Notice the white radome paint job
Date:unknown
Location:Hickam AFB
Copyright © - Nicholas Williams
The above photo and these notes are from David Ames:
On January 5, 1968 I was sent on a TDY to Udorn, Thailand to change an engine on
a C141. We left Yokota just after midnight on January 6th on a C-141 with tail
number
67-0012 for the flight to Udorn Royal Thai Air Base in Thailand. I got to sit in
the copilot seat for 15 minutes. The pilot pointed out a Flying Tiger CL 44
flying south with us. We arrived at Udorn around 4:00 a.m. We walked off the
plane into air that was hot, sticky, and smelled of teak wood smoke.
This picture of 64-646 was taken at the end of the runway at Udorn.
The reason for the way I took the picture of the 64-0646 is to show the area
where the C-141 was attacked. The area was cleared off so nobody could hide in the
grass.
After the worst brief I had ever had, we met the local MAC maintenance team and
ask them where the C-141 was located. They told us it was setting at the end of
the runway. We asked them if they wanted to take us out to the plane and they
said no. We asked why and they said a C-141, possibly 64-0630, from Charleston AFB
S.C. was there to pickup two released prisoners of war from North Vietnam which
was attacked by Thai Communists. They told us that a flight engineer was killed
and a pilot was wounded. The aircraft we were to work on was sitting in the same
spot as the one that was slightly damaged in the attack. We rode out to the
aircraft in a pickup that had a bullet hole in the bed from the attack.
After 38 years thinking about the TDY, I have found out that the flight engineer
killed was TSgt Paul E. Yonkie. He was on a classified mission to pick up the
released pilots. The two pilots they were there to pick up were Majors Fred N.
Thompson and James F. Low. Thompson was a F-100 pilot and Low was a F-4D pilot. Low
was a Korean War Ace with 5 kills. You can find out more by going to the C-141
photo index and click on 64-0630. You also can go the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
and type in Paul Yonkie.
We were to change the #3 engine but ended up fixing the engine with a #5 cap I
put on a drain line from a pump seal that was leaking oil. We didn't have any
support equipment, so I stood on top of a fire bottle to check the oil.
While working on 64-0646, we watched F4's taking off in two's with bombs hanging
on them. One of the F4's I took a picture of, the tail had OY with the tail
number 67-554, and had two red stairs on the engine inlet for Mig kills.
After our work was done, we went into Udorn town and stayed at the Udorn Hotel.
We had fun running around the town. While walking around, I met a real nice
Chinese girl at the New Yorker restaurant across form the Udorn Hotel.
We were notified that a C-141 arrived to take us back to Yokota at midnight. The
tail number on that C-141 was 64-0645.
Just after take off, the pilot pulled the engine power back fast, which the pilot
usually did not do, and then the loadmaster came down to the cargo area looking
for something. I thought maybe we were shot at as this was all unusual. We flew
onto Bangkok and stopped there for a while then we went on to Yokota. We arrived
at Yokota the morning of January 7, 1968.
Copyright © - David Ames
1968 @ Yokota
Copyright © - RC Johnson
Location/Date:Unknown
Copyright © - USAF Photo Source:60th Air Mobility Wing History Office.
Location/Date:Unknown
Copyright © - USAF Photo Source:60th Air Mobility Wing History Office.