Million Dollar Gooney-bird
By: —Chuck Miller, Lt. Col. USAF (Ret)
av8or@eos.net
After completing all-jet pilot training (T-37 & T-33) at Moody AFB, Valdosta, GA in Class 62-G, I
was assigned to Chicago O'Hare Int'l Arpt with Det 4 of the 2223rd Instructor Squadron (Instron) in
Continental Air Command (ConAC, later renamed AFRes) where I spent 5 years and about 2200 flight
hours piloting the TC-47 Navigation Trainer in support of the AF Reserve navigator CRAF (Civilian
Reserve Aircraft Fleet) program.
(CRAF, in the time of major war, was to appropriate a portion of the civilian airline fleet
assets for military airlift and the USAF would provide military qualified navigators
and other crewmembers to crew the aircraft).
I was then reassigned to SEA and ferried
a million dollar gooney-bird, a completely refurbished and re-outfitted EC-47
from Lanier Field, NH, across the Pacific to Vietnam.
The route, in January 1967, took us by way Seattle, Fairbanks Alaska, Adak Island in the Aleutians,
Midway, Wake, Guam, the Philipines, and finally NhaTrang (just 10 miles north of CamRahn Bay).
This aircraft was number 37 of approximately 45 EC-47s
that were converted and refurbished under Project Phyllis Ann
and were stationed at 3 squadrons:
the 360th TEWS (Tactical Electronic Warfare Sqdn) at Ton Son Nhut,
the 361st TEWS at Nha Trang and
the 362nd TEWS at Plieku.
At the 361st TEWS, I flew 115 missions and over 1000 hours in the following 11 months flying "airborne
radio direction finding"; reconnaissance missions against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.
These missions out of NhaTrang were flown over the portion of South Vietnam from NhaTrang north to the
DMZ and from the east coast all the way into eastern Cambodia.
During my early career as a gooney-bird pilot I logged pilot time in the
C-47, TC-47, EC-47, AC-47, RC-47, VC-47, HC-47, UC-47, SC-47 and C-117.
After C-47s I "graduated" to the "jet-age gooney-bird", the KC-135 tanker.
I flew the KC-135Q in support of the SR-71 out of Beale AFB
with extensive operations out of Kadena AB, Okinawa and other global operations.
I was then selected for NATO Exchange duty with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF)
flying their Boeing 707-320s and developing an inflight refueling operation using
a pair of wing mounted Beech hose/drogue buddy stores with the CAF CF-5 fighter.
After 3 years with the Canadians, I concluded my USAF career as the AF Logistics Command
C/KC-135 Weapons System Manager at Tinker AFB,
OCALC, with logistice, depot maintenance and modification
responsibility for the 750 aircraft fleet of KC-135 and cargo/special mission derivatives
(EC-135, RC-135, etc.) and the Presidential 707 fleet.
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