Posted on 10/20/2002 11:45:27 PM PDT by Snow Bunny
I am going to request something from you troops that I don't know if you can or want to do.
Next time you write, send a picture of yourselves to be included with your letter. I want to put a face with the names I see, I'm sure someone can scan them for Snow Bunny to post.
Hey, James, I sure am glad that you can visit often. I’ll bet that you have a lot of stuff going on. Thank you for the jobs you are doing to help keep all of us back home free. I’m glad that you enjoyed the rodeo. The Dream Team really did an excellent job of putting it together and it’s good to know that a Corpsman was on standby for any mishaps. Junk Food Day was so much fun. I hope you didn’t have to treat too many tummy aches for overeating. We are proud and honored to think about you 24/7 for the protection you provide us.
That means that we are doing our job as intended. Thank you for welcoming Duchess to your home, but I think her middle name is SPEED and we are going to have to keep an eye on her or she’s going to run into the Canteen Cop. Speeding is only allowed on Mondays. Plus she likes to hog the controls. I guess that will be ok, as long as she brings our daily transportation back in the same condition she took it out.. LOL!
So far, she's been good.
The C-124 used the same wings, tail, and engines as the C-74, but featured a new and enlarged fuselage, as well as stronger landing gear to handle higher weights. It was powered by four P&W R-4360-63A radial engines, with 3,800 horsepower per engine.
The "YC-124" prototype, rebuilt from a C-74, performed its initial flight on 27 November 1949. The Globemaster II had "clamshell" doors in the nose with hydraulically-activated loading ramps. The cargo bay, which was 23.5 meters (77 feet) long, featured the overhead hoist and removeable belly section of the C-74. Each hoist had a load capacity of 7,250 kilograms (16,000 pounds).
The C-124 could carry most Army field vehicles without requiring that they be dismantled. It could lift 33.560 kilograms (74,000 pounds) of cargo. Its double-decked cabin could also be fitted with 200 seats for troops, or with 123 litters for casualty evacuation. Flight crew was six.
The first operational C-124 was delivered in May 1950. A total of 204 "C-124As" were built, to be followed by 243 "C-124Cs". A turboprop-powered "KC-124B" tanker variant was considered, which emerged as a single "YC-124B" transport prototype that flew in 1954.
The C-124C featured uprated engines, an APS-42 weather radar with a distinctive nose "thimble" radome, and wingtip-mounted combustion heaters to provide cabin heating and wing de-icing. The radar and combustion heaters were retrofitted to most C-124As. The last of 448 Globemaster IIs was rolled out in May 1955. At the type's peak in 1963, there were 377 C-124s in service with 20 transport squadrons.
The C-124 provided valuable service in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, though by the Vietnam era it was regarded as too slow. It was given a variety of nicknames by its crews, such as "Old Shakey", the "Shakemaster", the "Aluminum Cloud", or "Aluminum Overcast".
The Globemaster II also performed many other duties, including Antarctic resupply missions, refugee evacuation, and disaster relief. They were finally replaced by the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy in 1970.
Well heck, if it wasn't on the equipment inventory, it was 'trading material'...after all, I had to do something to grease up them folks running all them Army ranges I kept having to beg to use 'cause the Air Force didn't want to bother with building their own to support heavy weapons training. It's amazing what a pallet of plywood will get ya (my favorite Captain used to open every conversation with 'Is this something I need to know?' For some darn reason Leavenworth sure popped up in a lot of our conversations...).
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