Buzz's Bedtime Stories

Replay of a “Buzz’s Bedtime Stories!” A flying story. This is a good one! Tuck in. Pour some tea, an adult beverage, and turn it up. I was tasked to fly CIA/DEA missions around the world several times when I was in the Air Force. We flew a C-141 into places we weren’t officially supposed to be. We wore jeans and sports shirts. All I knew, as the aircraft commander, is that I had a letter signed by the President of the United States that said I could go wherever I wanted to go with whatever I wanted to carry. A few choice encounters with foreign customs and immigration quickly come to mind. 🤣 On one mission, we were tasked to fly around the Middle East for God knows what reason. On one leg we landed in Islamabad, Pakistan to offload people and “cargo.” We were supposed to be there for 30 minutes and beat feet. It was frikking hot and humid. More importantly, we weren’t supposed to be there. On our way out, and we fired up the engines (there are 4), we couldn’t get #2 started. The US Embassy rep was freaking out. “You can’t stay here, tonight! It’s too dangerous! This will be an international incident!” I turned to one of my favorite flight engineers (who will remain nameless) with three engines running and asked “what can we do?” “I’ll malletize it sir!” Meaning he was going to hammer the starter on #2 until it fired. It worked and we got the hell out of there. We’re flying back to Rome to spend the night before we headed home to DC the next day. At about midnight, directly over Cairo, Egypt, that same engine shelled out. Gone. A husk. Now, my decision is where to divert to on 3 engines. The crew wanted to continue to Rome (but there was no USAF maintenance) or continue on to a US military installation. I chose Sicily, (NAS Sigonella), and C-141 maintenance. We had the gas. The boys were looking forward to a night in Rome, though, and weren’t happy. Sometimes command decisions aren’t popular. 🤣 I flew an engine-out approach in the fog at Sigonella at midnight where we were immediately stranded for a week waiting for an engine change. I shudda gone to Rome! 😎