Cow Pasture Engine Replacement
By: John R. Joseph
"Brojak"
One job we did at Tuao, a small landing strip on Luzon in the Philippines
when we flew the replacement engine into the cow pasture,
where one of our planes was grounded.
I can still see those trees coming closer and closer, but yet, there was no fear
in our hearts or minds that we were not going to clear them.
We had faith in our C-47, "Army 452" and the men at the controls.
That really was a story. One of our C-47s is grounded in a cow pasture.
We send a Flight Chief, a crew of mechanics and some maintenance
specialists, an engine and other equipment to the spot. There was no
electricity there that I can remember. They change the engine, under
adverse conditions, including being straffed one night by some Japs who were
still in the area, and then "sweat out" the take off with a new engine,
that 60 hours operation on it.
Well, "Army 452, Squadron #A010," helped
salvage that Douglas C-47, Squadron #A007.
In our stay on Luzon, our Squadron had the
unique distinction of being
the first C-47s to land on 10 new airstrips.
Many of them were short field landings that took skill and expert flying to
bring the airplanes down.
New reconditioned strips were at
Piddig,
Laoag,
Tuao,
Luna,
Burgas,
Perez,
Quezon City,
Nichols,
Rosales
and Hapid.
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