Thursday, June 30, 2016

It's the end of an era at Fort Bragg. The last C-130 Hercules cargo plane based at Pope Field has flown away.


The plane left Wednesday for Arizona and the so-called "Boneyard" where the Air Force stores unused aircraft. It's another step in the deactivation of the 440th Airlift Wing at Pope.

http://www.wral.com/end-of-an-era-last-c-130-leaves-north-carolina-s-pope-field/15818562/

While on the topic of the cargo plane, the first Loadmaster to ever strap a load down in a C-130 did it for the Brass at Langley when Lockheed was showing off the new cargo plane.

And he broke their new airplane, he asked the Lockheed engineer for a load spreader.

The guy went into a tirade about how the new C-130 was designed to not need load spreaders.

He changed his mind when the wheels of the Howitzer went through the floor.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329396

That loadmaster was a remarkable guy by the way, after high school graduation in 1948, James Smith enlisted in the newly created United States Air Force as a Loadmaster Cargo Specialist, rising to the rank of Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) by 1963, thereby becoming the USAF’s youngest E-9 ever.

And, he invented the ratchet strap.

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