I remember that, especially since the Navy pilot was supposed to make sure the plane was destroyed. I spent time flying out of Shemya too. My last trip was when the Cobra Ball crashed on March 15th, 1981. One of the guys killed, my good friend Harry Parsons, had taken my place on that flight so I could go out on the tanker with the alert crew and be ready in case we had to launch once the Ball landed. We landed on the tanker during a break in the storm, the a$$hole SAC pilot tried to land the RC135S in a whiteout in 70 MPH crosswinds 4 hours later. Left the landing gear and part of an engine in the cliff at the end of the runway and spread debris all the way down as the plane came apart. We were lucky though, only 4 killed out of the crew.
I had a good friend when we started the 41st that was the sole survivor of the MC-130 that blew up over the Philippines in, I think, 78. He was an EWO on the MC-130 mission crew and was still in his helmet, mask and chute because they had just come off a tactical run. One second he was sitting at his position in the back of the aircraft, the next he was floating down in his parachute. He couldn't remember how he got there just the fact that his face hurt like hell from the burns. The crash investigation found that there was leak in the bleed air line that ran across the top of the aircraft in the wing root. There's also a fuel line that runs right next to the bleed air so you had 640 degree hot air blowing on a fuel line that developed a leak.
I had a good friend when we started the 41st that was the sole survivor of the MC-130 that blew up over the Philippines in, I think, 78. He was an EWO on the MC-130 mission crew and was still in his helmet, mask and chute because they had just come off a tactical run. One second he was sitting at his position in the back of the aircraft, the next he was floating down in his parachute. He couldn't remember how he got there just the fact that his face hurt like hell from the burns. The crash investigation found that there was leak in the bleed air line that ran across the top of the aircraft in the wing root. There's also a fuel line that runs right next to the bleed air so you had 640 degree hot air blowing on a fuel line that developed a leak.
