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T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
Dangerous Cargo
Bill Hamilton
They say that during wartime, strategic airlift is
only 47% effective. Of
course that's due to the fact that at the beginning
of the build up you haul
the stuff in and come back empty and at the end of
the contingency you go in
empty and return full. During peace time and on
channel missions is really the
only 'cost effective' airlift we do based on the
standard above.
However, even during peace time we liked to practice
our war time mission and
occasionally fly around empty. One time many years
ago as a young instructor
loadmaster I had a young airman who was really
interested in flying. So much so
that a few years later, after becoming a really fine
loadmaster, he finished
his college education and went on to OCS. He then
got a commission and became a
C-141 pilot. But that's getting ahead of the story.
On this one particular overseas mission while he was
still a young student
loadmaster and with no pax or cargo in the rear, I
decided to let him be in
charge and crawled up into the crew bunk for a
little 'no-notice combat nap'.
Several hours later, about time to make our three
hour out call, I get a pull
on my flight suit leg and wake up to see my student
tugging at it and saying,
'Sgt Hamilton the A/C wants to know the download
information'.
I can't believe he's asking about an empty aircraft,
so I say, 'Tell him we
have 13 pallets of sailboat fuel', and rolled back
over to continue my nap.
Within about two minutes I feel the tug on my leg
again and sat up as straight
as you could in the crew bunk and said, 'WHAT?'
My student LM then said, 'He needs to know what the
hazardous cargo
classification is'.
At this time I pointed my hand towards the back of
the empty aircraft and said,
'What do you see back there?'
As he looked toward the empty cargo area, he said,
'Nothing I guess,' and
shrugged his shoulders.
'That's right Bubba, there ain't nothin' back
there!' I yelled and rolled over
and completed my nap.
Then my young student load had to return to the
cockpit and tell the cranky old
major we had for an aircraft commander that there
wasn't anything in the cargo
compartment and proceeded to get his butt chewed
royally. I found later that
the aircraft commander had called in the offload as
13 pallets of sailboat fuel
and upon hearing that, the inbound location figured
it was some type of hazard
and was concerned about isolated parking on the hot
spot. Once he found out it
was only 'air', he had to correct his original
inbound message and all the
aircraft in the along the east coast got a big laugh
at his expense.
I never used the expression of 'sail boat fuel'
again on a load message,
although I continued to carry it on many a MAC or
AMC mission for years
afterward.
'Bundle' Bill Hamilton