🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <40F0EE3A.97FC6B55@yahoo.com>, Dweezil Dwarftosser <f4wcs@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Somebody wrote:
> > 
> 
> > PS - since this post relates to Jim Jones and since it was also posted
> > to alt.military (and I don't have a clue why the OP did so), here is
> > a tidbit of interesting info that is not exactly commonly known. Does
> > anybody out there realize that Jim Jones and his followers actually
> > managed to cause a military cargo aircraft to become haunted?
> > It is true... according to USAF flight crew members back in the
> > early1980s, C-141 tail number 50220 is the plane that carried
> > all the dead bodies out of Guiana after Jim Jones' death party.
> > Before that time this aircraft, based at Charleston AFB, SC was
> > a smooth running plane, but afterwards it began to break down
> > so frequently that it almost became legendary. I was a witness to
> > this fact because at the time I worked on Ascension Island, South
> > Atlantic some 6000 odd miles from Charleston where most of our
> > supply aircraft runs originated. The guys at Charleston would work
> > on the plane until they thought they had it fixed, then send it out
> > on the long flight down to Ascension to test it out. More than half
> > of the time, this plane would end up breaking down on Ascension
> > or along the way and would have to go back to Charleston for yet
> > another round of repairs. Most of the time, all of the other 141's
> > ran smoothly and only occasionally had breakdowns, but not this
> > plane. Anytime that one of us was due to go on vacation and saw
> > that plane sitting on the tarmac, somebody would end up saying,
> > "Oh no... your plane is '220... you will never get there on time"!!!
> 
> You are aware that no one in the Air Force ever uses the
> term "tarmac" to indicate any portion of the flightline,
> ramp, parking pad, taxiway, runway, or anything else?
> 
> Bozo reporters, on the other hand,  evidently love to use the
> word, thinking it sounds as though it were airfield-related
> jargon.
> 
> It is possible that there might have been some military
> folks using the term during the early days of World War I.
> That's about the time that the (British-invented) "tarmac"
> (short for "Tar Maccadam") paving method was eclipsed by
> more modern types.  Tarmac was mostly a mixture of tar, coal 
> cinders, and ash, providing a very rough-grained but 
> reasonably weatherproof surface - more lasting than the
> plain gravel roadways it repaved.
> 
> Bottom line: this is NOT a first-hand account... though it
> is widely known that the Jim Jones mortuary flights made the
> aircraft used for purpose STINK for years afterward.
> 
> No one who uses the term "tarmac" has ever spent any real time
> on a flightline.
> 
> DD - former Msgt, USAF

I never did claim that the flight crews used the term tarmac.
I happened to pick it up from another older civilian coworker.
And by the way, civilians DO make up the bulk of Ascension's
population - at present and since about 1978 there are only
two regular USAF personnel on Ascension... the base commander
and his assistant. Anyhow, since the word fit well, I used it...
as also have many other's who worked on Asc. If you have a problem
with that then it is simply your problem.

> > according to USAF flight crew members back in the

I also never did claim that it was a first hand account as the above
sentence shows if you should care to actually read it. Furthermore, if
you are the least bit familiar with Ascension, then you will realize
that 1) it is indeed British and 2) your "mixture of tar, coal cinders,
and ash" quite aptly describes very commonly available materials on that
island. However the 10K + 1K overrun runway was always paved, widened
and repaved using real asphault brought in from the US by boat (at least
during the 18 years I spent there with two repavings in 1980 and again
in 1993). Even many of the local roads, normally paved with a half inch
layer of tar and cinders, got asphault coatings while they had the paving
machine and excess materials there.

If you have any further doubts that I have been near a flighline then take
a look at the pic on the following web page which I have just put up for
your benefit (must use IE - cannot use Netscape because of screwed up
changes recently made by tripod.com):

>> http://miscpict.tripod.com/wideawake.html

This is a picture I took from the antenna of the TPQ-18 radar (where
I was site chief and chief engineer) of the airstrip's parking apron
just below Cotar Hill where the radar was located. This picture was
taken just after the peak of the Falklands campaign as shown by the
presence of all the British warplanes, including the Vulcan bomber
brought out of mothballs specifically for this operation. As you can
see, I worked right next to the flighline so you can take your cynical
troll's comments and stuff them where they will not see the light
of day. I'll bet that you have never ridden on 50220 or have been
anywhere near it to see its vastly different reliability as compared
to the other 141s.

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