by James W.
I was fortunate to be employed by
Lockheed-Georgia from 1986 to 1995 as a field service representative for the best
aircraft ever made, the C-141. I can attest to that workhorse of an aircraft
because most of my 20 years of Air Force life was maintaining it all through
the Vietnam Era (from 1962 to 1982).
During my tenure at Lockheed, I was
assigned to the Mississippi Air National Guard, Jackson, Mississippi.
Maintenance at this ANG Base was superb and because of that, the U.S Air Force
elected to transit C-141s there for intermediate maintenance prior to the
lengthy trip to the Middle East. At that time, my youngest son, Cliff, was in
that guard unit and was assigned to the aero repair section. One night my son
was busy working on a wing spoiler malfunction on a C-141. As I approached the
aircraft, I noticed the tail number was 65-9399. I asked him “Son, did you know that you have flown on
this aircraft across the Pacific Ocean.” Of course, he didn’t and he
questioned.
Here’s the rest of the story. During my
active duty time with the Air Force as a maintainer on the aircraft, I was
stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan, from 1967 to 1970. My son’s mother was eight
months pregnant with him and we elected to fly space available to the States so
he would be born there. The aircraft we flew on was, yes you guessed it,
65-9399.
