| Story #1 When Alaska had their earthquake, they had nothing to send
to the New York Worlds Fair to represent them. Major
General Bond, Western Air Defense Force, Hamilton AFB, Calif. offered to donate his 10 ft
tall stuffed Polar Bear to the fair to represent Alaska.
The 552nd AEW& C Wing was responsible to see that the bear got to New
York. We took an C-121G model to Hamilton and they had it packed and ready to
load on the airplane. It was quite a task
getting it in the cargo doors of the airplane and getting it strapped down. Once this was completed, we took off and went to
Stewart AFB, NY and the bear was taken off of the airplane and transported to the
Fairgrounds. We spent two days there at
Stewart. I went up to Boston to see some
friends of mine and coming back to catch the flight home, I got back to the base and was
looking for the airplane. Of all nights for
Stewart to have an Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI).
I stepped on to the flight line, in my Orange flight suit, and about 5
Security Police cars merged on me and they took me in as a "spy or Saboteur". Keep in mind that the time is about 2:00 AM and
of all people they called, was the A/C of the plane and he had to come to the flight line
and verify that I was part of the crew. Whoever
the A/C was, he was OK. He smiled and said
that is the way life goes. I did sleep the
rest of the night on the plane. Story #2. The 552nd AEW&C Wing augmented the USMC on a
50mile forced march. I don't remember the
date. We went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
to assist the Marine Corp, in a 50 mile forced march to Camp Lejune. We were in our orbit on station and the Marine
C-130 aircraft came in line to a drop point and we would direct them into that point and
clear them out of the area. Our pattern took
us over a pulp mill and we always knew when we were on track due to the fact that the
smell would come in through the fresh air vents and would last about 5 minutes; did it
ever stink. We were very successful in that
mission. The name of it I do not know. It probably took place in the late 1960's. |
|
|
