Current/Last Primary AFSC/MOS
29372B-Airborne Radio and Flight Inspection Technician
Current/Last AFSC Group
Communications Systems
Service Years
1947 - 1967
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
1951-1955, C-119 Flying Boxcar
From Year 1951
To Year 1955
Personal Memories
I was a radio operator in the Marines so they made me a radio operator in the Air Force. I attended FTD at Donaldson AFB and shortly after that we started going to the factory in Hagerstown Maryland and picking up C-119C aircraft and taking them back to Donaldson. Soon we had 16 aircraft per squadron then we started flying the aircraft for hours at a time for fuel consumption tests. A couple of months later they installed fuel tanks inside the cargo compatment. Soon we were told we were going to Germany. We departed Donaldson AFB for Westover AFB, RON at Westover and received a briefing about the route we would fly to Europe etc. We left Westover the next day for Newfoundland and departed the next day BW1 Greenland, departing the next day for Keflavick Iceland (What a cold place that was, snow and ice). We spent a couple of days there due to the weather, then with clearing of weather we left for Burtonwood England, we spent a couple of days there and then on to Rhine/Main Germany which was to be our home for the next year and a half then we moved to Neubiberg Germany, just outside of Munich and that was our home until I returned stateside in 1954. Donldson AFB turned out to be my home for the rest of 1954, assigned to base flight flying on C-119's for a few nonths and then I was transferred to a C124 TCS on base they were short radio operators so I got sent there, I reenlisted for base of choice and went to Hill AFB in Utah, flying on C124's in the 28LSS (many overseas trips and many hours in the air). I met my wife in Salt Lake City and in 1957 I put in for Air Attache duty and left for Santiago Chile that same year. We spent three years in Chile and we had a C-47 aircraft, the first four seats were reserved for the crews wives when we flew outside of Chile. We had many memorable flights in and out of Chile. In 1960 We returned Stateside, I was stationed a McClelland AFB in Sacramento California flying in EC121 Aircraft, we partiscipated in some of the Navy Vanguard Missions and other missions in Hawii envolving the space program. Our main mssion was flying north south tracks at varios stations in the Pacific for Early Warning and directing interscepts.In 1963 my wife and I plus two children went to New Delhi India for two years. My wife said she spent the tour and I was gone somewhere in or out of India. We had a VC131A that was very plush inside with teak wood. Our aircrat maintenance was done in Tel Avi Isreal on one trip we got held up for a month for engines that were misshiped to Turkey and then one was dropped in Hiffa being unloaded from a ship. Had many other interesting trips in the Middle East. At the end of this tour I was stationed at McCoy AFB again flying EC121 aircraft with the 966AEW Sqd, flew many missions for NASA on space recovery missions etc. and the standard AEW missions at a point between Cuba and Key West Florida. In 1967 I retired from the Air Force and headed for Utah. I went to work for a company called ARINC ( most radio operators would be familiar with the company) ARINC stands for Aeronautical Radio Incorporated and is owned by all the airlines and some Foreign airlines own stock in the company. Arinc is a flight serice station very similar to an FAA Flight service station. I worked at Salt Lake Arinc, Denver Arinc and at Chicago Arinc. By the time we got sent to Chicago we had three children and the schools in the Chicago area were not the best, so to make a long story short I quit and we went back to Utah where I went to work at Hill AFB, and worked at Base Operations until I retired in 1989. I combined my Military and Civil Service retirements, which gave me a better retirment. My wife and I live in West Point Utah we have our daughter and one son that live nearby and on son that lives at Navaho Dam 16 miles from Aztec New Mexico.
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C-119 Flying Boxcar Details
Aircraft/Missile Information
Model Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar Length 86.48 ft | 26.36 m Width 109.32 ft | 33.32 m Height 26.25 ft | 8.00 m Engine(s) 2 x Wright R-3350-89 Cyclone 18-cylinder radial engines delivering 3,500hp each. Empty Weight 39,800 lbs | 18,053 kg MTOW 85,001 lbs | 38,556 kg Max Speed 217 mph | 350 km/h | 189 kts Max Range 1,771 miles | 2,850 km Ceiling 23,901 ft | 7,285 m | 4.5 miles Climb Rate Not Available Hardpoints 0 Armament None. Accommodations 4 + 40 Operators Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Italy, India, Morocco, Norway, Vietnam (South) and the United states of America.
