Phu Cat NCO Earns $1000 For Suggestion

The following article chronicling the achievements of former 185^th member Mr. Orville Davis first appeared in the “Seventh Air Force News” on January 1, 1969. A separate article was later published in the Sioux City Journal and said that Davis is a 1949 graduate of Sergeant Bluff High School. He later graduated from Morningside College in 1962. He was a member of the Iowa Air Guard for nearly 20 years when his Air Guard unit was activated for service in Vietnam in 1968. At the time of the activation Davis was working as an instructor at Western Iowa Technical School in Sioux City.

Phu Cat NCO Earns $1000. for suggestion

Seventh Air Force News

January 1, 1969

PHU CAT- Creative ability recently earned $1000 for TSgt. Orville Davis, Sioux City, Iowa, a member of the 37^th Field Maintenance Squadron at Phu Cat AB.

An activated Air National Guardsman from Iowa’s 174^th Tactical Fighter Squadron, the sergeant suggested a screw-jack assembly for mounting F-100 Super Saber tires which will save the Air Force $158,278 each year at Phu Cat alone.

BENEFITS FROM the non-commissioned officer’s idea are multiple. Use of the new tool will eliminate damage to O-rings which seat the tire assembly.

It also eliminates rejections of the costly tires due to bad mis-alignment which had been present in fully 25 percent of those received from supply channels.

Additionally, the screw-jack assembly saves man hours as only one man is now needed to put together the wheels where two were needed in the past. Safety also improves as men had to stand on the wheels previously to bring the wheel halves together.

THE RELATIVELY simple tool may be manufactured from parts normally found in all military machine shops at a minimal cost of $160.

Although not yet adopted at other bases or higher headquarters, the tool can be easily be modified for any aircraft using split-wheel assemblies.