Joint Base Charleston
Vol. 2, No. 18
Patriot Team Charleston – One Family, One Mission, One Fight!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Riverdogs host Military Appreciation Night The RiverDogs Baseball team is sponsoring their annual Armed Forces Month Military Appreciation Night, May 19 at Joe Riley Stadium in downtown Charleston. Admission is free to all active duty military, reservists, retirees, dependents and DoD employees with ID cards. Members from the 628th Air Base Wing, the 437th and 315th Airlift Wings, Weapons Station Charleston and other area military services will participate in the opening ceremony. Vouchers are available at the 628 ABW and 315 AW Public Affairs offices, Outdoor Recreation and Weapons Station ITT (Outdoor Recreation). Vouchers can be turned in at the stadium will call window in advance or at the gate on the day of the game. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the game starts at 7 p.m. Call the 628th Public Affairs office at 963-5608 or the 315th Public Affairs office at 963-2036 for additional information.
Air Force Heritage of America Concert Band to play free show May 21 Courtesy of Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs
INSIDE
The U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Band from Langley Air Force Base, Va., will perform a 90-minute concert featuring a full 50-piece band playing John Philip Sousa’s military and patriotic marches and heritage themed musical selections. The concert is being held at the Sterett Hall Auditorium on the former Charleston Naval Base, 1530, 7th Street, North Charleston at 7 p.m., May 21. The concert is free, but general admission tickets are required. Tickets may be picked up Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department offices on the 2nd floor of North Charleston City Hall, 2500 City Hall Lane, North Charleston or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Tickets/City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department, P.O. Box 190016, N. Charleston, SC, 294199016. For more information call 740-5854 or email culturalarts@northcharleston.org.
SUMMER’S COMING Enjoy the outdoors Page 6
U.S. Air Force photo/ Staff Sgt. Nicole Mickle
Retired Col. Bill Thomas sits in the cockpit of a static C-17 on Joint Base Charleston, May 5. Colonel Thomas was a World War II Hump pilot who flew with the U.S. Army Air Corps’ Air Transport Command, flying supplies over the hump of the Himalayan Mountains in support of Chinese forces fighting the Japanese.
Hump pilots last reunion By Christin Navitsky Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs Climbing down from the cockpit of a C-17, five Airmen from The Greatest Generation concluded their visit to Joint Base Charleston. These World War II Army Air Corps pilots are the few remaining survivors of the "Hump," pilots who flew across the Himalayan Mountains, the highest and most dangerous mountain range in the world. They flew C-46 and C-47 cargo planes and B-24 bombers, providing supplies to Chinese soldiers fighting the Japanese after the Burma Road was shut down. Their aircraft were loaded with 10,000 pounds of gasoline, food, ammunition and bombs. For more than 65 years these Army Air Corps Hump pilots have commemorated their heroic actions of World War II with a reunion. Their first reunion was in 1946 and this year could quite possibly be their last, as age has taken its toll on the group. Although their actions have gone down in history as some of the most heroic exploits of the war, they will be the first to look back at those days with humor and an insight that comes from years of wisdom. "I enjoy these reunions," said 91 year-old Tex Rankin from Fort Worth, Texas. "Every time we meet, the Himalayan Mountains get higher and the weather gets worse. There are more Japanese fighters in the sky than there were in their whole fleet," he laughed. During World War II, the Japanese had cut off all supply lines to the Chinese fighters. The U.S. military devised a plan to fly over the Himalayan Mountains and help supply China with the necessary equipment and supplies needed to fight and survive. They coined the term Hump pilots, as a tribute to the hump of the treacherous Himalayan Mountains. The mountain peaks were treacherous, the winds were unpredictable and the World War II aircraft did not have the navigational equipment and avionics of today.
ZERO TOLERANCE DoD and DEA say no Spice Page 4
"We flew without global positioning. All we had was a radio compass," said eighty six-year-old Don Marshall from Scottsdale, Ariz. A typical flight to China would take two hours due to 100 knot tailwinds. The flight home could take up to 10 hours as the planes got battered by extreme headwinds as they climbed to gain altitude to get over the hump. "We were inexperienced pilots and had never encountered a weather terrain like this before. The Himalayas ran north to south and we flew east to west. This was the first we learned of vortex winds, the jet stream and the effect of headwinds," said Mr. Marshall. Terrain and weather weren't the only obstacles. The C46 airplane many of the hump pilots flew was a new aircraft and was rushed into production. Most of the kinks were worked out flying actual missions as the crews encountered numerous problems in the air. Bill McKarn, 88, from Bryan, Ohio, shared a story about one mission flown on Christmas day. While he was en-route, the base he was scheduled to land at came under attack. Due to the air raid it was impossible to safely land his plane loaded with valuable cargo. He was forced to remain airborne until night. Finally, low on fuel and completely exhausted, he had no choice except to land the plane in the dark, flying by total recall. "It was so dark you couldn't see anything but black," Mr. McKarn said. The next morning, on the return flight, Mr. McKarn had to keep the plane at 12,000 feet just so he and his crew could breathe, but had to climb to 14,000 feet to avoid hitting the top of the mountain peaks. He described the trip as thrilling and exciting. "We are the reason they coined the term, 'flying by the seat of your pants'," Mr. McKarn said. "I have always compared it to the feeling of putting a cork in a washing machine." See Hump Pilots and more photos, Page 5
CLERGY VISIT JB CHS
40 UNDER 40
Base chaplains reach out
SPAWAR Executive Director honored
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Operational Readiness Inspection Countdown:
29 Weeks
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