Memory of an accident

Air Classics, Sep 2000

I just finished reading Eli George's story in the February 2000 issue of Air Classics and it brought back old memories. At the time of the accident he wrote about I was a Marine Corporal flying as a crew chief out of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in California in Marine Air Group 25, Squadrons 352 and 152. I flew as crew chief for our CO and Exec CO (who rate either a Master Sergeant. or Tech Sergeant) and I understood, at that time, I was the only Marine below those two ranks who flew with the CO and Exec in the entire Marine Corps. We flew R5Ds (C-54 AAF and DC-4 commercially). My plane was 39127.

Anyway, two weeks before the accident mentioned, we flew back from Atsugi. Japan, to Midway (almost went to Wake but that is another exciting story) thence to Barber's Point in Hawaii and back to El Toro via Moffett Field, California. I recall the accident from the papers. It made a great impression on me for I often worried about ditching in the Pacific (will get to that in a moment) and always carried a large Bowie knife with me over the Pacific...as it that would be of any benefit. We almost ditched once.

Anway, part of their flight would have been over part of the route we took normally (El Toro to Honolulu to Johnson Island to Kwajalein to Guam then past Iwo Jima) to Atsugi. From Atsugi to Midway (or Wake but that will come later) past Frenchman's Frigate to Honolulu and back to California.

My memory may be failing regarding this as it was 45 years ago and news accounts are notoriously inaccurate. I read they had gone down and that one man went under with the plane and that four had gone into the water with two lifejackets. As the sharks killed two, their bodies were let loose and the other two men put on the life jackets. The paper said when they were found they were locked backto-back to fight off sharks (which were still around there) and both survivors had been bitten many times by the sharks.

What you didn't know was that one of the Marine planes searching for them also went down, so a search was made for the pilot. They had picked up his Gibson Girl signal but it was faint and they never found him. I think four search planes were eventually lost and the crews were not recovered. I don't think it even made the news stateside.

This is the later story I alluded to earlier. On takeoff from Atsugi, Japan, I was flying as assistant crew chief so my staff sergeant was in the cockpit with the pilots on takeoff and I sat in the rear with the cargo and passengers. I always counted the time from when we first started to roll to when the nose lifted and the plane became airborne...only it did not. I watched the runway passing by and the nose lifted so high the tail bumper on the rear underside of the plane was hitting the concrete. Then we ran out of runway and went into the grass where the plane began bouncing like a bucking bronc. I could see a toll stand of trees (much like poplar or eucalyptus) at the edge of the held and slowly the big bird began to lift. I knew we would hit the trees, which we did, and this sent pieces of branches flying. I do not know if this was due to the landing gear or propellers, The plane tipped forword and I could see startled Japanese farmers in the rice field beyond the trees look up and run for their lives as our plane dipped toward them then began to gain altutude.

All three pilots had been drunk for several days while we were there (which was normal and the best of the two navigators had passed out so the duty fell to the one with lesser abilities. We had been told we had a 100-knot tailwind all the way to Midway so they gave us enough gas to make ift plus a small reserve. Once airborne we ran into a light storm and, as usual, the loran would go out about the time the wheels left the runway and since the stars could not be seen the navigator could not make a celestial fix so he tried to do ift mathematically and kept feeding this information to the pilots. It was bumpy for hours and when we broke into the clear, navigator #2 took a star fix and found not only were we off course but we had a 100-knot HEADWIND. We were heading equidistant between Midway and Wake and the radar picket ship that we used as a beacon could not locate us on radar...we were up that proverbial creek without a paddle. The pilot had to make a decision on where to go before we passed the point of no return and could not make either or Japan. He was nervous and came back and lit a cigarette (shaking) and asked me what I thought he should do. I told the major that was his decision, not mine. I only made the decision in case of engine trouble. He cut off the heat to save fuel and throttled back to just above stall speed. He told me if we turned with the wind we would go to Wake but they had no rescue planes there and if we went against the wind toward Midway they had a rescue team (we found out when we got there that they did not). We would run out of fuel at about 9:30 am next morning. He did not tell the passengers.