Okay, the last installment,
Scariest landing. We were flying an exercise with the Army, flying out of Ft. Cambell, Ky., I believe. As at Lajes, we had about six surplus crews pre-positioned to maintain smooth aircraft support for the exercise. The mission was over and I pulled the job of flying the return to McGuire with these crews as passengers. This is called "dead heading". The weather at McGuire was predicted to be marginal. When we arrived, things had deteriorated, an occluded front (bad) set squarely over the base. As we began our approach, the runway was above minimums. The problem was not ceiling nor visibility, but winds which were gusting with changes of direction. The C-141 was a great aircraft to fly, very predictable, reliable and powerful. However, it could be a handful to fly in a crosswind with a natural desire to lift the upwind wing and strong tendency to windmill (swing into the wind). This was multiplied several times in a gusting crosswind. Crosswind limit was 25 kts.(29 mph). The runway we were using, landing to the south, had Ground Controlled Approach (GCA, precision), i.e. radar directed approach, and a back course ILS (localizer only, non-precision). I was flying the GCA with localizer backup. Turbulence was moderate and the dead head crews were getting sick. Runway conditions were wind gusting 15-35 kts, swinging plus or minus 90 degrees to runway heading. I knew this would be fighting the bronco on this approach. I decided to make a go at it and go-around if conditions were out of tolerance. The GCA controller was having problems getting us over to the flight path. I noticed that drift (we had a drift meter and that is wonderful) was 30 degrees off heading. At one point the controller called out "left of flight path, left of flight path, too far left for safe approach, wait, I think you can make it", not reassuring, but I had already made correction due to drift and I also had the back course localizer. Now I had to deal with the crosswind landing so I had someone tally off the changing wind (talking directly to the tower). Luckily, as we got near the runway, winds dropped off a bit and normal landing was accomplished anticlimactically. After I shut down the engines I was wet with sweat and could hardly get out of the seat. I think everyone was glad to have their feet on the ground.
Proudest mission I always liked medical evacuation (medivacs) missions. They seem so constructive compared to carrying bombs and helicopters and other war devices. The C-141 provided medivacs from Vietnam and any other place in need (we also brought back bodies of fallen servicemen, which I am glad to say I never had to do). This particular mission started in Germany. We were scheduled to go home but got an aircraft set up for an emergency medivac. We took off out of Frankfurt and flew to Madrid and picked up an augmented medical crew. We took off out of Madrid and headed for Abidjan, Ivory Coast (located under the hump on the west side of Africa). Because no country would let us fly over, we had to fly around the hump, which made for a long flight especially considering that we had to return, thus the augmented crew. Our mission was to pick up a Peace Corps worker who had an ulcer. The mission went smoothly. I remember that, on our return trip, tired of flying, looking back and seeing this magnificent aircraft, an augmented flight crew and an augmented medical crew and a nearly twenty-four hour mission all put together for one Peace Corp volunteer. I was proud to be an American.
My most heart breaking mission. I hate to end with this story, but it was near the end of my AF career if not my last mission. I was pulling Presidential support and, of course, we launched, this time as a medivac. Oddly enough, there were two C-9 Nightengales broken down in separate places. Both had burn patients en route to Kelly AFB (a famous burn center) in San Antonio. We stopped in Washington D.C. for the first pick up and then on to North Carolina for the second pick up. Out North Carolina, heading for Kelly, we got a phone patch for the doctor. I heard him argue for a while and ended the phone patch. He said there was a request to divert to Jacksonville NAS to pick up a man who was in a jeep accident and had third degree burns over 90% of his body. He had argued against going but was apparently talked out of it. At Jacksonville, I requested fuel and was told that I had to wait as the base was running an exercise. I informed the ops officer that I was an emergency medivac and if I did not get priority, my next call was to Commander Military Airlift command. During peacetime, I believe that the only aircraft that has priority over a medivac is Air Force One. He complied immediately. We loaded the patient and his parents. The C-141 was configured with about one third of the space taken up by passenger seats in the front, the passenger seats in a C-141 face aft. In the rear were medical cots stacked with the injured and the medical staff. As I was taxiing out, the doctor instructed me to stop. He had to operate on the new patient, opening his chest so he could breathe. Remember, his parents are on board and, with the aft facing seats, watched all that was going on. Over Mississippi, the doctor requested a minister to meet the plane at Kelly. He did not tell me he had passed away, nor did I ask. It is a real pain legally for a person to die on an aircraft. We landed and I helped carry the guy off the plane. It was a sight I will never forget. The entire crew was emotionally exhausted and went into crew rest.
I know that I deviated from the thread, but I though you guys might find these interesting. One of the interesting parts of flying airlift, other than going all over the world, is that you tended to be involved in everything.
Sorry for being so verbose.