T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
Mr. Ed Meets his Match
Del Laughery
Msgt USAF RET
I was a command post type at Clark. I hate to date
myself but it was MATS
when I first went to Clark, becoming MAC while I was
there 1965 to 1967.
Due to a very high theft rate at Clark the security
police had horse-back
patrols. A young SP was on the far side of the
runway, felt the need to relieve
himself and proceeded to urinate in a bush. A a bird
flew out of the bush to
avoid the 'rain' and spooked his horse, which took
off and ran onto the runway
just as a C-141 was landing. The horse just missed
the nose gear and was struck
by the pilot's side main gear housing, pealing it
back about three quarters of
the way.
The aircraft left parts of the horse for many many
feet down the runway. The
pilot finally made it to the command post. He was as
white as a sheet and
leaned his arm on the counter and in the best air
force jargon asked "Where did
that f@#k'n horse come from?"
They ended up having to fly the aircraft back to
Marietta GA, gear down. Thank
God no one was hurt. Had the aircraft hit the horse
with the nose wheel the
landing gear probably would have collapsed.
When they first started flying the line with C-141's
they had many brake
problems. After working out the bugs it turned into
a fine aircraft, a real
"work horse", (no pun intended).
The following email arrived on May 16th, 2006
I am a former 60551 (Air Cargo
Specialist) (USAF 1965- '69) who
has recently discovered your wonderful website. I've
been poking around for a
couple of days now, and have quickly realized I'm
going to be a while taking it
all in. This is quite an impressive project you've
put together. I'm sure I'll
enjoy exploring it as much as I did my small part in
the history of the C-141.
I posted a message to the recent story about the
retirement of the Hanoi Taxi
in the May 8 edition of the Military.com newsletter.
It explains some of my
feelings about the Starlifter.
So far, my favorite story on your website is the one
in Tall Tales about the
C-141 hitting the horse. I was at Clark Air Base the
night it happened. In
fact, I was wondering if there is any way you can
put me in touch with Msgt Del
Laughery, who wrote that story. It appears that we
were squadron mates and may
have some memories to share. Also, I would like to
clarify something about his
story.
He said the aircraft flew back to Georgia with the
gear down because of the
damage, but I worked in-bound cargo in those days
(Dec. 1966), and remember
receiving a new landing gear door for that aircraft.
It may be that the damage
was so great the new door could not be attached, so
maybe Sgt. Laughery could
elaborate. I also remember going out after sun up to
look at the aircraft and
getting a little nauseated. The landing gear was
pretty torn up, and there was
horse flesh, bone and hair hanging from it. Rather
sickening, really.
Whatever help you can offer to get me in touch with
Sgt. Laughery would be most
appreciated.
Lance Edmisten
Modesto, Ca.
In February of 2007 I got the following additional information about the ferry flight of the damaged a/c from Clark back to the US from Ed Diemer, who was the Navigator on that flight:
The C-141A that struck the horse at Clark was flown back to the states with the gear down. The aircraft was ferried back by "island hopping" (Clark, Guam, Honolulu). I was the navigator on the Travis-based 86th MAS aircrew that flew the leg into Hickam AFB (actually land at Honolulu International and taxi to Hickam). Ironically, the patch of the 86th features a centaur, a Greek mythological creature that is half man and half horse.
Although I cannot recall the tail number, I do not
believe either the crew or
aircraft involved in the Clark incident was
Travis-based.
The Maintenance people at Clark removed the damaged
material from the left side
gear pod all the way down to the side of the
fuselage. The pod is a fairing and
not really structural. Although a landing gear door
(and probably other parts
for contingency) may have been ordered for the
aircraft, it was not installed
on the damaged aircraft - there was nothing to
attach the gear door to. With
most of the pod removed, about all that remained was
the landing gear
components. The remaining gear looked spindly and
out of place surrounded by
all the openness. The aircraft was flown back with
the (ground) gear-lock pins
safety-wired in place. It seems to me that the
auxiliary power unit (a gas
turbine driven generator) was located in the left
main gear pod-I do not recall
if any of it might still have been in place.
With the gear down and locked, the C141A had to be
flown at less than the
"gear-down, do not exceed" airspeed. Flight
planning, particularly of the fuel
load, was a challenge. There was nothing close to
our gear-down with part of
the structure missing cruise condition in the
Lockheed performance charts! The
fuel load was based on a SWAG with more fuel reserve
than carried on normal
flights. The flight was flown with only essential
crew (no space-available
passengers) and fuel. The gross weight was
considerably less than normal.
The flight to Honolulu was flown at approximately
19-thousand feet. That
allowed flying the aircraft pressurized but with a
lower pressure differential
than when flown at the normal thirty-something
thousand foot flight levels.
There had been some concern about whether the
aircraft integrity would allow
pressurized flight. Our leg was not the first one
flown after the incident; it
had already flown several similar flight profiles
without problems. The legs
were flown during daylight; weather was never an
issue on our leg of the return
flights.
The climb to altitude was uneventful. We settled
into the routine of our "low
and slow" cruise at altitude. Navigation was easy
using the good daytime
Loran-C coverage in the area. Fuel used and
remaining was very meticulously
recorded and plotted. Our estimated fuel usage was
not much off the actual
usage. The route allowed several enroute alternative
(island) airports should
an emergency arise. We never encountered anything to
make us consider changing
from our flight plan. The routine included periodic
position reports on HF
radio.
The boredom was broken by an unexpected radio call
from Hickam. They said there
was a USAF C-130 Rescue aircraft on the ground at
Hickam, with engines running,
which was requesting permission to run a practice
intercept on us for a
training mission. My guess is that Air Traffic
Control at Honolulu had
suggested us as a candidate for the intercept; I am
sure that our low and slow
eastbound flight stood out like a sore thumb on
ATC's boards. Everyone else was
high, fast, and westbound! We figured the intercept
would break the normal,
getting boring, routine; we accepted the Rescue
"offer." Shortly we were
informed the Rescue was in the air and was asking
for more information from us.
I pulled out the standard AF form we carried to
transmit information in the
event of an emergency (the only time I actually
filled one out in the air). It
had the standard required information: our current
position, our route,
estimated times to our next position and
destination, number of souls on board,
and fuel remaining. In the section calling for
"nature of the emergency," we
listed, "simulated structural damage to the left
main landing gear pod." The
information was forwarded by our copilot on HF
radio. We were then informed of
the position and time that the Rescue expected to
intercept us (about two hours
later).
Updates were exchanged between the Rescue and MAC
aircraft. When we were about
60 miles apart, the communications between us
shifted to VHF or UHF radio. By
ourselves in the middle of the Pacific, the chatter
between crews became more
informal while the updates continued. The Rescue
C-130 reported us in sight and
requested permission to fall into formation with us.
We saw the C-130 pass
under us slightly to one side. Looking for any
useful information from the
situation, we asked the Rescue to pull up under our
left side and scan our
"simulated structural damage" before falling into
formation. Sensing bonus
realism to their practice run, the Rescue eagerly
agreed to our request. The
C-130 pulled up under our left side. There were
several minutes of silence as
they checked out our aircraft. Then, over the radio
from the Rescue aircraft
came, "Gee MAC! When you guys simulate, you sure do
simulate!"
Last summer I got another note about this incident from Bradley Kuhn:
I run the Hydraulic back shop here in
Charleston. For 9 Years
(Jan 92-Jun 2001) I worked the flight-line here in
Charleston. Though a
hydraulic specialist, I had the honor to multi-task
and serve a dual capacity
as a Primary Crew Chief on a couple of Aircraft. The
first was ACFT 8079, now
on static display here at Charleston. That ACFT was
the tail number that hit
the horse on the runway. At the stick was Col Toulan
(spelling?) (the older
one, There were two Toulan's, a father and a son.
The son was the active wing
commander here in Charleston in the late 80's-early
90's)
The second ACFT I had the honor of crew chief'ing
was ACFT 7011. 7011 is now
resting at North Field, in North, South Carolina.
You may or may not know, we
are in the process of scraping that airframe. Crews
of 5 from here in
Charleston have been selected to safe the aircraft
for demolition. The current
demolition date is 28 June 2005. I will be taking
pictures of this as its
happening. On a footnote, ACFT 7011 carries a very
interested fact, you may or
may not be able to verify this. In December 1992,
following the elections which
Mr. Clinton defeated the first Mr. George Bush, We
went into Somalia. I was one
of thirteen Air Force personnel on the ground that
9th day of December. On
December 30, 1992, we were visited by Mr. George
Bush, who flew in to Mogadishu
Somalia on ACFT 7011. With this, ACFT 7011 was the
only C-141 to ever carry the
call sign "Air Force One". I have several pictures
from that day that I would
like to pass along. I'll be emailing you from home
with scanned pictures that
you may post on your site. Thank you for hosting a
great web site dedicated to
a great airframe!
Bradley Kuhn, MSgt, USAFR 315th MXS Hydraulic
Element
On March 8th, 2007 I got the following additional information about the Mr. Ed incident from Tim Bernal:
I believe the C-141 that hit the horse
was Tail # 8079.
This is the display aircraft at Charleston AFB (I
was assigned there from
1989-2000 / Maintenance & 141 FE), for years it had
a horse head painted on the
front left gear pod.
This aircraft was also the "personal" aircraft of
Col Toolin, the LG
Maintenance commander at the time.
During my maintenance days, I asked some of the
"old-heads" about the
horse-head painting and they recalled the tale of
the horse being hit at Clark
in the PI.
Anyhow, within the past year, 8079 has been
re-painted in the original white
paint scheme and someone (I'm sure leadership)
decided to leave the horse-head
out of the art work.
Timothy M. Bernal, MSgt, USAF