Robert Z

I flew all three of the 18 series airplanes at Rhein Main.  I operated the cameras on the aircraft.  Most people didn't know about the hidden doors and flir ball coming out of the aircraft.  Or about the windows in the troop doors that were removable to install blister windows.  Lots of interesting stuff...  There is a good book out there called "Looking down the corridors"... it was written by Kevin Wright with help from a few of us "Berlin for Lunch Bunch"......   Very informative.

We just finished another Berlin for Lunch Bunch reunion..   There are books out there that describe the mission in some detail..

On 10/3/2013 at 7:45 AM, mark18mwm said:

Don, The wing span was longer. They had false (fiberglass) wing tips that were longer than standard E models. If you ever looked there were also other differences you could see on the ground if you looked hard enough. They also had a false beaver tail that was bigger than usual. The troop doors around the window if you looked close you could see a square cut out to remove the round window and put in a large observation blister. If you ever watched some one pre-flight one you would notice the ground test valve was in (not behind) the wheel well, among other differences. Less obvious was when 1819 came back from depot in about 85 she had H model wings and - 15 engines. 1822 got the same in about 86, I assume 1828 had them installed also later. One thing that was a pain with these planes was ruining some ones day when they accidentally came on board and had to turned in, then they had to go get a "debrief" as to what they didn't see. That usually happened to visiting crews because most people at RM were well aware to stay clear of them. One time a friend of mine passing threw from Little Rock seen me and and unbeknownst to me not only followed me on board but all the way to the back of the cargo compartment before I seen him. It kind of took the fun out of a reunion for me to have him "jacked up" by the sky cops.But on the bright side of that, at least I was able to go explain to his crew why thier crew chief suddenly disappeared how they could get him back, ha-ha.

1822 had fake external fuel tanks when she came back from depot in 1985..  And you couldn't expose the horse collar unless she was in the hangar.. or the leading edge for that matter... 

On 9/29/2013 at 6:06 AM, DC10FE said:

 

 

A friend of mine was a loadmaster in the 7405th at Rhein Main. He told me one time in Athens (I think), someone came up to the crew and told them that their tail number belonged to an airplane that had crashed years ago.

He was also a bartender at the American Legion in Waldorf. Yeah, you know who I'm talkin' about Hush.

Don R.

That happened in Aviano Italy...    Old time FE who was in the reserves at the time..