by David P.
My second Air Force assignment was as a navigator was
in Special Operations MC-130Es in the Philippines. In 1983, I was one of the
navigators on an air-land infiltration of an SAS team during exercise
Kangaroo/Westwind 83 in Australia. Upon landing on the dirt runway, the
airplane bogged down, buried up to the landing gear doors. We were so near the
beach that the ocean and tides apparently affected the runway's firmness. We
burned off excess fuel through the night and after clearing around the landing
gear and trenching back to good surface, we attempted to taxi out. It took
several attempts, but after nearly two days of trying we were able to get on
solid enough ground to take off and return to our exercise base near Port
Hedland. My hat is off to one of Lockheed Martin’s workhorses, 63-7785, which
held together through everything and got us back home safely!
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| Ningaloo, Western Australia, 1984 |
