Warbird Information Exchange

My dad described trading, more than once, with Marines in Vietnam for cold beer. They would end up landing to supply forward position (C-130's and theselandings were in slightly prepared clearings) and the Marines would have steaks and beer. The beer was warm. In trade for a case or two of steaks, they would load up a pallet or two of beer, climb up to altitude, depressurize, open the ramp and doors and circle around for awhile on an "engine check". The outer cases would be frozen but the inner nice and cold when they landed...
Don't know the truth in the situation but he swears by it!

I learned from experience, while flying on this trip from Tehran to Incirlik at over 18000 ft, you do not open a new full jar of Kraft Cheez Whiz while sitting at the Flight Engineers panel of a C-124.

(isn't it amazing the small things that still stick in your mind after so many years?)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


I about fell over laughing at the mental image of Cheez Whiz going everywhere. That must have been a major b*tch to clean that all off the FE panel!

Oh good Lord Chief, you have me in stitches. Uncle Jake said kinda the same thing about the salad story. He loves telling it because it reinforces the idea that the Crew Chief just lets you borrow the plane, but also because it was one of the few light moments they had for months since just a couple weeks later they were flying across the Yalu River into China and over the Kamchatka Peninsula photographing Soviet bomber and fighter bases.

I smiled at the B-47 luggage bay.

I grimaced at James K's admission that he likes neither beer NOR Spitfires... how that's even remotely possible, I cannot fathom.

I got a chuckle out of the salad explosion in the RF-86.

But the Cheez Whiz Incident brought tears to my eyes, just imagining what a friggin' nightmare that must have been to deal with... orange, gooey crap all over the gauges, dripping down into the switches and controls... just epic.

Keep the stories comin' guys!

Lynn

I read a story of a RAF Hastings transport damaged in some out of the way island location. When the repair crews opened up certain panels they found boxes of booze and other delectables apparently secured in the aircraft when it was last in Hong Kong some years before based on the newspapers used for packaging!

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

Oh, I don't dislike Spitfires - I save that animus for P-51Ds. It's just that lots of people find them overly exciting (the cult of R.J. Mitchell ) and there's other aircraft that are therefore more interesting...

As for beer, well most Americans can't like it, otherwise they wouldn't drink the love-in-a-canoe stuff that's sold as 'beer', there, surely? Thankfully I understand there stuff there now that contains taste and alcohol (often promoted here on WIX!) Personally, I'm always happy to test champagne for people.

Still no offers on the Mustang ice-cream maker?

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

JDK,
Please donot assume that everyone in the U.S. drinks the 'filtered through a plow horse' crap brewed in St. Louis in lagoon sized pools. Personally my tastes are local and micro in size, although I do favor IPA's and seasonals done in Bend Oregon. But #1 on my list is any Porter that strong light does not pass through and is served with a spoon on the side as I likes 'em chewy. < (not quite dark enough for me)

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-