T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
UNIQUE CARGO
Dick Reichelt
'What's the strangest cargo you ever carried in the
C-141 Captain?' I was
once asked at an Armed Forces Day static display.
Standing in the shade of the
open clamshell doors, I thought back and chuckled to
myself 'If you only knew
friend, if you only knew'! I gave him an abbreviated
answer and that must have
satisfied him. That was early in my 141 experience,
a Captain in the 20th MAS,
Stationed at Dover AFB Delaware.
I can answer the question much better now almost 40
yrs later, looking back at
the whole picture. Remember I was in the powerful
little Model A. I KNOW you
guys that flew the stretch have some even better
stories. If it came to a
contest and vote I would have to go with the 141
wing stuffed into the 141!
Being able to carry your own replacement wing along
with you, now that's class!
One of my first trips from Dover was in April 67
direct to Andrews AFB in MD.
The load was 3 cars. German Chancellor Adenauer had
died, and these were
President Johnson's cars for the funeral procession
in Germany. 38,000 pounds
of cars! Some other misc. items like; jerry cans of
fuel, food for the entire
trip and two mattresses to sleep on, completed the
load.
Ford and GM were both represented. The first onboard was the big Lincoln sedan. All of them had huge self-sealing tires and five-ply windows, which helps explain why they each weighed in at 12,000 lbs. The second was the black Caddie sedan, followed by my favorite; an older tan Cadillac 4-door-convertible with running boards. You new guys, ask your father about running boards. And, as with ALL the really special stuff we ever hauled, this cargo came with guards; four secret service, with automatic weapons for good measure.
In 1967 or 1968 something must have been going on in
the financial markets
overseas and I think our good old Uncle Sam was
helping out. The pick up was
GOLD. I'm sorry I don't remember whether it was in
VA, MD, or KY that we loaded
the crates. Onto the floor or onto pallets I can't
remember. I only remember
the details about the 24'X 24' X 12' crates made of
1'x5' fir boards, closely
placed (so-no peeking), that took 4 strong guys to
lift! I don't believe that
was a 35,000 pounder, I think it was only a 16 or
18,000 pound load, going to
Mildenhal, England. My calculator was working. IF
the price of gold was $250 an
ounce. then, the 16,000 pounds of it would have been
64 million + or minus!
MAN!
OF COURSE, accompanying us were four (4) 'hombres'
with Thompson machine guns.
OF COURSE, after heading out over the pond, we were
debating - South America,
or Canada for a 10 way split. Let's see, accounting
for some 'spillage' in the
crash landing that would be……OF COURSE
we knew better! Offload in
England was surreptitious, in the trees, in the
dark, and spirited away,
quickly.
I think in the more recent years, airdrops, were practiced more, and even more widely accomplished. Maybe everyone had the weirdo's, like one dropped on us out of Elmendorf. On your way home, take these ten guys up north and let 'em jump out into the cold dark night from 9,000 feet, OK? OK. Coo-coo.
Talking about weirdo's, U.S. pick-up, two guards M-16s, a plane load of barrels, like 55gal drums only taller, liquid-filled, with loose covers, AND, get this-- wires coming out of each barrel connected to a gauge? This load comes with a DD175 entry and very remote parking. What's to worry? We made it didn't we?
I liked some of the equipment for the war effort, lots of room in back, only three rifle barrels, tied down with chains, twelve thousand pounds each. Hey, loadmaster aren't we loaded yet!? Lights on, a sheepish grin, and he points to 3-artillery cannon barrels, low down on the floor'. We're ready!'
THE BEST load was two StarFighters, in the belly of
the Starlifter. How's
that for poetry by Lockheed! Four 8 foot wings
crated along the side walls, and
that's it. Except for -the guards. THEY claimed the
Gatling guns were loaded. I
always wondered…..
On this trip we were 'THE Crew'. Go to Europe, sleep
over, and we'll call you
and tell you where we want you to go. Remote parking
and LOTS of guards until
we got back the next day. We filed our 175 for
CENSORED. Out over the
Mediterranean, then over the desert'. Descend to
10,000 ft 'said our
controller. 'Thirty four miles ahead you will see a
runway. Land there'.
H'mmmm. Nice smooth runway, taxi off and follow the
"follow-me" truck. Shut
down, throw open the door and the heat of Hades
blasts us like a blast furnace.
It was HOT. The 141's nose wheel gets jacked up;
special ramps are installed in
the rear. There go the StarFighters into steel sheds
for immediate
reconstruction. We were told to beat it. Fly runway
heading to 10,000 contact
departure. I don't know nothin'…
Maybe these tales will jog your memories a little. We
all had real
adventures with the C-141 didn't we? We can't leave
here yet without speaking
about the place in our heart for the air evac
missions we flew. The nurses who
tended ship and the service we provided were
certainly unique.
Seldom did I hear complaints of the load being late
or because of delays
loading patients. The crews I worked with were
outstanding. The empathy they
showed our wounded comrades was heartwarming. The
C-141 air evac mission had to
be a quantum leap forward in our ability to get the
wounded stateside for
treatment. Finishing the unique cargo script is the
tale told me by Sgt. S.
Litchfield, Flight Engineer on one of the last
C-141's out of Saigon. Any of
our Vietnamese allies that were left in Saigon were
surely condemned to death
after our withdrawal. So Herculean has to be the
label attached to the effort
to get EVERYONE OUT! Six hundred to eight hundred
souls on the last two flights
out of Saigon, says it all for the crews and the
machine C-141.
09/08/2004
Richard (Dick) Reichelt richreichelt@msn.com