While stationed at RAF Lakenheath in England, my squadron, the 494th Black Panthers, was deployed to Aviano Air Base in Italy for Operation Allied Force against Kosovo. This picture was taken on the Hot Cargo Pad where the overflow of our aircraft were positioned. Mark Olsen was in the front cockpit and Eric Bennet was positioned to enter the rear to perform an operation check of the laser targeting pod prior to the mission and time was short and the aircraft was needed. Just when we applied power and air, the power unit's horn went off indicating it was low on fuel. Knowing that the horn is designed to alarm 10-15 minutes prior to shut-off, I knew that we had enough time to complete the ops checks before the unit shut down, and we had no other power units available. Taking the risk that the ops check would pass and that there actually was enough fuel for the power unit, I was using hand signals in a very loud environment to tell Mark and Eric to continue the ops check and disregard the horn. My risk paid off, the ops check was good and the power unit stayed running long enough and the aircraft met its mission.
And BTW, disregard the poor example we set by not using double-hearing protection.
This picture was taken by some journalists at that time