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T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
First USAF Aircraft to Bomb Iraq
Mike Novack
It was a C-141!!
Long before the Bushes got all excited about Iraq,
the first US aircraft to drop anything on it was a C-141.
My ex-father-in-law was living in Tehran working for
Boeing. On a short trip
there I had a chance to get together with him. He
gave me a giant tin of
Iranian pistachios in exchange for a fifth of some
beverage he was unable to
acquire locally.
On the trip back to Germany the next day we started
eating them, and didn't
stop until they were all gone. There were shells
everywhere in the cockpit and
we sucked them out the sextant port out over Iraq
(which was not shooting at us
then) with the hose that Lockheed thoughtfully
provided just for that purpose.
(It was labeled: Ejector, Shells, Pistachio, US Govt
Part #:234-222-34219). The
acquisition cost was probably about the same as one
of those hammers or toilet
seats we heard about in the early 1970's).
I don't know what it feels like to get hit in the
head with a pistachio shell
from 38,000 feet, but perhaps that is what is behind
our current troubles with
this part of the world. At the time it didn't look
to me like there was anyone
in the whole god-forsaken place anyway, but I guess
our inconsiderate actions
are probably the source of all the anger directed at
the US today.