"Outside the Box" thinking: airlift a bridge and drop it by parachute so our troops could evacuate:
The C-119's greatest feat during the Korean War, however, was a mission to aid the retreat of United States Marine Corps and Army troops from Chosin in December 1950. During this unprecedented mission, the 314th successfully dropped eight 2,500-pound bridge sections, each measuring 16 x 5 feet. The assembled bridge allowed the troops to span a deep gorge that was blocking their only escape route. In December 1950 two Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) divisions, numbering over 300,000 men, entered Korea practically undetected and began closing the jaws of a giant trap. Air Force C-119 "Flying Boxcars" dropped supplies to the US Marines, but on 7 and 8 December the Chinese closed the sack by blowing the bridge across an otherwise impassible 1,500-foot-wide gorge south of Koto-ri. Without help, the Marines would be forced to leave behind their heavy equipment and make it out on foot, a trek many of the wounded and frostbitten would not survive. Air Force C-119s again answered the call and dropped eight two-ton spans of a treadway bridge for Marine engineers, who kept the column moving by bridging the gap under intense fire.
C-119 Flying Boxcar
.
The C-119's greatest feat during the Korean War, however, was a mission to aid the retreat of United States Marine Corps and Army troops from Chosin in December 1950. During this unprecedented mission, the 314th successfully dropped eight 2,500-pound bridge sections, each measuring 16 x 5 feet. The assembled bridge allowed the troops to span a deep gorge that was blocking their only escape route. In December 1950 two Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) divisions, numbering over 300,000 men, entered Korea practically undetected and began closing the jaws of a giant trap. Air Force C-119 "Flying Boxcars" dropped supplies to the US Marines, but on 7 and 8 December the Chinese closed the sack by blowing the bridge across an otherwise impassible 1,500-foot-wide gorge south of Koto-ri. Without help, the Marines would be forced to leave behind their heavy equipment and make it out on foot, a trek many of the wounded and frostbitten would not survive. Air Force C-119s again answered the call and dropped eight two-ton spans of a treadway bridge for Marine engineers, who kept the column moving by bridging the gap under intense fire.
C-119 Flying Boxcar
.
