October 1966 at Lackland Air Force Lighted in Flying the EC-135 That Served As an Ind., Along the Banks of the Ohio River
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Hangar Digest THE AIR MOBILITY COMMAND MUSEUM Page 1 Hangar digest VOLUME 18, NO. 4 OCT — DEC 2018 THE AMCM HANGAR DIGEST IS A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE AMC MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC. Page 2 Volume 18, Issue 4 Air Mobility Command Museum Mission Statement The mission of the Air Mobility Command Museum is twofold: ● To present the history and development of military airlift and tanker operations. ● In a goal closely aligned with the first, to portray the rich history of Dover Air Force Base and its predecessor, Dover Army Airfield. AMC Museum Staff AMC Museum Foundation Director Board of Directors The AMC Museum Hangar John Taylor President Digest is published quar- Senior Archivist Col. Don Sloan, USAFR (Ret.) terly and is dedicated to Lt. Col. Harry E. Heist, USAF (Ret.) Vice President the preservation of our Photo Archivist Lt. Col. Paul Gillis, USAFR (Ret.) airlift and tanker herit- SMSgt. Larry Koewing, USAF (Ret.) Treasurer age. All articles, unless Collections Manager Mrs. Chris Godek otherwise noted, are writ- Deborah Sellars Members ten by the editor. Educator Mr. Robert Berglund Viewpoints in this publica- Tricia Upchurch Mr. Carleton E. Carey Sr. tion are those of the contrib- Museum Store Manager Lt. Gen. Bob Dierker, USAF (Ret.) uting authors and do not nec- Kelly Hurlburt CW4 Jim Fazekas, USA (Ret.) essarily reflect the opinions of Volunteer Coordinator/Scheduler Mr. Skip Ford Paul George The AMC Museum Founda- CMSgt. Paul Roy, USAF (Ret.) Librarian Col. Jim Schultz, USAF (Ret.) tion or of the Museum’s staff. MSgt. Bob Wikso, USAF (Ret.) Subscriptions are free and MSgt. Phyllis Scully, USAFR (Ret.) Membership Manager are mailed via nonprofit Deborah Sellars Chaplain standard mail to paid-up Website (www.amcmuseum.org) Chaplain (Lt. Col.) John Groth, USAFR (Ret.) members of The AMC Muse- Hal Sellars Restoration Chief um Foundation Inc. AMCM Social Media Manager Les Polley Contributions. Reader com- Guy Gola ments, articles and ideas are solicited for future issues. Mail to The Hangar Digest, 1301 Heritage Road, Dover AFB DE 19902-5301; fax 302- 677-5940; or email piff- brown1898@ gmail.com. What is the Air Mobility Command Museum? Contact Editor Master Sgt. Jeff Located in Hangar 1301 on Dover Air Force Base, Kent County, Delaware, the AMC Museum is part of the National Museum of the United States Air Force’s field museum Brown, USAF (Ret.) via email at system. [email protected]. One of the reasons your AMC Museum continues to provide a great educational expe- Photos are by Jeff Brown, rience is that we stick very closely to our reason for being. unless otherwise noted. So exactly what is our “mission”? Broken down by numbers our mission is 70 percent airlift and air-refueling, 20 percent Dover AFB history and 10 percent Air Force general history. Our aircraft and artifact collection sticks very closely to that breakdown. But we work hard to be much more than numbers. We tell the stories of the people who have Cover: Air Mobility Command Museum served in our nation’s Air Force, and we offer the only opportunity for many visitors to restoration shop volunteer Gene see the actual aircraft and meet the people who have served our country. Williams looks over the landing Hangar 1301 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. gear mechanism for the Muse- Although located on Dover AFB proper, entrance to the Museum may be made from um’s C-119B, which arrived Delaware Route 9, south of the base. Admission to and parking at the Museum is free Aug.30 on the back of a flatbed and military identification is not required. The Air Mobility Command Museum is open tractor trailer. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. It is closed on Mondays, Thanksgiving, “The condition overall isn’t bad, Christmas and New Year’s Day. For more information, call 302-677-5938 or 302-677- but it’s heavily corroded,” Wil- 5991. liams said. We like to say we are a window to your Air Force. Let us know how we can continue to improve our outreach and family-friendly experience. The Hangar Digest is printed and mailed by Delmarva Printing, Salisbury, Md.. Hangar Digest Page 3 Restoration C-119B and KB-50: it’s all coming together Things are coming together -- literally -- Worldwide Presi- for the Air Mobility Command Museum’s dent Marty Batura restoration crews. and his crew soon will Newly-installed 436th Airlift Wing com- return to Dover to mander, Col. Joel W. Safranek visited the tackle the Flying Box- Museum Sept. 5, along with vice com- car’s reassembly. mander Col. Matthew E. Jones, to have a “Once he does that, firsthand look at the facility and to learn the long restoration about its operations. Director John Taylor process will begin,” credited Safranek with arranging the fund- Taylor said. ing necessary to complete reassembly of the However, restoration historic C-119B. crews discovered a Worldwide Aircraft Recovery, of Belle- surprising amount of vue, Neb., which disassembled the plane deterioration inside and brought it to Dover from Edwards the plane, due to its Larry Koewing photo AFB, Calif., will be working to rebuild the having been out in the A very wide turn was needed to bring the C-119’s fuselage to the plane, Taylor said. California weather for Museum. the past few decades, the appropriate ceremonies, until at least Taylor said. 2020, he said. “It’s in a little bit The aircraft was stationed in Japan when it worse shape than we was called to drop a series of mobile bridge thought,” he said. sections to U.S. Marines trapped at the Chosin Because of the cor- Reservoir. It is the second-oldest Flying Box- rosion, reassembly car in existence and the only surviving aircraft probably will take from that operation. place during the Taylor also reported Worldwide was com- spring/summer 2019 pleting the reassembly of the KB-50, recently timeframe with resto- acquired from MacDill AFB. A lot of clean- ration work, includ- up still is needed to finish the rehabilitation ing a new coat of work; restoration chief Les Polley said the paint, continuing to aircraft is about 80 percent complete bring the aircraft up Funding for much of the work on the KB- to display-ready con- 50 is coming from a $25,000 donation from dition. the TAC Tanker Association. This means a delay To learn more about that group, all The team from Worldwide Aircraft Recovery took a giant, three- in plans to formally former military personnel associ- dimensional jigsaw puzzle — the Museum’s new KB-50 — taking unveil the restored ated with the KB-29 or KB-50, it apart in Florida and putting it back together in Delaware. aircraft, along with visit https://www.tactankers.com. Page 4 Volume 18, Issue 4 Tribute Phil White wraps up 17 years on AMCMF Board Phil White admits he was kind of down on the Air Force as he went through his initial pilot training. That’s a startling admission from someone whose association with the Air Force has spanned more than a half century. But White, who until recently served as secretary to the AMC Museum Foundation’s board of direc- tors, admits it’s true. It was 1963 and White was a married col- lege graduate, already well established in the civilian workforce. Then a letter from his local Selective Service Board arrived. “The Vietnam War was going on,” he re- called. “I was a civilian just shy of 26 years old when I got my draft notice. I went up for a physical and was told that in three weeks I’d be in the Army.” Not liking that vision of the future, White instead went to see the Navy and Air Force recruiters. He chose the latter. “I figured I didn’t have too many options,” he recalled. White didn’t know it as he signed his paper- In addition to his military memorabilia, Phil White also has amassed an incredible col- work, but he was just getting started on a life- lection of golf items, including a full set of museum-quality 1925 George Nicoll clubs, long career that would put him in the cockpit handmade in Scotland. of the world’s biggest aircraft, flying missions to remote parts of the planet. Dad and I would watch them on their initial White stuck it out, however, graduating takeoff, right out of the factory.” in February 1968. That’s when things began Airplanes at Evansville to look up. Members of White’s family had established ‘I wasn’t used to studying’ Assigned to the Operation Looking Glass a small military tradition while he was grow- White entered Officer Training School project out of Offutt AFB, Neb., White de- ing up during World War II in Evansville, in October 1966 at Lackland Air Force lighted in flying the EC-135 that served as an Ind., along the banks of the Ohio River. Base, Texas, and emerged three months airborne backup to the Strategic Air Com- One of his uncles served in the Navy in the later with a second lieutenant’s commis- mand’s command post. South Pacific, where he almost was the casu- sion. “We’d fly for 8 and one-half hours a day, alty of a kamikaze attack, the other was draft- “We never thought of ourselves as ‘90- and there was always a plane in the air, 24- ed into the Army in 1942. day wonders,’” he said. “Maybe those hours a day,” he said.