George Mindling

"We flew to Memphis for the Regional Drill Competition on a C-119G Flying Boxcar of the 76th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 435th Troop Carrier Wing. It was my first flight in one of the lumbering twin-engined transports, the workhorse of the Korean War, and I loved it. We flew from Miami to Memphis, stopping to refuel at Maxwell Air Force Base, just outside Montgomery, Alabama. It was hot at Maxwell, we were all ready for something cold to drink. Actually, anything to drink. It was a long, dry flight, but most of us cadets loved it. The several adults who accompanied our cadet drill team looked like they would have rather walked. The big, twin engined transport was slow, cruising along at less than 170 miles an hour and never getting above 9000 feet because C-119s weren't pressurized. Today's jets would have been in New York by the time we got to Alabama."

 

"The Boxcars were usually stuffy, smelly airplanes, ventilation wasn't their strong suit. We actually flew once later with the back personnel doors open. There were permanent, cupped vents in Plexiglas windows in the back that the adult smokers would throw cigarettes out of as we monotonously droned along, but sometimes that wasn't enough to keep the air from going stale. Everyone had to sit sideways as the canvas seats ran along both sides of the big, square fuselage. The square, dingy Plexiglas windows were hard to see through, but there was always one or two clear ones and I would sit as close to one of those as I could."

 

"There were steel cables that ran from the front of the plane to the back at the top of the cabin. Those were the “Jump lines” the static lines paratroopers would hook their parachutes to when they jumped out of the back of the plane. We didn't have any paratroopers with us, so the cables were a great place to hang our dress uniforms. The problem with the refueling stop at Maxwell was no one was allowed off the, hot foul-smelling airplane. We had the side door open, and both of the personnel doors in the big clam-shell doors at the back. The Cadet Drill Commander, Lt. Terry Thomas, was allowed to leave the plane with orders to pick up as many soft drinks and candy bars as he could carry from base ops. He brought back a couple of drinks that went to our senior members, the rest of us had to wait."

 

"While we were being refueled, an airman standing outside started yelling at the cadets standing in the open doors in the back of the plane. A couple of the cadets had thoughtlessly used the relief tubes that hang on detachable hooks in the back of the airplane. There were two of the relief tubes, side by side, mounted on the center brace that is part of the door system. They are black, funnel-like pieces of plastic attached to rubber hoses running below the airplane into venturis that vaporize the urine in the air during flight. However, sitting on the ground, no vaporization takes place and yellow puddles began to form on the tarmac around the back of our airplane. We were soon lectured by a stern U.S. Air Force sergeant who boarded the aircraft to inform us we were really, really grounded, and to stay the hell away from the relief tubes! Apparently he didn't know we couldn't get off the airplane anyway. I think they were glad to see us leave."

 

© George Mindling - Confessions of an Old Liberal - 2014