dfeatherngill

Thats a photo of an "old friend". Another nice photo Billy, I remember those trips to Phnom Penn, all the crew except me got temple rubbings, I was all about being a good loadmaster...LOL

Nice photos Billy! Believe me I learned my lesson about following railroad tracks! So many memories about the roof at the Merlin and times downtown Saigon. Times were sure different than now. Glad you and most of my friends survived. By the way, I still have some "love beads" like those but haven't worn them for a long time.

This is part of the Air Force film shot at CCK named "The way we were" narrated by John Wayne. I knew many of the air crew members and I was actually shown getting off a crew bus on the original film. My then wife and I lived downtown Tiachung and they showed us getting off a crew bus at our apartment, that never really happened, I always had to catch a taxi to go to CCK for flights.

I know I never carried any type of milk stool, but used chocks many times. Saw a bird setting on its' tail at Taipei one time, not a pretty sight. I flew with another loadmaster one time that coiled up a bunch of chains and sat on them when doing drops and An Loc, I never thought about doing that, but of course when we were young nothing could happen to us. I spent most of might time in flight wedge in the left troop door.

@ gizzard - I had that happen once at CCK too. They were looking for drugs. Quite a bit got smuggled back.

Good work Muff! I found out one of my old co-pilots is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Use to keep touch with a couple of old fellow loads but have lost touch. It take a good "detective of the internet" to find old friends.

That's what I remember too Alan. I flew with the 345th from CCK from May 1970-August 1971 then went back TDY with the 61st from LRAFB for 5 months in 1972. Had to help carry the big box.

That's just wrong!

I hope someone has pictures of that!!

The only thing I remember about Song Be besides taking bladder birds in there was having the engineer trade bottles of whiskey with the supply guys there for almost anything they had. Got lots of combat boots and camo parkas and other cool stuff there.

Unbelievable!! A lot of good flying and LUCK. Our country is blessed with good men and women that are willing to take a stand for peace and freedom, just like we did years ago.

How neat is that! I'd like to go back someday myself. BTW I went with the 61 TAS in May 1972 also as a loadmaster from the 2nd Aerial Port, and made some of the drops, I bet we flew together at some point.

We were mostly in-country, US involvement was winding down but things were very hot. We made high level air drops over An Loc and etc. Made a trip to Clark AFB and ended up staying a couple of week because of flooding and hauling people and supplies because of it. Stayed in CCK long enough to get the stereo gear I didn't get first time around.

Mike, I was at CCK in the 345th from May 1970 throught August 1971 as a loadmaster. I then went to Little Rock with the 2nd Aerial Port. While there I went back TDY to CCK with the 61st from May through Sept 1972.

We always had a slip stick, even in country, I didn't always file a Form F but when I did it was under a rock or somewhere on the external power unit. I often checked how high the crew door was off the ground before and after loading just as a double check - one of my engineers taught me that trick.