Gila Bend?? The Air Force base was Gila Bend Auxiliary Air Field. I was stationed there for about 6 months before getting reassigned to Luke AFB. Came from Ramstein AB Germany. 58 degrees in Germany compared to 120+ getting off the jet at Sky Harbor in Phoenix. Was told there was a woman behind every tree. Just gotta find the trees.

Was a transit alert/crash recovery crewmember. We caught jets and helicopters that were on the shooting range out there. Whenever the aircraft had hung bombs or ordnance, they diverted to us, where we would recover and disarm, safe all weapons, then tow them back to the ramp. The appropriate base would send out a maintenance crew to fix it and get it back to its respective base. When I get the chance, I want to ride out there again just to look around.
Walt