Message posted by Gregos on July 13, 2017 at 21:14:19 PST:
The BLM makes the USAF (and others) clean up all the wreckage now. So all the big parts are trucked off not like the circa 1979, like one at the seeps for example. But there are always some rare finds and of course thousands of fragments of aluminum scattered over the debris field. Sometimes the reflections off all those bits is the way you spot them first! I hardly remove anything especially if the pilot(s) didn’t make it -that’s hallowed ground. I’ve seen a bottle of whiskey left at several sites and I won’t even take a touch of that! People and squadron mates have put up a lot of proper memorials like a headstone in the shape of a F-16. Really nice. There are a few rare exceptions like the time my wife and I went out to the F-15 site by Rachel’s dry lake bed. Cold and rainy, we had to cross a 10 foot wide wash about a 6 inches deep (swift water)! Got to the muddy site soak and wet. The front of my boot hit a piece sticking out of the desert only about an inch or so. It didn’t budge and I tripped pretty bad onto the puddles of water. The wife started digging it out with a rock. I’m like leave it we got a lot to explore! Not her! It took awhile and I thought it was an aircraft VHF triangle antenna. It had a part number so I stuffed it in the bag. Turned out to be a front fin to Sidewinder AA missile! Love ya baby! Another cool one to find is a molten blob of aluminum with a part sticking out of it Or a figment of HUD mirror a few mil thick -how it didn’t vaporize back into sand is beyond me…
In Reply to: Re: Protect Crash Sites posted by gordy on July 13, 2017 at 11:56:35 PST:
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