Tip one for a friend gone west

[Tinker51]

I just learned a friend of mine has passed.
He was 91, a WW2 Vet where he spent most of his tour flying the China Burma hump. Andy had the greatest stories which he both loved to tell and he told them well. I met him because we both belonged to a local volunteer organization. After the organization's regular monthly meeting several of the more questionable members with even more questionable moral standards would head out to a local joint to tip a few and bullsh*t for a while. It was at one of these bull sessions that I remember Andy relating a specific story. One time he was flying a C46 and ended up with a dual engine failure. He managed to get the aircraft to the airfield but only just. The crew and vital cargo survived but the airframe was a total loss. The Sr. Enlisted Crew Chief at the base said "Lieutenant, thank you for the parts". The aircraft was dismantled and scavenged for any good parts and afterwords the empty fuselage was pulled to the side of the ops shack and used as a diner. Fast forward to about five years after he related that story I am standing in the bookshop of the Smithsonian Air and Space museum where I saw several books on the shelf about flying the hump. I randomly picked one of the books up and randomly fanned to a page in the middle of the book and there was a picture of a C46 fuselage next to an ops shack that looked like it was being used as a diner. Remembering the story I read the caption. There was his name. I bought the book on the spot, brought the book to the next meeting and had him autograph it for me. He had countless other stories about aviation of years gone past that would make your hair stand on end. Buzzing the Taj Mahal. Flying from the west coast to Hawaii with no operating navigation capabilities using a compass, watch and a drift meter only. Dealing with an engine failure at takeoff on an aircraft that is loaded way over gross weight due to war time necessity etc etc. He never started off to tell a story about himself because was just too modest about his place in the world but he would gladly regale the group with the accounts of his misadventures if asked. Somehow those post meeting bull sessions will never be the same now.

[Ken]

Thank goodness for men (and women) like your friend. Call them what you like: heroes, patriots, minutemen, good citizens, professionals, (insert your favorite word here) but our country is better for their service. It's not the world we live in, but how I wish these type folks were the heroes of our society vice the gangster, actor, or professional athlete.

All due respect to your friend and his family for their loss. Blue skies.

Ken

[The Inspector]

My deepest sympathies at the loss of your very interesting friend and condolences to his family, they're slipping away faster and faster every week