To Don R.
Thanks for the information. I am that sailor, Rory Nugent, and I want to get things right. I got to know Gunkel well before he died, but he always shied away from talking about his role in the rescue. So we talked about most anything else. For a new book, I'd like to set the scene as well as possible inside the aircraft when the first EPIRB signal was detected, then silence (the EPIRB was malfunctioning and/or low on battery juice), then picked up, lost, over and over, until the loadmaster sighted the wreck. Also, I'm looking for basic info on C-130 flights over Atlantic. Speed. Altitude. What a pilot would hear through earphones? would Lajes be a mandatory stop? What would the crew normally be doing, say, 350 miles out of Lajes? Reading? And more ?????s.
Don, were you involved in the rescue?