Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Alaska


Alaska




One perk to military service is being able to catch a transport flight. If you are on leave you can hop a military flight to just about anywhere if they have room to take you.


Dad was in California on leave one day when he and a friend decided to go on a trip. They found a flight going to Alaska. The pilot was happy to take them. He dropped them on a runway in Juno with several bags of mail.


After he flew away, they began to sober up and realized that there were no people around and that they were not dressed for the local weather. It was starting to get dark so they huddled up and stacked the mail bags around them to block the wind. After an hour or so they saw headlights and a jeep drove up. The driver was amazed to find two sailors with the mail bags.


He said, “I don’t know how you boys got here but today is your lucky day. I usually wait until morning to pick up the mail and I don’t think you would have lasted that long.”

Dad replied, “Some dumb Air Force pilot dropped us here and today is your lucky day. We were about to start burning your mail to keep warm.”

3 comments:

  1. I'd forgotten this story. Rob and I just had a good laugh over this one. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That was so funny!! David I see where you get you ability from. Remember when we were stationed at Fort Knox and you decided to fly up to see your grandmother and on your return trip you could not get a ride back to base. That colonel asked you where you were headed and he gave you a lift. ON HIS HEUY HELECOPTER NO LESS ....You missed role call and were AWOL!!! Next thing we knew you and you Colonel friend landed in the parking lot behind our barracks and woke up the whole darn neighborhood. Man you could really get into some stuff back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was the Colonel's pilot, a Captain, that offered me a ride. But the Colonel and I got to be buddies on the ride back to Disney Barracks. I think I didn't get into trouble for being late because the Colonel and I seemed to be such chums at the landing.

    Sometimes it's not about who you know - it's about who they think you know.

    ReplyDelete