The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Four Horsemen (1957-1960) - Jan. 31st, 2005

Aviation History Magazine | Sam McGowan

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

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for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

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The Four Horsemen

Soon after the introduction of the Lockheed C-130, four U.S. Air Force pilots came up with a great way to demonstrate just how maneuverable and powerful the new transport was.

In the spring of 1964, as a newly arrived aircraft maintenance technician at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, I was shown the film The Four Horsemen Story while attending a Lockheed C-130E familiarization course. Essentially a Lockheed sales tool designed to demonstrate to prospective customers just how maneuverable the Hercules really was, the film made a lasting impression on me--mostly because it focused on a group of real C-130 pilots who had organized what was perhaps the most unusual aerial demonstration team in the history of the U.S. Air Force.

The C-130A Hercules entered service with the Air Force's 463rd Troop Carrier Wing, a Tactical Air Command (TAC) unit, in December 1956. Within a few months the former Fairchild C-119 pilots of the wing's 774th Troop Carrier Squadron, the first such unit to be equipped with the Hercules, had become quite proficient with their new aircraft. Most of the aircraft commanders were veteran pilots, many with careers that dated back to the Korean War, when they had flown Douglas C-47s and Curtiss C-46s and C-119s in combat. All were impressed with the tremendous maneuverability of the new plane, the result of hydraulically boosted flight controls that gave the 125,200-pound transport the handling characteristics of a fighter. Powered by four Allison T-56 turboprop engines, the C-130A was also blessed with tremendous performance. It was only natural that many of its pilots would experiment to see just how good the plane really was--and how good they were at flying it.

In early 1957 four aircrews from the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron, the "Green Weasels," were at Fort Campbell, Ky., for a week of dropping troops of the 101st Airborne Division. One day high winds led to a cancellation of the day's drops and a mission stand-down for the crews. With time to kill and their aircraft ready to go, the four pilots--Captains Gene Chaney, Jim Aiken, David Moore and Bill Hatfield--decided to practice some formation flying. They took off and headed out over the fields of Kentucky and Tennessee, where they started moving closer and closer together in their formation. Next they returned to the airfield at Campbell and made several low-altitude passes down the runway, still in tight formation. Suddenly, an idea was born: Why not practice until they got really adept with the planes, and then go around to military bases and put on performances for the troops?



At the end of the week the foursome went back to their home base at Ardmore, Okla., and began working on a routine. Some 500 miles to the east, the men of the 314th Troop Carrier Wing at Sewart Air Force Base in Tennessee were anxiously awaiting the arrival of their own brand-new C-130s, all set to become the second Air Force unit to equip with the new transport. The four 774th pilots proposed a plan to the TAC brass: Let the four pilots and crews who had been practicing formation flying take four C-130s and fly to Sewart, to show the men of the 314th just what kind of airplane they were getting. TAC Headquarters approved the plan, and the new aerial demonstration team was off and running. At first they referred to themselves as the "Thunder Weasels," a combination of the animal on the 774th's squadron patch and the famous Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team, but they eventually settled on the "Four Horsemen" after Coach Knute Rockne's legendary backfield on Notre Dame's 1924 football team. They put on a show for the Sewart people, who were suitably impressed.

As the men grew more and more proficient with their maneuvers, they became enthusiastic about becoming an officially recognized aerial demonstration team. The four pilots began researching Air Force technical orders, safety standards and procedures to find out how to obtain official recognition. At length their efforts paid off, with TAC officially sanctioning their status as an aerial demonstration team.

While the C-130 might look ungainly to the uninitiated, it was really a highly maneuverable airplane, particularly for a transport. The C-130A, for example, was capable of using 2,700-foot landing strips--remarkably short for an airplane that size. When the Horsemen demonstrated the C-130's short-field takeoff performance, they did so in a close diamond formation. Led by Moore and sometimes by Chaney, who served as the team captain, the four planes would taxi onto the runway and form a diamond formation. The maneuver called for the four transports to begin rolling at two-second intervals, although Aviation Week magazine pilot-editor Robert Stanfield, who flew with them in 1959, said it seemed like they all started rolling at once. On that occasion the reporter was flying in the "slot" airplane, the best vantage point from which to observe the Horsemen in action. Thanks to the prop-wash from the three preceding airplanes, the slot airplane, usually flown by Bill Hatfield, would get off the ground first. Hatfield would hold his airspeed down to 100 knots until the other airplanes were airborne. The Horsemen would retract gear and flaps on a signal from the lead plane and begin a sharp climb at 120 knots, achieving better than a 4,000-foot-per-minute rate of climb that would put them over the end of a 10,000-foot runway at 1,500 feet. Normal troop carrier procedures called for 15-second takeoff intervals between airplanes.



Once in the air, the Four Horsemen would perform a series of intricate maneuvers at altitudes ranging from just above the runway to 3,000 feet. They flew their diamond really tight. According to Aviation Week's Stanfield, the slot plane's nose was held as close as seven feet from the leader's tail. Because of the downwash from the propellers, each of the following aircraft flew slightly higher than the one in front. Each pilot would try to fly right "on top of the bubble." The slot airplane would be the highest in the formation, its windshield level with the top one-third of the lead airplane's tail fin. The noses of the two wingmen were in line with a row of rivets that ran the length of the lead airplane's wings. Dropping down into the wash of the leading airplanes could be dangerous. In one instance slot pilot Hatfield was flying an airplane that had a "Bulldog" winch in the back, standard on all TAC C-130s at the time. The tie-downs that secured the winch were evidently loose, and when Hatfield accidentally dropped into the prop wash of the airplanes ahead of him, the resulting turbulence caused the winch to rise above the floor of the airplane. As the turbulence went from negative to positive G-forces, the winch came back down with such momentum that it knocked a hole in the cargo compartment floor.

The team alternated between different formations. The arrow was a line-astern formation in which each airplane was tucked in right behind and slightly above the one before it. From the arrow they would go to the arrowhead, as the two trailing airplanes moved to the side of the line and took formation in line with each other, tucked in on the number two airplane. They also flew echelon formations, and ended their show with a bomb burst: The lead and number three aircraft would break high and to the left while numbers two and four broke to the right. They then rejoined in the diamond and returned to the airfield for a formation landing, moving into an echelon over the runway, then doing a tactical pitch-out to come back around for landing. The first plane would still be on the runway when the slot man touched down. Their show was as impressive as any put on by fighter pilots, and perhaps even more so considering the size and weight of the planes.


The Horsemen brief before a flight. L-R Capt. Gene Chaney, Capt. Bill Hatfield, Capt. Jim Akin and Capt. David Moore

No particular aircraft were assigned to the Four Horsemen. Each crew drew whatever plane happened to be available on the flight line at Ardmore, or at Sewart after the 463rd moved there to join the 314th shortly after the latter wing converted to the Hercules. The two wings made up the muscle of TAC's 839th Air Division, which was also based at Sewart. The demonstration pilots flew the same training and operational missions as the other pilots in the two C-130 wings.

Very early on, the C-130 demonstrated its ability to fly on three and even two engines without a significant loss of performance. In fact, a Lockheed test crew took off from Florida, shut down the aircraft's outboard engines and flew all the way to California at low level on two engines. The airplane was so overpowered that crews routinely shut down the outboard engines on some flights to conserve fuel.

[SAMWolf]

During one Four Horseman performance, Chaney, who normally flew in the number three position but was taking the lead that day, lost an outboard engine. He and his crew went through the engine shutdown procedure without losing their place in formation, then simply went on with the show (let's see the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels try that one!).

The most difficult position to fly in the formation was number three, because the aircraft commander was on the opposite side of the airplane from the rest of the formation and had to constantly be turning his head to the right. As the chief of the Horsemen, Chaney usually occupied that spot, while Moore usually flew the lead. The co-pilot in the right seat helped his boss maintain the tight formation that had become the team's trademark. All the pilots were highly qualified veterans, with an average of 4,000 hours of total flying time and 1,500 hours in C-130s by late 1959, when the Aviation Week journalist rode with them. Co-pilots were drawn from the ranks of aircraft commanders in the squadron, and quite often those men were instructor pilots as well.

When the 774th was deployed, the Four Horsemen went right along with their squadron mates, airlifting men and equipment to Lebanon in one instance and to Formosa in another. They practiced their Horsemen routine whenever they could, but that was often less than 10 hours a month. The pilots maintained their proficiency the same way other troop carrier pilots did--flying training missions that included close formation flying, though not as close as the Horsemen generally flew in a performance. The men themselves wore no distinctive uniforms other than a small patch on their flight suits with a horse's head and a Roman numeral IV. They also wore scarves to dress up a bit for the shows.

The C-130 ordinarily called for a five-man crew, but the Horsemen flew with only four--two pilots, a flight engineer and a scanner. The navigator's seat sat empty during the shows. The crews came from within the squadron, and the Horsemen pilots tried to fly with the same flight mechanics when possible. There was great esprit de corps among the flight mechanics, who debated which pilot was best, which position was most difficult to fly and so on. In the air, the mechanics soon learned the torque settings needed at a particular point in a maneuver and the proper time for call-outs of instrument readings. The scanners came from maintenance and were just as proud to be part of the Four Horsemen as the pilots and flight mechanics. Hatfield remembered that the scanners ordinarily did not fly during performances, but were there to help get the airplanes off the ground.

The four veteran aircraft commanders of the Horsemen team had been with the C-130 since it was first assigned to the 463rd at Ardmore in December 1956. Chaney, along with Captain Richard "Stumpy" Coleman, had picked up the first airplane to be delivered at the factory in Marietta, Ga., and flown it to Ardmore. A year after the first Hercules arrived at Ardmore, the 463rd left Oklahoma when the base closed, moving to Tennessee to join the 314th. The Horsemen continued to stage their performances from their new base.

By early 1960 the C-130 had been in service with the Air Force for more than two years. Lockheed had developed a new model of the Hercules, the C-130B, and the 463rd and 314th began converting to the new version as the older A-models transferred to overseas squadrons. As the oldest C-130 pilots in the Air Force (in terms of time in the airplane), the Four Horsemen were ripe for deployment overseas. In a recent interview Hatfield speculated that they could probably have remained at Sewart and continued the team if someone had pushed for it, but it didn't happen that way. Three of the four received overseas orders, while the fourth, Moore, left the service and returned to Texas. Chaney got orders to Wiesbaden, West Germany. Aiken went to Tachikawa, Japan, and Hatfield ended up a few miles away, in Yokota. Except for Moore, they would all remain in close contact with one another over the years. Chaney and Moore died several years ago. Hatfield and Aiken still remain in touch today.

Although the career of the Four Horsemen came to an end in the spring of 1960, they left behind a remarkable legacy. In honor of the team, the official patch of the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron was modified to include a red lightning bolt, reminiscent of the team's effect on the squadron.

During the remainder of their careers, the four pilots remained associated with the C-130, as did many others who had flown with the team as backup aircraft commanders and co-pilots. Hatfield went on to pilot the reconnaissance version of the C-130B, with the super-secret 6091st Reconnaissance Squadron at Yokota, then returned to the United States to join the Lockheed C-141 program at Charleston Air Force Base, in South Carolina. He subsequently was placed in command of a rescue squadron equipped with HC-130Hs in California. Chaney returned to the 463rd after the wing moved from Langley Air Force Base, in Virginia (where it had gone from Sewart in 1963), to Clark Field in the Philippines.

Billie Mills, a veteran 774th pilot who often flew with the Four Horsemen, also served with the 463rd at Clark. On May 12, 1968, Mills was one of a handful of C-130 pilots who braved devastating enemy fire to rescue allied troops surrounded by a larger enemy force at a Special Forces camp at Kham Duc, South Vietnam.

Today the memory of the Four Horsemen lives on in the 16mm film Lockheed produced. To make that 15-minute movie, a motion picture company hired by Lockheed shot thousands of feet of film of the quartet in action. The Horsemen themselves were not especially happy with the finished product once it was edited down. The voices of actors were dubbed into the film, including one with a nasal northern voice who claimed to be the "chief" of the Horsemen. In reality, all the Horsemen were Southerners--Chaney and Moore from Texas, Aiken from Tennessee and Hatfield from Mississippi.

With the advent of the VCR, The Four Horsemen Story has been circulated through the C-130 community, though the VHS version leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to the film that inspired me back in early 1964. Airlift tactics have changed considerably since 1960, as the Tactical Air Command troop carrier squadrons became tactical airlift, then were transferred out of TAC to the Military Airlift Command after the end of the Vietnam War. By that time, close formation flying by troop carrier aircraft had already ceased, with TAC adopting the "in-trail" formation as the standard for C-130s.

The Four Horsemen have been out of business for more than 40 years now. But the men who came up with a way to showcase the Hercules' excellent performance and their remarkable aerial demonstrations are not forgotten, thanks largely to one short film and the lasting memories they gave everyone who witnessed firsthand their precision maneuvers in transport aircraft.

[SAMWolf]

One of the most interesting stories in C-130 lore is that of The Four Horsemen, a Tactical Air Command aerial demonstration team that came into being during the first years of C-130 operations. The team performed public demonstrations at military air bases throughout the world in the 1950s, demonstrating the tremendous manueverability of the new tactical transport they flew. Their performances were so impressive that they often stole the show from other teams, particularly the Air Force's own Thunderbirds.

Prior to the advent of the C-130, military transports had a reputation for being slow and sluggish. The reciprocating engine powered airplanes from which the first C-130 crews came were just that, and the transistion into the Jet Age brought the crews into a new realm where they not only had a powerful airplane capable of speeds in the fighter range, its hydraulically boosted flight controls allowed manuevers that were previously thought impossible in a transport. The crews of the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore AFB, Oklahoma talked among themselves about how manueverable the airplane was, and what possibilities it afforded. At the time, TAC C-130s were a common sight at Campbell Army Air Field, where the 101st Airborne Division was stationed. One day the scheduled airdrops were cancelled because of high winds on the drop zone, but four crews from the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron decided to use their training time for some intricate formation flying.



Close formation flying was the order of the day in troop carrier squadrons from World War II into the early 1960s, when the in-trail formation was adopted. The four 774th pilots, Captains Gene Chaney, Jim Akin, David Moore and William Hatfield, were all veteran transport pilots, and very proficient in close formation work. They decided to do some experimenting - they took off at 5-second intervals then joined up for several low-altitude passes down the Fort Campbell runway. Those who witnessed the manuevers from the ground were very impressed. Another stand-down a few days later allowed them another opportunity to practice.

The 774th's experiments were just before the 314th Troop CarrierWing at Sewart AFB, Tennessee was scheduled to begin replacing its C-119s and C-123s with the new Hercules. Word of the intricate formation flying had reached Tactical Air Command Headquarters, so the four crews - who were now calling themselves "The Four Horsemen" - were sent to Sewart to put on a demonstration of the new airplane to the crews who would soon be flying the airplane. It was an impressive performance. As a result of the Sewart demonstration, the Horsemen were sent to other USAF bases throughout the United States, as well as Europe and the Far East, to demonstrate the capabilities of the new C-130 that was beginning to make its appearance throughout the world. Their routine consisted of a formation take-off in a diamond formation, followed by a steep climb that would put them at 1,500 feet at the end of a 10,000-foot runway. In the diamond, the two wingmen maintained a close formation with their noses slightly above and even with a row of rivets on the lead airplane's wings. Slot-man Bill Hatfield kept the upper third of the lead airplane's tail fin in his windshield, thus putting him above and out of the propwash. From the diamond, the team would go into the "arrow," the in-trail formation seen above. From the arrow they would go into "arrowhead" as the trailing airplanes came up alongside each other to make the "feathers" at the end of the leading airplanes' shaft. The 20-minute show ended witht the diamond coming over the airport and executing a bomb burst (below) followed by a reforming of the diamond for a pass down the runway. They would turn into the traffic pattern and move into echelon, with each airplane landing right behind the other - the lead airplane would still be on the runway when the slot man touched down.



While the team's manuevers were impressive, they were not "aerobatics" in the technical sense, but were rather examples of tight formation flying and changes of position, all done at low altitudes. This is not to say that the Hercules has never been flown through aerobatic manuevers; it most certainly has. The Horsemen refrained from true aerobatics in their demonstrations because the propellers tended to react when the airplane was coming down the backside of a loop or during recovery from a roll. So, they concentrated on flying various tight formations, sometimes at wing-tip to wing-tip. The team applied for official designation as a USAF aerial demonstration team, but the application was denied because of mission requirements. Unlike fighter squadrons, whose peacetime mission is confined to training, troop carrier squadrons in the 1950s and 1960s were quite often used on operational missions and there just were not enough airplanes to spare.

The era of the Horsemen was in the late 1950s, and the pilots were then men in their thirties. Of the four aircraft commanders, Gene Chaney and David Moore have passed away. Jim Akin and Bill Hatfield are still around. All four men went on in their Air Force careers and became field grade officers before retirement. Gene Chaney was still flying C-130Bs in the Philippines with the 463rd when I knew him in 1969-70. Bill Hatfield left C-130s and went to Charleston to become a MATS weanie as a squadron commander of one of the first squadrons to fly C-141s. (He could no longer sing his favorite song "I'd Rather Have a Sister in a Whorehouse, Then to Have a Brother in MATS"!) He commanded an Air Rescue HC-130 squadron in Vietnam and in the US. Many of the other crewmembers also remained in the Air Force. Billie Mills, who was a copilot on a Horsemen crew, was a major in the 463rd Stan/Eval at Clark in 1968. He was one of the AC's who put the capabilities of the C-130 to the test when he landed his B-model at Kham Duc and brought out a load of refugees on what was one of the most dramatic days in airlift history.


Kham Duc under attack

The legacy of the Horsemen was memoralized in the squadron patch for the 774th TCS. In addition to the squadron's original green weasel (which led to the Horsemen calling themselves the "Thunderweasels," a red lightning bolt was added to signify the Horsemen's legacy with the squadron. A film about the Horsemen was made during the 1950s; copies are still around in the hands of people who love the Herk.

Additional Sources:

www.wpafb.af.mil
members.aol.com/samc130
www.spectrumwd.com
www.stinsonflyer.com
www.sgtmacsbar.com
www.homeofheroes.com

[SAMWolf]

USAF Aerial Demonstration Teams
"Four Horsemen"

The unique "Four Horsemen" team performed from 1956 until 1960 in the U.S. flying four-engine C-130 cargo aircraft demonstrating a series of formation-changing maneuvers. Aircraft were selected at random for demonstrations; no specially modified aircraft were used.


The "Four Horsemen" in 1960 included from left: Capts. Hubert E. Chaney, William H. Hatfield, James F. Akin, and David L. Moore, Tactical Air Command pilots of the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron. The team's purpose was to demonstrate the performance and versatility of the C-130 aircraft.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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[snippy_about_it]

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Monday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

If you'd like to drop us a note you can write to:

The Foxhole
19093 S. Beavercreek Rd. #188
Oregon City, OR 97045

[Brad’s Gramma]

And a good Monday morning to you, too! Thanks for pingin' me!!!

[Iris7]

Text of letter written by Bob Means, an enlisted man who made flights into Kham Duc that day in 1968:

Entering Kham Duc airspace in a flight of 4 Boxcars I heard from someone over the radio "Boxcars, this is a no sweat operation". I took this to be a command officer with a lot of altitude, in a huey, looking down at the airstrip. I want to emphasis I remember to this day-very clearly, though not the entire conversation, that officer's words "no sweat operation".

In we go to make this extraction. Very heavy fire being taken. I see our lead ship hit, smoking and going into the runway hard. #2 ship follows in with #3, #4 breaking off. Last I see is two "Hooks" down, one I know is disabled, #2 I figure is the same.

We return to Chu Lai knowing were going back (hopefully to get our guys) I'm looking for more firepower. Well Dick, you were idle that day (due to maintenance or ??) and without hesitation you signed on as ramp gunner. I also remember grabbing a "shit load" of extra 7.62 boxes for the M-60's.

As you know, we headed back out to Kham Duc to save all those poor guys who were stuck. We knew they were catching hell from the NVA who had all the high ground. I also wanted to find our 178th guys safe and bring them out as I'm sure so did all others.

I recall being cold due to the unusually high altitude we were flying to avoid enemy fire. I recall watching rotary wing gunships, A-1E's, and A-4's strafing and bombing - more intense and concentrated than anything - I had seen prior. I watched a C-130 take off, bank left, never recover and fly directly into the mountain. Knowing it was loaded w/personnel, I remember feeling especially bad realizing the loss of life. Over the years I have questioned myself as to seeing an A-1E shot down. Recently I've seen stats showing - one was in fact lost that day, so I know I saw it!

It seems we were in a holding pattern for a long time prior to going in and become all too aware getting in and out safely was going to be a real luck situation. Of course during this time, amidst witnessing all this mayhem, I was continually looking at two of our ships already shot down and abandoned on the ground!

Well its time and in we go. We make it thru to this strip, set down, taxi a bit and wait. I asked our A/C "sir, where are they?" (our G.I. evacuees). Next, to our r/side, I see helmets pop from a ditch, standing outside with the ramp down, as the guys run toward us the mortar rounds start walking toward our ship. Do you remember me saying "help em on Dick"? The mortar rounds had us dead center as they closed and I just sort of accepted the fact we were going to be done.

Next thing I know, the mortar rounds stop (later I figured charlie must have run out and had to break out more rounds from ???) And all our pax are on board. Trying to sound calm I said "Ramps up, ready to go whenever you are sir". During our stay on the ground our pilots had some verbal discussion - seems one wanted to go and one wanted to stay. Wanted to stay had the strongest arm - wanted to go couldn't pull pitch!!

460 on the go with guns firing. I'm shooting a grenade launcher fast as I can out the r/ramp porthole. We gain altitude and were out of the hot zone as I look aft with a smile of relief I see Dick Janousek trying to pull himself up the ramp I never raised completely. Dick, without the "monkey strap" you were wearing I fear we might have lost you. Don't know if I ever apologized properly to you!

So we land at some base camp and are all happy we saved some grunts and ourselves. I bump into my friends Baker and Schwiezer (F/E & crew ch) who had gone down on #469. Baker had been crew ch. on my ship(s) prior and I was happier than shit he and Sam (Schwiezer) weren't dead. Baker said he had shot a "gook" coming at him as he got off his ship. We both agreed that was the right thing to do!

So much for reunions - our crew is ordered back to Kham Duc to pick up the last of the G.I.'s. I'll never forget how hopeless I felt our situation had become. Knowing the intensity of enemy fire I was sure our chances of making it in and/or out twice in one day were about zero. During my 21 years as a fireman I often reflect on this particular event and say to myself "sometimes you gotta do shit you don't want to do". It's a good way to find out what you're really made of. Well, prior to our arrival at Kham Duc, another aircraft got our guys out - we were returned to somewhere safe - I know I breathed easier. Guess that was a real emotional roller coaster for most of us.

Anyway I know the 178th preformed well and I'm sure we all matured a bit. We lost 2 aircraft but brought all our guys and a bunch of others home.

Whenever I recall Kham Duc I can still feel the emotion, excitement and controlled fear of 25 years ago. Few people ever get to experience this kind of stuff. I know that I did. I know what we did. I've always been proud of that day.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Iris7

"Boxcars, this is a no sweat operation".

It's always a "no sweat" operation of "no brainer" task to the guy who doesn't have to do it.

Thanks for posting the eye-witness account of the Kham Duc mission.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[alfa6]

A Herculean Bump for the Freeper Foxhole :-)

I just picked up this Fat Albert pic the other day, thought it was kinda cool looking.

Here is a fine side view of a Canadian C-130, looks kinda like it's levitating dosen't it?

Well off to work I must go, back later

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

We're supposed to hit the 50's but get some rain today.

[SAMWolf]

Morning alfa6.

The C-130 is one of those "classic" planes, a good design that will be around for a looooooong time.

Have to admit I love the AC-130 Spectre.

The JATO is impressive to watch, saw it at an airshow once. :-)

[E.G.C.]

We had a little bit of sleet here yesterday but it's cloudy now. supposed to stay cloudy all day.

OSU beat Colorado in Big 12 B-Ball yesterday.

[The Mayor]

January 31, 2005

A Vase Full Of Good Intentions

Read: James 4:13-17

To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. —James 4:17

Bible In One Year: Exodus 11-13

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In a Peanuts cartoon by Charles Schulz, Marcie gives her schoolteacher some flowers. Not to be outdone, Peppermint Patty says to the teacher, "I thought about doing the same thing, Ma'am, but I never got around to it. Could you use a vase full of good intentions?"

We've all had intentions of doing something good but then failed to follow through. We may want to make a phone call to check up on a friend, or visit a sick neighbor, or write a note of encouragement to a loved one. But we don't take the time.

Some people know that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, and they plan to trust in Him someday. Yet they keep putting it off. They may have good intentions, but that won't bring salvation.

As Christians, we may say that we want to grow closer to the Lord, but somehow we don't make the time to read the Word of God or to pray.

James has some strong words about our problem of not taking action: "To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (4:17).

Is there something you've been putting off? Write that card or letter today. Visit that sick friend. A vase full of good intentions never brightened anyone's day. —Anne Cetas

"I do intend to do Your will"
Is what we often tell the Lord,
But what will honor Him the most
Are deeds of love to back our word. —D. De Haan

Good intentions are no good until they are put into action.

[Darksheare]

Coolbeans.

Wish I'd gotten to see that airshow performance.

[Jet Jaguar]

Fascinating story of the Horsemen. Thanks.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor.

I seem to remember something about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning Darksheare.