Chief Pilot Job Open at Wackenhut

[SASless]

My least favorite employer is again looking for a Chief Pilot for their Savannah River Site Operation. Latest vacancy occurred with the retirement of the latest office holder after a little over two years in the job.

One of my former colleagues there phoned to tell me of the job opening....joked that I should apply and then told me that not one of the current line pilots would consider applying for the postion.

The job would be tailor made for a former Night Stalker or other highly experienced Spec Ops pilot who holds the appropriate FAA certificates.

However.....those who are more into the "Yes" man mode would fare better than real serious take charge type folks who have real experience and abilities.

Air Force Colonels would be a shoe in....as long as they remember the DOE Aviation Boss is an Air Force General (retired) who is big on eye wash and short on brains. The local DOE oversight was in the form of a retired US Air Force Staff Sgt.

Anyone interested can send me a PM and I will provide the contact data.

[Te_Kahu]

Gee Sass
So what are you going to sell next? Some snow to some eskimo?
TK

[fkelly]

So it sounds like wackenhut is a bit like Pizza Hut except with more, err, wackenoff?

[SASless]

Well.....errrrr....the health insurance is top notch.

The CP is a salaried position thus no limit to the overtime he can work.

The Department Manager is reputed to be either a scab picker or nose digger depending upon which activity has priority.

The two BK's are "old".....really "old".

The real shame is the operation has a "real world mission" that unfortunately gets lost in the BS. After all it is the only air taxi operation in the USA that totes a door mounted GPMG.

Hit the POGO web site and read up on Wackenhut and its reputation for enlightenend management. It makes helicopter operators seem almost utopia. (....but only by comparison)

[chopper2004]

What a/c they fly? BO-105?

Seem to recall in US COunter terrorist forces by D.M.; TOMAJCZYK written in 97, in the chapter on NEST, there's a pic of a DOE BO-105 CBS with the airborne sensing system based at Nellis AFB

[SASless]

BK-117 A3's....old style torque gauges....old...old...BK's but in good nick despite their ages....as they do not fly much, often, or go very far when they do.

[OFBSLF]

Last time I was in Savannah River was '84 - '85. Wackenhut had just taken delivery of a helicopter and, unfortunately, it was involved in a crash shortly thereafter. Anyone know what happened? I was unable to dig up information about it.

[Foggy Bottom]

Tree strike while doing a pre-convoy sweep as I recall.

[SASless]

Hotdogging....hard right turn at low altitude....into the trees....one broken arm out of the lot. It is thought the old cyclic/collective roll coupling problem bit him on the butt.

Former Chief Pilot then Manager now a Line Pilot and a soon to be Chief Pilot went out flying and did an EOL....aircraft rode home on a low boy trailer. (But that was never acknowledged as an accident)

[aclark79]

Funny when you consider what they are protecting... if anyone should have some state of the art equipement and the sallaries to hire the best pilots this would be it....

[OFBSLF]

I can tell you that back in 1984-85, the Wackenhut security folks at the front gate did not exactly inspire great trust in their abilities. I trust they had more competent people elsewhere.

IIRC, DOE has its own tactical team on site and they are supposed to be squared away.

[SASless]

Please to remember....defense strategies change with time. Tactics and force positions alter with those changes. What you don't see is as important as what you do see. That can be good or bad.

The Special Response Teams (SRT) guys enjoy good training and equipment....but local SWAT teams do the deal rather than merely practice....so who's the better at what they do?

[OFBSLF]

I just saw the minimum wage Wackenhut lackies at the gate. I suspected (and hoped) that they had better folks somewhere unseen.

[chopper2004]

My least favorite employer is again looking for a Chief Pilot for their Savannah River Site Operation. Latest vacancy occurred with the retirement of the latest office holder after a little over two years in the job.

One of my former colleagues there phoned to tell me of the job opening....joked that I should apply and then told me that not one of the current line pilots would consider applying for the postion.

The job would be tailor made for a former Night Stalker or other highly experienced Spec Ops pilot who holds the appropriate FAA certificates.

However.....those who are more into the "Yes" man mode would fare better than real serious take charge type folks who have real experience and abilities.

Air Force Colonels would be a shoe in....as long as they remember the DOE Aviation Boss is an Air Force General (retired) who is big on eye wash and short on brains. The local DOE oversight was in the form of a retired US Air Force Staff Sgt.

Anyone interested can send me a PM and I will provide the contact data.

Hi SAS,

A decade on how is that position going lol? I came across on the web and wiki rare photos of Savannah's op...as they come under Federal Protective Forces.

cheers

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/933/44010852301_81088d91c5_b.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1834/44010852181_159492a5a2_b.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1774/44010851891_ce788a8659_z.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1819/43962334712_ef9ccc64af_b.jpg

[SASless]

To be honest....I have not heard a thing about Wackenhut in the past five Years or so and have not asked.

All of the guys I stayed in contact with have either aged out and retired or did as I did and walked away.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has an interesting history....not much of it very good beyond accomplishing the initial mission of being the source of nuclear materials that allowed the construction of nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/deadly-legacy-savannah-river-site-near-aiken-one-of-the/article_d325f494-12ff-11e7-9579-6b0721ccae53.html

[chopper2004]

To be honest....I have not heard a thing about Wackenhut in the past five Years or so and have not asked.

All of the guys I stayed in contact with have either aged out and retired or did as I did and walked away.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has an interesting history....not much of it very good beyond accomplishing the initial mission of being the source of nuclear materials that allowed the construction of nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/deadly-legacy-savannah-river-site-near-aiken-one-of-the/article_d325f494-12ff-11e7-9579-6b0721ccae53.html

The unit received a national excellence award

https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/doe-honors-srs-aviation-program-national-excellence-award


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/700x467/7e2d98b5_3349_45fc_b82c_63f59a884830_a860391114bc7752a4f532b 2cb909becac2501e4.jpeg

[SASless]

I have one of those Awards I am thinking.....as I seem to recall standing around one day with not much to do and wound up being pulled into a line up and provided a Participation Trophy.

With some effort I might be able to dig it up out of the cardboard boxes of clutter down in the cellar.

That Year we were proved adept at notching an "X" in the appropriate places on the Retired USAF General's Metrics he had set forth as the Judging Standard and offset by who had won the previous Year's Award as I recall. The Competition is amongst the US Department of Energy Aviation Units and who knows what the judging criteria is today.

Hopefully under new and different management it has improved over those many years ago.