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Sam McGoldrick


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Just thought I would share a little information. I am currently going through school here at LR for FE retraining and I've had the pleasure of having Mr. Sam McGoldrick as our instructor. He is getting ready to retire at the age of 71 and next week is his last of work. He told us a story today about a plane he was on that crashed in Kadena when #4 engine throttle cable broke and sent the engine to full power. The plane was tore all to hell and was deemed unrepairable (from what I've been told). The way he told the story was pretty amazing that no one was killed. The plane sounded like it was pretty well spent after all it went through.

Anyway, I just thought if any of you out there would like to share any stories about Sam that would be pretty cool. He has over 50 some years of experience with the Herky Bird and I just think that is something amazing. Have a good one!!

Dave

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I don't remember the tail # or the year it happened but I have seen the pictures. It was a class A mishap, nose gear ripped out, buckled and broken open around FS 245 and the left side wheel well area and wing badly burned. They ran off the runway and hit one of the concrete drainage culverts along the runway at Kadena.

Sam has lots of great adventures he could tell you. And I promise you guys who flew with him at CCK, Yakota and Little Rock he hasn't divulged any names. There is not much of anything that Sam didn't know about the C-130. Sam told me he first turned a wrench as a crew chief on an 'A' model in May of 1959. I was at Chief McGoldricks Air Force retirement in 1988 and got to wish him many happy shamrocks this month after 22 years at the "schoolhouse."

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Sam gave me several checkrides when I was at Yokota. Always learned something new when I flew with him. He knew the nuts and bolts of the C 130. The crash he was involved in at Kadena was a bad one, when the nose gear broke lose it hit the LOX converter oxygem and Hyd. fluid caused a "blowtorch" fire.

Mike Thompson

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I'm glad to see Sam make it to retirement. I have had the privilege over the years of having Sams brain to pick. He's been a goldmine of information. I spent many a night with him and a bottle of Scotch having him beat systems into to me when we were at Yokota. Enjoy retirement "Old Man" ,you've earned it.

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Got to fly a shuttle, to TSN with Sam in 72, The AC's name was Pat Maher, if I remember.

correctly. One evening after returning to TSN, we had some folks from Langley TDY to

CCK, Sam and I met another Scot. a LM named David Rae. When David and Sam got to

speaking Gaelic. I figured it was time to leave. I got a spot on my shoulder for carrying him

around, That is one character.

Rg Glenn Secrest

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Got to fly a shuttle, to TSN with Sam in 72, The AC's name was Pat Maher, if I remember.

correctly. One evening after returning to TSN, we had some folks from Langley TDY to

CCK, Sam and I met another Scot. a LM named David Rae. When David and Sam got to

speaking Gaelic. I figured it was time to leave. I got a spot on my shoulder for carrying him

around, That is one character.

Rg Glenn Secrest

yep your memory is correct we (37TAS) from Langley were there TDY and a fun time was had by all :) until the Wing King cnx'd my mission to Hanoi to take the peace delegation in and that was after I was inbreafed on the mission. A$$ hole!! I made such a stink he was said to have said that SOB will not get a mission north. I didn't but mannaged to get my crew on one :)

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I posted a couple of days ago but the post disappeared. Tell Sam congratulations for his great service to this country. I was stationed with Sam in the 70s at CCK. He is a great guy and probably has forgotten more than and ten engineere ever knew.

Stare enjoying the good retired life Sam...but make sure you are close to a herk base so you can hear the great sound of freedom.

Best to ya Sam

Muff Millen

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  • 5 months later...

Just thought I would share a little information. I am currently going through school here at LR for FE retraining and I've had the pleasure of having Mr. Sam McGoldrick as our instructor. He is getting ready to retire at the age of 71 and next week is his last of work. He told us a story today about a plane he was on that crashed in Kadena when #4 engine throttle cable broke and sent the engine to full power. The plane was tore all to hell and was deemed unrepairable (from what I've been told). The way he told the story was pretty amazing that no one was killed. The plane sounded like it was pretty well spent after all it went through.

Anyway, I just thought if any of you out there would like to share any stories about Sam that would be pretty cool. He has over 50 some years of experience with the Herky Bird and I just think that is something amazing. Have a good one!!

Dave

I knew that little "Focker" when he was an E-4 right out of maintenance when he first started flying at Pope. He had just come back from Tachi, Naha or somewhere and went to flight mechanic school. He, Wayne Binkley, Don Sweet, Don Wright (who was shot down on Blind Bat), Roy Cattel and several others came into the squadron about the same time I and a bunch of other guys from OMS who were crosstraining to loadmaster did. Sam lived in the barracks and we all ran around together. He is the one who got me to drinking hot tea. He also advised me that Scotch is a drink and a native of Scotland is Scottish. One of my favorite memories is of one night when we were in the bowling alley snack bar at Kadena while on TDY. He and Binkley had been to the Airmen's Club and were loaded. Sam ordered a chocolate milkshake and passed out while he was drinking it. His nose went right into the glass! That woke him up and he raised his face up. There was ice cream all over it! It makes me laugh everytime I think about it. By the way, Binkley told me recently that McGoldrick probably has the longest history with the Herk of anyone who ever lived. He started out on them at Ashiya in the late 50s on the flight line and has been with them ever since.

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I knew that little "Focker" when he was an E-4 right out of maintenance when he first started flying at Pope. He had just come back from Tachi, Naha or somewhere and went to flight mechanic school. He, Wayne Binkley, Don Sweet, Don Wright (who was shot down on Blind Bat), Roy Cattel and several others came into the squadron about the same time I and a bunch of other guys from OMS who were crosstraining to loadmaster did. Sam lived in the barracks and we all ran around together. He is the one who got me to drinking hot tea. He also advised me that Scotch is a drink and a native of Scotland is Scottish. One of my favorite memories is of one night when we were in the bowling alley snack bar at Kadena while on TDY. He and Binkley had been to the Airmen's Club and were loaded. Sam ordered a chocolate milkshake and passed out while he was drinking it. His nose went right into the glass! That woke him up and he raised his face up. There was ice cream all over it! It makes me laugh everytime I think about it. By the way, Binkley told me recently that McGoldrick probably has the longest history with the Herk of anyone who ever lived. He started out on them at Ashiya in the late 50s on the flight line and has been with them ever since.

I failed to mention that we were all in the 779th TCS at Pope.

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I was LRF when Don Sweet and Linda divorced, Don married a captain (I think she was), and then Don was killed when some Arkansas redneck in a beat-up car turned in front of his motorcycle in Jacksonville, around 1981.

Don and I were crewed together at Pope. The last time I saw him was in 1966 when I ran into him in a bar in Koza when he came through there on one of the first Stray Goose crews. We had a lot of good times together in France, then out of Kadena and Mactan.

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Got to fly a shuttle, to TSN with Sam in 72, The AC's name was Pat Maher, if I remember.

correctly. One evening after returning to TSN, we had some folks from Langley TDY to

CCK, Sam and I met another Scot. a LM named David Rae. When David and Sam got to

speaking Gaelic. I figured it was time to leave. I got a spot on my shoulder for carrying him

around, That is one character.

Rg Glenn Secrest

Dave Rae was in the 41st at Evreux, Lockbourne and Naha. He had a Swedish K he had picked up in the Congo when he was there in the early '60s. He had it in his locker the night they came after the Blind Bat enlisted crewmembers hooch at Ubon in the spring of '66. It was the only weapon anyone had. Fortunately, the Nung guard they killed got off a round from his shotgun and they ran off. Otherwise, God only knows what would have happened.

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