And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
One of my cherished military memories is of flying in a C-124 "Globemaster" (possibly one of the last flights being made) when taking a "Military Hop", while on leave and en route to visit my folks in Spring Lake, North Carolina.
I boarded the C-124 at McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington, which was hauling a cargo of two (02) United States Army UH-1 "Iroquois" to Gray Army Airfield in Fort Hood, Texas, after which it would terminate at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
From there, I continued my journey by grabbing a flight on a C-141 "Starlifter" (which I think is also no longer being used by our United States Air Force).
That's proof that I'm really an OLD man, with nothing but memories!
It wasn't called 'Ol Shakey' for nothing! Low and slow but straight and smooth; except over the desert! Then it was like a roller coaster ridin' the thermals!
I shared this with a friend who was a loadmaster back-in-the-day, and he sent me the following which I now share with all of y'all:
"Ah, yes! "'Ol' Shaky." It is said that after landing from a long leg the crew deplaned and simply stood perfectly still as they vibrated their way to the crew bus. Some say it was the only airplane ever made by Maytag. When I transferred from Tachikawa to Dover in '63 I was assigned to the first loadmaster school to be held at Dover, thence to the 1st Air Transport Squadron (C-133s). But until they got the school set up and organized they had to do something with me so I was assigned to 1607th OMS (Organizational Maintenance Squadron) to bend wrenches on C-124s for a couple of months. The old joke always was that it was aerodynamically impossible for the C-124 to fly. And looking at it you might agree. The front clamshell doors (first used by the Germans) would swallow deuce-and-a-halfs, Big cargo trailers, Bowsers, etc. Problem was the front loading ramps were so steep you had to be really, really careful getting stuff loaded. You could not load anything very long because the break angle from the steep front ramps to the cargo deck was pretty limiting. Aft of the trailing edge of the wings the bottom of the fuselage had two doors that opened to expose a platform that was actually a large section of the cargo deck. It was raised and lowered by cable winches and would accommodate a load the size of a jeep. Once aboard the platform could be run forward on rails in the top of the fuselage to place cargo where necessary. It was also dropable (remember those funny videos). Probably the most distinctive thing about the Shakey was during taxi the brakes would howl and scream like a banshee. The relief Flight Engineer had his head out the top hatch at the aft end of the flight deck with a headset on helping the pilots with wingtip clearance. People said the howling was him screaming "Let me off this sumbitch!!"
"The airplane was not pressurized and was a piston-pounder, so with altitude and airspeed limitations you can imagine what those long trans-Pacific legs were like. We passed them often both ways [edited - when he was loadmaster on C-133's]. PW-R-4360s. From the fuselage there were two hatches into tunnels in the wing to reach the inboard engines. Hatch dropped down to expose some of the engine accessories on the drive case. I've done that on the ground but C-124 guys have actually been obliged to do that in flight. Cold out there, I'm told.
As Jimmy Durante said, "The nose knows!" Who's to gainsay the Shnoze?
ReplyDeleteDamn! It does look like Jimmy's schnoz!
DeleteUsed to be one of these abandoned at a corner of Opa Locka Airport north of Miami back in the 70's....
ReplyDeleteOne of my cherished military memories is of flying in a C-124 "Globemaster" (possibly one of the last flights being made) when taking a "Military Hop", while on leave and en route to visit my folks in Spring Lake, North Carolina.
ReplyDeleteI boarded the C-124 at McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington, which was hauling a cargo of two (02) United States Army UH-1 "Iroquois" to Gray Army Airfield in Fort Hood, Texas, after which it would terminate at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
From there, I continued my journey by grabbing a flight on a C-141 "Starlifter" (which I think is also no longer being used by our United States Air Force).
That's proof that I'm really an OLD man, with nothing but memories!
It wasn't called 'Ol Shakey' for nothing!
ReplyDeleteLow and slow but straight and smooth; except over the desert!
Then it was like a roller coaster ridin' the thermals!
My brother ( aged 5 ) called them the " airplane with the damn black nose ".
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
Paul L. Quandt
I shared this with a friend who was a loadmaster back-in-the-day, and he sent me the following which I now share with all of y'all:
ReplyDelete"Ah, yes! "'Ol' Shaky." It is said that after landing from a long leg the crew deplaned and simply stood perfectly still as they vibrated their way to the crew bus. Some say it was the only airplane ever made by Maytag. When I transferred from Tachikawa to Dover in '63 I was assigned to the first loadmaster school to be held at Dover, thence to the 1st Air Transport Squadron (C-133s). But until they got the school set up and organized they had to do something with me so I was assigned to 1607th OMS (Organizational Maintenance Squadron) to bend wrenches on C-124s for a couple of months. The old joke always was that it was aerodynamically impossible for the C-124 to fly. And looking at it you might agree. The front clamshell doors (first used by the Germans) would swallow deuce-and-a-halfs, Big cargo trailers, Bowsers, etc. Problem was the front loading ramps were so steep you had to be really, really careful getting stuff loaded. You could not load anything very long because the break angle from the steep front ramps to the cargo deck was pretty limiting. Aft of the trailing edge of the wings the bottom of the fuselage had two doors that opened to expose a platform that was actually a large section of the cargo deck. It was raised and lowered by cable winches and would accommodate a load the size of a jeep. Once aboard the platform could be run forward on rails in the top of the fuselage to place cargo where necessary. It was also dropable (remember those funny videos). Probably the most distinctive thing about the Shakey was during taxi the brakes would howl and scream like a banshee. The relief Flight Engineer had his head out the top hatch at the aft end of the flight deck with a headset on helping the pilots with wingtip clearance. People said the howling was him screaming "Let me off this sumbitch!!"
"The airplane was not pressurized and was a piston-pounder, so with altitude and airspeed limitations you can imagine what those long trans-Pacific legs were like. We passed them often both ways [edited - when he was loadmaster on C-133's]. PW-R-4360s. From the fuselage there were two hatches into tunnels in the wing to reach the inboard engines. Hatch dropped down to expose some of the engine accessories on the drive case. I've done that on the ground but C-124 guys have actually been obliged to do that in flight. Cold out there, I'm told.