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Re: XC-99

Posted by Dick Phillips on Sat Nov 16, 2002 05:18:48 PM

In reply top Re: XC-99 posted by Pat Carry on Fri Nov 15, 2002 06:00:52 PM

: : Maybe I should have said, not the usual type warbird usu
: ally discussed here?


FROM Dick Phillips

I have a few memories of the XC-99 thatI would like to pass on. I was at Lackland AFB for USAF basic training from 5 Mar 57 to end of May 57. My barracks was in the first row on the bluff overlooking Kelley AFB. We used to see the XC-99 landing and taking off from Kelley during most of March 1957. Towards the end of March, it made its last landing there and was retired. I happened to watch that last landing. A few weeks later, on Armed Forces Day, we had a few hours of "free" time and I took a bus over to Kelley to see what was on display. The '99 was there and open to the public. I had seen a few B-36's before that, but this thing looked way bigger, I suppose just because of the double deck fuselage.
That would have been the end of the story for me, except for this one more incident. About 4 years ago at a T-6 gathering at Freeman Field, IN, I met a T-6 pilot named
Clair Potter. In talking with him, it came out that he used to fly the XC-99, and sure enough, he was the one that made that last landing at Kelley.

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