This is in response to the C119 crash that happened on Oct 24th, 1957 outside of Tinker AFB, in Midwest City, Oklahoma. (See the link below)

Jim Bina, jamesbina=verizon.net, 22.08.2012

I can confirm that this crash did happen. I was 3 and 1/2 years old, we lived just north of Reno and Midwest Blvd, on the east side of Midwest Blvd. Our back yard backed up to Soldier Creek and Tom Poor Park. This was about 2 miles north of Tinker AFB. On that evening, my older brother and I were in the living room which attached to the kitchen. My Grandmother was looking out the kitchen screen door towards the creek and Tom Poor park. I heard my Grandmother cry out, "Oh, no" . The impact of the plane was only about 500' from my home and I was knocked off of the couch onto the floor, and the lamp next to me was knocked over. All I can remember was hearing the non-ending wail of sirens. My mom and Grandmother told us that this airplane had crashed near our back yard, into a tree which burned for a long time. All 4 members on board died. Due to the heroics of the pilot and crew, many lives were spared as they put the plane down in the middle of Soldier Creek, with houses on both sides of the creek. The craft took off north from TAFB, lost lift, turned the craft to try and return and nosed into the ground. My Dad is now a retired Aeronautical Engineer who had been working at Tinker AFB at the time. He told me just recently that it was the elevator hinge pin that caused the crash. He also said unfortunately, it was because it was installed upside down by an unsuspecting mechanic. I have often thought about that heroic pilot and crew.

In 1967, a group of us from 325th Fighter Wing at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington, flew on a 129th C-119 to Hayward Field in Hayward, Calif. We were base winners in a talent contest that would take us to the regional contest at Hayward and then the winners on to the Air Force competition. Those that were selected from the AF finals would tour with the Air Force USO entertainment grup featuring Jack Jones. Unfortunately, Rick Warner, from Detroit, and I were not the winners in Hayward of the folk/rock category. I'm just wondering if anyone remembers this from either McChord (our traveling group etc.) or Hayward that may have taken pictures. Please feel free to e-mail me. We were called "Ricky and Johnnie"...Thanks so much and go Falcons, wherever you may be today.

Was at Dreux Air Base Jan'60 to April'61 and was on base basketball team and flew on C-119s to all our away games
worked transit alert all my days at Dreux was with 7305 CAMS

As a Pparatrooper & Jump Master with the 82nd Airborne Div,1954-57 I experienced 75+ jumps from the C-119. What I remember most was the horrendous noise of the engines just prior to takeoff, and hoping the plane had enough HP to get off the ground! On one occasion, National Guard pilots were getting some flight time in, and actually scrapped the tops of the trees on take off.

I married my lady Betty on the C-119G, on May 7,1954.Chaplain
Sigliono of Nashville, TN performed the ceremony. He set up
a make-shift altar in the forward fuselage and installed the loading ramps with heavy rope up the sides to complete the aisle. Great wedding and great marriage. We're still going strong. Later I crewed and flew as engineer on C-119Gs at Neubiburg AB, Germany.The last three numbers of S/N of the plane i crewed was
136. I read someplace that it was converted to a gun ship in Nam. I,ve never recorded this info and think it should be included somewhere as part the "Boxcars" history.

For Todd Milburn. Complete response to his request follows.










hugo ruiz hugo.ruiz510@gmail.com



Sep 9 (12 days ago)














to toddmilburn











I served with your father in VMR 252, USMC, part of MAG 35 (Marine Air Group) , based at Cherry Point, NC. The incident of which you speak was legend for years among us. Your father and a radio operator named George Hogarty, from Boston , were crew on a flight to Texas. At the time it was a reserve/civilian base with relatively little security. Your dad and George (incidentally I was a radio operator and new George well) went out on the town and as I understood the events got somewhat intoxicated and decided to fly to Shreveport to continue the party. They went to Love field, impersonated the pilots, filed a flight plan and proceded to take off, at night. It is my understanding that upon take off they barely missed a radio tower. It is my further understanding the polished off a bottle of booze while in flight. Barksdale, I believe was a
SAC base with super security, but they called in for landing and were given permission. Lore has it that they got lost in flight and the flight time was longer than it should have been. I also believe they aborted the first attempt to land but landed safely on the second attempt. While on board they asked for transportation to BOQ which was waiting when they were on the tarmac. They proceded to BOQ but while on the way they saw a bus going off base and asked the driver of the car to stop so they could board the bus. For whatever reason the driver became suspicious and reported the incident. They were stopped at the gate and detained. I understand that while being interviewed no one believed that they were crew chief and radio operator.



I was at Cherry Point in the morning when news came in that one of our planes was at Barksdale. Simultaneously, the pilot and copilot came to Love and found they had no plane and that a flight plan had been filed. At that point the pilot reports the incident to VMR 252, the facts are reconciled and Sgt. Milburn and Sgt. Hogarty were arrested. They were brought back to Cherry Point by another of our aircraft in shackles. They were court martialed and sentenced to time in the brig. A buddy of mine was the R/O on the flight to pick them up, and he said he was not allowed to speak to your dad or George by the accompanying Military Police. I do not remember what the sentence was, but I do remember seeing them marching with other prisoners to the mess hall for meals. The brig was about 500 yards from our barracks which was # 203. I know that George Hogarty had his sentence reduced and he was given a Bad Conduct Discharge or a General Discharge and presume your dad got the same.



I hope this clears some of the mystery from your recollection. Both George and your dad were my friends. I flew a number of times with your dad, as there were no fixed crews for each plane. Feel free to ask me anything more. How is or was your dad. What happened to him after he left the Corps?



Sgt. Hugo A. Ruiz

I will write to Todd Milburn whose comments appear above. I served with his father and am very familiar with the incident he describes. I served in VMR 252 at Cherry Point Marine Air Station in North Carolina from 1952 t0 1953 during the Korean war. The squadron was VMR 252, part of MAG 35. Our sister squadron at Cherry Point was VMR 153.

My dad piloted C-119's out of Chanute AFB in the late 50's. He related to me that he and about 5 other crews traveled to Tinker Air Force Base, OK in 1957 to pick up some modified C-119's. The story goes that the mod was for new stainless steel elevator hinge pins. My dad and the crews were scheduled for departure on Oct 24, 1957. They all boarded their assigned aircraft, made their checks and proceeded to the runway. They lined up for departure, my dad was second in line. He said he watched as the first C-119 proceed down the runway, lifted off, cleared the end of the runway, and abruptly nosed down and crashed. The remaining C-119s returned to the ramp and the flight back to Chanute was cancelled. The cause of the crash was determined to be the failure of the new elevator hinge pin that had just replaced. I am trying to verify this story and have verified by the Oklahoma Crash Database that there was a C-119 that crashed at Tinker on 24 Oct 1957, the same time we were stationed at Chanute. Can anyone assist with additional details on this C-119 accident? Thanks!

After six months of A&E school at Wichita Falls, TX. in 1953 I was assigned to Sewart AFB south of Nashville, TN. I was assigned to that base until my discharge in 1957 we had C-119 Flying Boxcar type aircraft there. Probably around 1955 everybody had an opportunity to volunteer for a six month TDY assignment in Dreux, France. There were three groups at Sewart; there were enough volunteers to make up one group. All flying was done out of the municipal airport at Athens, Greece; therefore, all crews and planes stayed there. No military facilities there. Per Diem was paid and we stayed in hotels and ate out every meal. As maintenance was scheduled the airplane was flown to Dreux. All personnel at Dreux was sent to Athens for a month. I don't know what we were doing over there in Athens. I did enjoy that six-month-tour however. The C-119 was quite an airplane.

Went thru Randolph AFB transition training in the C-119G in early 1953, then flew the Arctic re-supplying the DEW Line. Was based at Harmon AFB with the 6614th ATS. Had some close calls after losing engines, but survived. If we had a heavy load (D-8 Catapiller bulldozer, etc.) and lost an engine, we could not stay in the air. We were told it would not ditch and our best bet was to put it down at the edge of a lake or shore with the gear DOWN. The fusilage would not hold up in a belly landing.

Having an engine reverse was not uncommon in this aircraft. In the mid-1950's, my father, Eugene T. Morrow, had an engine reverse at 600' on takeoff from Randolph. All previous incidents on takeoff (I believe there were 5) were fatal. After taking out power lines, he had been able to set the plane down in a farmer's recently plowed field. Landng perpendicular to the furrows, they bounced badly stopping with the nose less than 100' from the farmhouse. No injuries. The aircraft was covered in dirt, but otherwise appeared undamaged. The student with Dad froze and never flew again.

As a kid I remember hanging around our local county airport and listening to stories. This was about 1951. By these stories I believe they had a lot of prop problems. The airport Mgr. was telling about flying a C-119 over Arizona at night. A blade came off the left engine and came through the fusalogh cutting off all power lines, control lines and lights. They were prepareing to jump. They got the back doors open and just getting ready to jump. The plane hit the ground. Perfect landing. Everybody walked away without a scratch. I believe it had the R-4360 engines. I was only about 14 at the time.

je suis a la recherche de la maquette du C119 mais a l echelle 1/144eme bien a vous ,en plastic et non en resine ou alors petit prix

Hello
Bonjour je m’appelle Liliane
Je suis à la Recherche de 2 Militaires de l’US air Force
Basé à Toul/ Rosière 54 en FRANCE
Entre 1959 et 1962
Un nommé …SWEET (il fessait du Rugby et animation au Mess des officiers)
Un qui se nomme Allan CARTER…
J’aimerai avoir des nouvelles ou des photos
Par avance merci de votre aide à Tous.

Hi I'm Liliane I am looking 2 members of the US air Force to be based a Toul / Rosière 54 in FRANCE between 1959 and 1962
A named...SWEET (it was the Rugby and animation in the mass of officers)
one which is called Allan CARTER…
I would like to have news or photos in advance thank you for your help to all.

I was loadmaster in the 312th TCS of the 349th TC Wing(Res) at Hamilton AFB and had some interesting flights. We were called up for the Cuban missile crisis and it took us two days to go from California de Pope AFB. When we went off active duty a hot shot Lt. was looking for volunteers to go to "some place called Viet Nam." My father, a WWII Army Capt., taught me never to volunteer.

After the two C-119's collided over Germany, I was recruited to go to Neubiberg AFB, transferred to Chateauroux Air Depot and ended up at Dreux AFB, 4th Aerial Port Squadron, Det. 7 in late 1955 thru 1958. Dreux had a Wing of C-119-G's and a Wing of C-123-B's. Most my work time was spent loading and unloading base aircraft. Also loaded C-130's (house trailers going to Turkey)C-124's and on one occasion loaded 10,000 lbs. of U.S. mail in the bomb bay of a SAC B-29, headed for Turkey. Lots of brake-created tire fires on the 19's during the period of time the prop reverse feature was "red lined". I smiled inwardly when pilots would ask me what their take-off roll should be. My standard answer was 2,500 feet, the runway was 7,900 feet long. I did have some air time in the 119, mainly between France and Germany. Became a member of the 6th APS, headquarters, Burtonwood, England, while still at Dreux AB.

Flew the a/c 63 to 68, about 1500hrs to some high airfields like fukche in the Himalayas. the iaf had once afleet of 60+c119gs,some with the jetpacks. unfortunately there were many fatalities in about 25 years o
f service till mid 80s

I was an electrician in VMR 253 initally at Itami and later Iwakuni in Japan. I flew as crew many times because many of the failures were electrical in nature. Sadly our squadron lost one plane off the coast of Korea, as I recall 9 of 12 on board survived. Lot's of power, bumpy ride. Loved it.

i enjoy all the pictures brings back many wonderful memories

My Father was a flight engineer on a Boxcar during the Korean War. He has said that they were assigned to MAG252. He and a fellow crewman (radio operator) "borrowed" a Boxcar one night and flew from Love Field in Dallas to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport. Since he was not a pilot, he was busted to private. Wonder if anyone has heard of this or can point me in the direction to obtain further information on this incident?