dad's plane, mom's plane

It's a family affair. This was my dad's plane - not this particular one, but a B-17 in AAF paint. He flew these stateside training crews for the european theater, then flew P-61s doing something he would never talk about.

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This one was my mother's plane. She was a keypunch operator at Kaiser main when they had the contract for the C-119. She was UAW all the way! The Flying Boxcar was a pretty good plane, long range, loitering ability, it could carry an APC or 62 pAratroopers. A bunch of hem were converted to gunships during the VietNam war where they supplemented the AC-47 and AC-130. The Boxcars carried heavier guns than Puff did, 4 x .30 miniguns and 2 x 20mm vulcans, but nothing as heavy as the AC-130

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When Ike got elected he put Charlie Wilson, ex-President of GM, in as Secretary of Defense. Within a couple months' Kaiser's contract for the C-119 got yanked and Kaiser went into a death spiral. The plant closed n 1955 and got picked up for a song by -- you guessed it! -- GM. Mom gave it up, dad got a job in Ohio and we moved out of the projects at Willow Run for good.

jn

When I would be a wise guy and asked my buddies who were airborne (I was the worlds biggest leg), "Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" The best reply I ever got was, "It's obvious you've never flown in a C-119!"

C113 was worse. If one engine quit when you were carrying a load, you damm well better be by the open door with your chute on!

Jon, I'd bet that the cancellation of the C-119 conract had more to do with the fact that there were far more advanced transports (like the C-130) on the drawing boards at the time. Recips were living on borrowed time. I remember as a kid the 403rd Troop Carrier Wing at Selfridge flying C-119's. They were kind of cool looking in a strange way. Rick

I remember the first time I flew in one of those dogs. Heading up to Pleiku. The noise was almost as bad as the C130 but no power. When we finally got airborne up pops a tire the size of a Volkswagen spinning at 120 mph and throwing rocks and dirt all over the cabin; if you happened to get caught up in that thing it would chew you to pieces. The CV2 Caribou was always my favorite. Quiet, smooth and civilized. The best feature was it would actually fly with the power off. Airborne? Our Drill Instructor explained it pretty well: "They are the same as you except they get to ride to work".

Ever fly in a C124 Globemaster II?

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...aster_II-1.jpg

Two floors and four quad-row radials worth of joy. If that wouldn't rattle your brains, nothing would. ;) The C130 was a smooth Cadillac by comparison. But in the C1245, you knew you were in a plane with powerful radials. Clanmshell doors and hydraulic ramp up front and a freight elevator in the rear.

Bob

And when taxiing when you made a turn on the ramp, it SQUEALED Like a stuck pig. Also there was a very good reason they called it "old shakey" Again when taxiing. Thought the damm thing was coming apart!:eek:

You ain't lived until you've been in a C-123 "Polish Whisperjet". Loudest damn airplane i was ever in. They musta ducted the exhaust into the cabin for heat... Same airplane as was used in "Con Air"...

Man have you guys brought back some memories. I remember in jump school unloading deployment bags from 119's and watching all the rivets vibrating.Then looking at how close the jump doors were and hearing all the stories of the entanglements on exiting. Sure was glad to see the C130's on my jump week.Also got to jumpmaster C123's years later, very very loud, and difficult to work the jump doors. Unlike a C130 where you could hold on to the door frame, you had what seemed like a 3' hallway w/ 2 pieces of iron rebar welded about 3' high to make you door checks.THX for memories. SKIP

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Originally Posted by VET70

When I would be a wise guy and asked my buddies who were airborne (I was the worlds biggest leg), "Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" The best reply I ever got was, "It's obvious you've never flown in a C-119!"

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Hey, Vet,

My mother would have liked hearing that one. She had a wicked sense of humor. Maybe she did hear it?

jn

Today I had the honor of making a flyover of the travaling Vietnam Memorial Wall on display from May 21 thru May 25, at our towns VFW, my passenger with me flew in WW II in B-24's, he is a long time friend and has many stories that he shares when asked, he never shares them unless asked and even then its hard to get him to talking about all that happened. Last year he brought me lots of documents of his from his tour of duty. There are many pitchures of his friends and of aircraft nose art that he personal took of the planes that he flew in and of planes he was near, none of the nose art have I ever seen except in his pics., also included were pics. of their bombing runs in Japan. I scaned all the pics. & documents then returned them to him. The aircraft I own is an Boeing PT-27 built Feb. 10, 1942. I will make another flyover the wall on Sunday at 2:00 PM. I hope to ask another friend of mine to fly with me from another town that flew B-17's doing daylight bombing in Germany, he had five B-17's that were either shot down or he had to bail out of. These guys do not see themselves as heros, and when you tell them that them are heros, they say that they were just doing there job! Each time I climb into the cockpit of my plane I feel unworthey of owning it knowing that it had trained so many young pilot, many of which died, that went to war and fought with honor so that people like me and all of you can live in a free country. I now have 5 grandsons ages 16 years through 4 months, the older ones have flown with me every chance they get and are on there way to be pilots. I am trying to teach them to respect all thoses that have made our country free & to stand against any that try to take our freedom away!

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