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This post started as a comment on the Earthbound Misfit blog about the restoration and last flight to a museum of a Globemaster in 1983.

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As a ‘mosquito wing’ PFC (Private 1st Class) in the US Regular Army Field Artillery in 1970 I flew as ‘space A’ from Texas to Travis AFB in Nothern California in a C-124.

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Just skinny me feeling fake in a new, hot, khaki soldier suit surrounded by tons of cocooned radial engines, generators, and unidentified parts.

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It was NOISY back in that fuselage that seemed like a hangar, sitting sideways on those uncomfortable folding canvas bench seats.

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No oxygen needed because we flew all the way at 10,000 feet (3048M). It was fun but gruelling and makes you appreciate jet airliners.

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I couldn’t stop thinking a forced landing would roll a Pratt & Whitney R-4360 on top of me turning me into strawberry jam.
But I made it to Travis, and further west to Vietnam-but in a 707, not in a C-124 Globemaster.
Thanks for the memory, comrade.
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