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T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
Austrailia 1968 - Part 1
Dave Kutulis, CMS (RET)
In April of 68 another crew chief (John) and I were
selected to be
participate in a trip from Norton to the Northwest
Cape of Australia to deliver
supplies to a Naval Communications Station. The
aircraft for the trip was
supposed to be 67- 0007 but due to maintenance
problems 66-7957 was used. I
don't remember if it was a 14th or 15th MAS flight
crew on the trip but I
remember the AC a Major was not well liked. Before
departing Norton he climbed
all over the young airman loadmaster for a mistake
on his paperwork , the 1st
engineer later told me that it was a minor error and
that the rest of the crew
thought that he was out of line the way he treated
the loadmaster. In route to
Hickam I crawled up in the crew rest platform and
went to sleep, a short will
later it seemed my leg was being ripped off. It was
the Major and he came down
hard on me. I screwed up and forgot to hook my
oxygen mask to a portable
bottle. This guy really loved to read people the
riot act. That was the start
of our love affair.
The next morning in the first spot on the ramp in
front of the MAC terminal was
0007 with the right leading edge removed, seems it
had a bleed air problem. At
Pago Pago we pulled up next to the terminal and
while John and I did our thing
(refuel, check engine oil and did a walk around of
the aircraft) everyone but
the loadmaster headed for the terminal and food. The
loadmaster had a sack of
mail and was waiting for someone to sign for it.
After he had the mail taken
care of he also headed to the terminal. The crew
could see John and I doing our
thing at when we disconnected the fuel hose they
returned to the aircraft. The
Major ask if we where ready to go and said to get
aboard. Since we had not had
anything to eat since Hickam I asked if they brought
any burgers for John and
I, his response was basically, "not my job".
While the flight crew did their thing John and I
went to the terminal for some
food. I really enjoyed looking out the window in to
the flight deck and
watching the smoke pouring out of his ears.
After a reasonable amount of time John and I climbed
aboard. On take off I
climbed it the jump seat and listened as the Major
told the guy in the right
seat that the ridge we where passing over looked
like a knife blade, the right
seater said that that was the name of the ridge. For
the next few minutes it
was, no it's not, yes it is, no it's not, and yes it
is. Finally the right
seater said he was just pulling his leg. At Richmond
RAAF base we spent the
night there and the enlisted swine played billiards
on a table that had a
bronze plate embedded in it that said the 1936 World
Billiard Championship was
won on that table.
The next day we headed to the Northwest Cape, while
passing over Alice Springs
the Major called down to ask what was the main
attraction and they said cattle
and tourism. I don't remember the name of the field
we landed at but at the
time it was a RAAF base that was inactive and all
that was there was a
caretaker his wife and a radio operator. The Major
checked the windsock and
made an uneventful landing, it seemed at the time.
Shortly after an Aussie in a
small piston plane pull up along side and headed our
way. He was not a happy
camper, seems he was on final when a big sliver bird
flew over the top of him.
After getting a tour of the big sliver bird he went
away happy. The caretaker
hooked up his eighteen hundred gallon truck and we
started refueling while the
navy did the unloading. Everyone was hungry so I was
selected to go with a navy
chief to get buggers at their installation. Forty
miles later we finally
arrived at the main gate and I was issued a visitors
pass, we went about a
hundred yards and at another gate I had to change
badges. The place was double
fenced with razor wire on top. I was told that you
could walk around nude
inside the fence and no one would bother you but if
your security badge was not
visible expect bad things to happen. They had a
large amount of towers some as
high as thirteen hundred feet, found that out when
the Major decided to over
fly the site at a very low altitude and only after
the urging of the guy in the
right seat he pulled up. Seemed like we did not have
any charts depicting the
towers. And he could not understand why no one would
talk to him. If you
haven't guessed by now they only talked to nuclear
submarines.
We headed to the chief's mess where he instructed
the kitchen staff on
the amount of burgers and fries he needed. While
that was being taken care of
we headed to the bar where the bartender gave us a
can of Falstaff beer. He
told that chief that that was the last of the beer.
The installation was dry.
We finally made it back with the burgers and no one
would believe that it was
an eighty mile round trip. John was still refueling
and the navy had finished
unloading. We where scheduled to be empty on our
return but the Major when he
checked in with the powers that be told him the next
day we where to go to
Christchurch an pick up a load destined for the cape
that a C-124 which was
broke had. While the next truck was pumping I
noticed that a few yards forward
was a fuel pit and when asked why we did not use it
I was told it was broke but
the caretaker said that it would be fixed by the
time we returned. That night
at the Naval Installation I got to experience what
the Navy calls Hot Bunking.
Our arrival at Christchurch was late at night (8 or
9 pm) and we were met by a
maintenance guy who told me not to worry he had it
covered. When we checked in
to the White (or was it Blue?) Herron hotel the
clerk said the entertainment
got tired of waiting and left.
The next morning it was raining really hard and when
we got to the plane we
found out the cargo was eight pallets of Falstaff
beer. After engine start I
was sitting in the cargo compartment when the
scanner said the Major wanted to
talk to me. So I went forward and ask what he
wanted. He said, "That light is
on and we are not leaving until it's out."
I asked what light since he was
pointing to the annunciator panel and it had a lot
of lights. He indicated the
one that showed that the troop door air deflector's
where deployed. So I said "Major we have eight
pallets of beer in the back there is no way we could
have
the extenders installed let alone have them
deployed, the plane has been
soaking in the rain all night and all you have is a
short caused by the
moisture".
He said "I am not leaving until the light is out",
so I reached
down and flipped the bulb holder pulled the bulbs
and put them in my pocket and
returned to the damp cargo compartment and took a
seat.
The scanner and loadmaster where laughing and I
asked what was happening they
said that I would not want to know what he was
saying about me. After a few
minutes we started moving. For the rest of the trip
we both kept our distance.
I often wondered what the 22nd AF Command Post would
have said if he refused to
fly until the light was out. The pit was not fixed
when we returned, the Navy
off loaders went thru a few cases and the caretakers
wife spent five hours
sitting in the air conditioned flight deck while we
refueled. It was well over
a hundred in a place that gets into the one hundred
thirty degrees at times.
The Major was not a really big problem. My real
problem started the morning after
we returned to Norton when my wife woke me up with a
message that the O-6 DCM
wanted me in his office now. Seems he was not happy
about the large Kangaroo's
painted in red on the outboard side of each engine
ring cowl and both sides of
the nose.
My story was that when we went into crew rest there
where no Kangaroo' s on the
plane but in the morning we found out that the
phantom painter had been at
work. I'm glad I told him not to put one on the
pressure door; if I had I'm
sure the O-6 would still be in orbit.
Dave Kutulis CMS (Ret)
63rd MAW 67-71
58th WRS 71-74
62nd MAW 74-75
Lancaster Ca.