CHAPTER THREE - MORNING IN AMERICA

We finally got a few days to see Germany before we left for home. Germany is a beautiful country and the terrain reminded me a lot of Tennessee. There are forests and hills everywhere and the towns and cities are beautiful. We had managed to go into Frankfort a few times before the air show and on the 21st I visited Mainz. It is a Medieval city where American forces crossed the Rhine river in WW2. There was a really neat flea market there by the river where I managed to find a Nazi Labor Day Medal and a WW1 medal. For historical reasons only, I wanted something with the swastika on it. It was against the law, apparently, to openly sell anything related to the Nazi's or Hitler in modern Germany. The clerk reached under the table and pulled out his WW2 memorabilia. After the air show we spent a whole day on a Rhine River tour where we floated down the river on a tour boat viewing German castles and towns along the river. The Rhine is the busiest waterway that I have ever been on in my life. It was like riding down a busy highway except the highway is water and the cars are boats. We ate in an old castle that was a restaurant and sampled wine in a wine cellar but I gave my wine to my buddies because I hate the taste of alcohol.

 We left for home on an Alaska Air National Guard C-130. It was another six hours to the Azores where we refueled and left out early the next morning after another overnight stay there. That day we endured a torturous twelve hour flight to Dover Delaware packed in like sardines. I had spent as long as nine hours on a plane before but this was the longest time I have ever spent on an airplane for one flight. At Dover we were only there long enough to walk around in the terminal and stretch our legs before hopping back on for another four hour flight to Nashville. The drama of this trip was not over, however. While waiting in the Dover terminal we learned that a C-5A cargo plane was inbound with an in-flight emergency. The plane could not get all of it's landing gear down and there was talk of foaming the runway for a belly landing. Our pilot appeared and told us that he wanted us to board the plane as quickly as we could so we could be airborne before the runway was closed down.

  We hurried to get back into our seats and after buckling up, the engines were roaring as we taxied toward the runway. While we were waiting to make that final turn on to the runway the engines were suddenly shut down and the load master was running through the plane screaming "get out, get out, get out". I didn't have time to be scared because all I could see in my mind was that big C-5 landing right on top of us. We hit the ground running toward the terminal and luckily the props had stopped spinning as some of us ran right under the wings. One of our ladies had an injured ankle and two guys grabbed hold of her arms on either side and were half carrying and half dragging her toward the terminal. After a long wait we learned that the C-5 had landed safely and the emergency was over. The crew of the C5A was able to get the landing gear down successfully. After another four hours in the air we finally landed in Nashville later that night.