WIX Archives
great story! n/t
Posted by Pat Carry on Sat Nov 16, 2002 07:19:03 PM
In reply top Re: XC-99 posted by Dick Phillips on Sat Nov 16, 2002 05:18:48 PM
: : : Maybe I should have said, not the usual type warbird u
: su
: : ally discussed here?
:
:
: FROM Dick Phillips
:
: I have a few memories of the XC-99 thatI would like to pas
: s 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 r
: ow on the bluff overlooking Kelley AFB. We used to see th
: e XC-99 landing and taking off from Kelley during most of
: March 1957. Towards the end of March, it made its last la
: nding there and was retired. I happened to watch that las
: t landing. A few weeks later, on Armed Forces Day, we had
: a few hours of "free" time and I took a bus over to Kelle
: y 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 t
: his 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 f
: or this one more incident. About 4 years ago at a T-6 gat
: hering at Freeman Field, IN, I met a T-6 pilot named
: Clair Potter. In talking with him, it came out that he us
: ed to fly the XC-99, and sure enough, he was the one that
: made that last landing at Kelley.