation into "the actions of others involved in the incident is continuing." He was unable to provide further details.
Wilkerson pleaded guilty to two counts of dereliction of duty.
He was tried by summary court-martial Friday before Maj. Timothy Kodama, summary court officer.
In the larceny case, Airman 1st Class Brent Schneider, of the 8th Maintenance Squadron, was sentenced to reduction from E-3 to E-1; forfeiture of $1,000 per month for six months, and six months in jail.
Col. Steven A. Hatfield, chief military judge for the Pacific Circuit, imposed the sentence Monday after Schneider pleaded guilty to larceny and housebreaking. Schneider was tried under the rules for special court-martial.
He unlawfully entered the dorm room of another airman and stole a computer and other belongings, Davis said.
OSI agents searched Schneider's dorm room and "discovered the computer and the other belongings that didn't belong to him," Davis said.
I would say equally upset with both parts. The frog could cause engine damage which could threaten the life of the pilot.
Tossing a frog into a jet engine isn't going to hurt it. Murphy or no Murphy. But that doesn't mean it's a good thing to do, more so it doesn't mean it's something you can allow. You have to stop the practice, because otherwise folks start to wonder "what else can I toss in the engine?" Sooner or later, somebody goes too far, an engine gets trashed, and people get hurt.
That would be bad.
"Yes. In reality, an engine should withstand a frog pretty well. But who wants to take a chance, right?"
Yeah, its all fun and play until a turbine blade breaks and somebody loses an eye...
Too true. You don't think I condone their actions, do you?
Trying to give new life to the joke: "What's green and red and goes a thousand miles an hour?"?
E-3's with their own 'dorm rooms'?
The Navy wasn't that generous to E-4's even, in my day. But that wasn't the Air Force.
That's what I'm thinking, too. When I was in Navy Nuke School as an E-4, I shared a room with 2 other guys and the barracks were a dump. The Air Force guys are pissed if the cable TV only has the standard 36 channels instead of the extended 99.
About 71 it went to 125 + - and then 350 + -. It is now just under 1300 for those over 4 months.
ROFL Have you ever been an E4? Let me tell you about the time, er no, well how about the er not that one either. Our military is great in a fight, but when not busy they are still 18, 19, 20 years old.
"Too true. You don't think I condone their actions, do you?"
I didnt get that impression. I just saw an opportunity to trot out a really old joke.
Frogs for bait or food, ok. But don't kill things needlessly. And throwing things, anything, into the intake of a powered up jet engines is just plain stupid.
The rest of his enlistment should be spent pumping out toilets in Thule Greenland, that and walking the runway and the base perimeter when he runs out of toilets.
I could see it if the guy was assigned to an Amphibious Group...
I liked it...just wanted to be sure.
And I agree with your take. I just cannot see throwing them in jail for simply being stupid.
Working on planes...no. Pumping toilets...absolutely.
You have heard that story about pumping toilets in Thule as well, I see...:)
No, you are right, dumb kid. Just as I was when I was assigned to the same unit in Thailand in the '70s. WE dropped little one inch in frogs into liquid oxygen. Didn't do them any better than the engine, especially after we retrieved them and threw them hard on the ground.
The only reason we didn't tape that at the time was video tape didn't exist yet, and we couldn't afford a movie camera.
Kids. I do believe half the reason we don't continue to do stupid things as we get older is because we've already done most of them.
"Sir, I'm already an airman, Its 40 below, and I am pumping out toilets in Greenland. What do you think you can do to punish me worse than this?" from RD Humor
Walking the perimeter and policing the runway are not from RD.
It could. That's why birds sucked into an engine, even crows can take down a plane. That's why they have people constantly screening the runway to pick up FOD so the crap doesn't get pulled in on takeoff when the engine needs full power without anything affecting the engine performance. We had a student pilot who hurled after a tight turn. As they were rolling into parking position the student was embarrassed about puking, so when the canopy went up he tried to drop the bag on the tarmac, only it got sucked into the engine. Nothing solid like a frog, but they had to strip the engine and check it out for damage.
Just like when your dad asked you: "Why did you do that?"
"I don't know."
Dad would just shake his head. Sometimes I do believe he understood that we really just did not know...it seemed like something that just had to be done.
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