Murph's Models Builds

[murphyaa]

We always get the best stories out of Don.

[RyanShort1]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

Back to the issue of bases, the major ROKAF transport unit, the 5th Tactical Airlift Wing, is currently based at Gimhae on the southeast coast. Gimhae was probably an air transport base when C-46s were in the ROKAF inventory (1950s to 70s).

Don

I'd say there's a chance one of your birds might still be somewhere on display based on this:
Oldprops Curtiss C46 Census

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1884...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Interestingly Bing makes that a forest - probably on request of the ROK military...

Ryan

[Don Boose]

Murph - I never did anything dramatic or significant, but if you live long enough, the little experiences add up.

Ryan - Based on the info you uncovered, it looks like C-46s were based at Gimhae, although I think it more likely that survivors of the unit that provided "my" C-46s are serials 8541 at the War Memorial Museum or 78053 at the Air Force Academy at Songmu.

Don

[murphyaa]

A quick google search led to these (possibly) 3 birds:


Any of them look familiar Don? What color are they? I'm bouncing somewhere between gray or pale mint green.

Then I found this one.

Ohhh, the orangeness!

[Don Boose]

The JASDF bird in high visibility markings should definitely be on somebody's list to recolor.

Tail number 541 looks most familiar to me. The C-46 (or 46's - it might have been the same bird or two different ones) I jumped from was definitely light gray, not mint green.

I have no record of the serial number and do not remember if it had "R.O.K. Air Force" or 대한민국 공군 on the fuselage side. I do not remember them/it as being two-toned, either, and I wonder of the two-tone effect is a trick of the eye.

If I ever find the photographs, it might be possible to discern the fuselage inscription, although they were taken from the ground at an aircraft flying at around 1200 feet.

Don

[Don Boose]

Okay, this is really self-indulgent, but perhaps you will bear with me for posting these family snapshots of my last ROKAF C-46 jump in July 1972.

Regrettably, I never took a photo of the airplane on the ground, and the images of the aircraft in the air are too far away to make out the markings.

1. Jump orders for the two members of the United Nations Command Unconventional Warfare Detachment (Airborne)(Provisional).

2 and 3. Departing the aircraft.

4. Me colliding with a ROKA parachutist, which caused my chute to collapse and gave me a couple of tense moments as my chute slid off the other follow's canopy and slowly re-inflated. In 1972 there weren't many safety measures at Han River Drop Zone Number 1, as evidenced by the farmer passing by on his bicycle in the middle of the DZ.

5. Don III, age 7 at the time, watching the jump. I had just separated from the trooper I had bumped into.

6. Don III ran out to meet me and carried my helmet as we walked off the DZ.

7. Me, 46 years ago.

8. Don III wearing a green beret loaned to him by one of the SF Detachment soldiers, miniature Navy aviator wings given to him by one of our friends when he had his tonsils out, and miniature jump wings (earlier that year, he and his sister had jumped the 34-foot tower at the SF Detachment facility, so he felt pretty Airborne!).

None of this helps with the colors and markings of your ROKAF C-46, Murph, but I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. If you make one that looks like Tail Number 541, it will be close enough for me.

Don

[murphyaa]

You have a deal Don.

[MacSongLi]

Great photos and memories, Don. Thank you very much for sharing.

Gary

[murphyaa]

I'm up to 7 Commandos. I think I'll let somebody else work on some for a while.

[Robotaleem]

a Buffalo Air commando has a nice scheme