Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar

Flew out of Ashiya, from Oct.'53 to May'56. Assigned to 816th TCS until switching to movement control in early '55; after flying about 800 hours as a /c. Flew B's and C's with the 4360's until the G models came in '54. Very easy on the controls, stable in weather, but ugly as hell. Loved the assignment as we covered all the Japanese main islands,Philipines, Thailand, Indo-China, Taiwan, and most of the islands in between.Most comfortable cockpit with best visibility; but no bunks.

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Just a correction on my aol address

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Flew out of Scott AFB in late 1950's as a Flight Mechanic. Can still remember those flights to Panama-lotta water and only one airplane!

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Got out of radar school and to 61st TC Sqd. C119s has little radar. Took 40 days to fly to Ashiya Japan on 49142. Prop problems. 2 weeks in Hawaii another 2 weeks on Johnson Island.
I was'nt needed in Ashiya so went to Pyongyang and worked and froze with a combat cargo outfit there. Joined the bugout to Pusan. Returned to Ashiya and got bored as hell doing nothing. Started fooling around learning Morse,radio procedures, not to feed the pilots Etc. Starting flying as a radio operator. Most important message I ever sent was "Tell group 2 ships knocked down over DZ". Nine C119 crew members died that day. It was rumored that our own artillery using proximity fuses did the deed. Combat crew members were supposed to get their choice of bases to be sent to. I did'nt choose Memphis but thats were I was sent. They changed from C 46s to C119s. The planes were not made by Fairchild but by K /F. The skin around the cockpit started dimpling after only a few hours flying time. I often wonder if the rest of the plane was crap. I got discharged and did'nt wait around to find out.

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Flew 200 combat missions in the "Stinger gunship" over the Ho Chi Minh trail. Stationed out of Danang 1971. Was an aircraft commander and shot about a zillion rounds of 20mm. What a great weapon. Killed hundreds of trucks etc.

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I only flew on a C-119 once. On Mother's day 1963 flew out of my WVANG unit in Martinsburg, WV to Harrisburg, PA on my way to boot camp at Lackland AFB. The first stop before leaving MRB was at the chute shop to get fitted in a harness and issued a chute. The aircraft was also being used for a medevac training mission that day so most of the web seats were filled. Recall the service door for the nose gear was removed on the aircraft and when we landed and the nose gear was lowered anything not tied down got sucked out the nose wheel well. Will never forget that flight. All the C-119s were gone when I returned to MRB a year later from boot camp and tech school. They had been replaced with C-121s.

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I flew the C-119 (mostly the G) in 1955-56. I transitioned at Randolph Field in San Antonio; then spent about 6 months at Ardmore AFB in OK; then 1 1 /2 years at Ashiya AFB in Japan. We dropped a lot of paratroopers and heavy equipment. Also got quite a bit of IFR time in some serious weather. After about 700 hours in that bird I only have good things to say about it. I loved the power and the sound of those R-3350's and I always thought the C-119 handled extremely well empty or loaded. I remember getting a chance to use its short-field capabilities when we had to land it on a beach in Korea to re-supply an outpost. It performed perfectly. You could really feel the power with the brakes on and both throttles full-forward. As you can tell, I liked flying that bird.

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I was a flight navigator on R4Q-2's at Cherry Point in 1959 to 1961 in VMR 252. We had 24 of these beasts and the squadron racked up in excess of 10,000 hours without an accident while I was there. Later I flew with with a number of the non-skeds including Flying Tiger and quickly grew to appreciate the excellent maintenance that the Marine Corps demanded ans we rarely had an engine failure and in my opinion the maintenance was top notch.

On the aircraft itself, while it had limited ability on one engine when heavy it was a reliable over water performer but could have used more range. Semper Fi.

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I flew the R4Q 1952-1954 out of El Toro Marine air base in California and we took the squadron VMR 253 to Itami Japan where we flew in and out Korea. With any load the aircraft had poor to nil single engine performance on takeoff. Other than that we had a problem with the props becomeing out of balance and tearing the engine off. Only happened once.

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flew as flight mech. one mounth in ashiya, japan. had a great flight deck. coming from C-46's

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I was in the 101st Airborne Division 1959 - 1962. I have jumped from C-119, C123, C-130 and C-124. By far, the easiest plane to jump from was the C-119 because of the high wing and you could almost go straight back when exiting the aircraft instead of making a 90 degree turn to go out of the other aircraft I mentioned.

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Does anybody remember the highly trained, activated and quickly canceled mission with site at Adak, Northern Japan, Tokyo area, Southern Japan and Okinawa?

Nikita had a ****fit on Moscow about it.

Officially it was "Wx Reconnaissance."

One C119 strayed into Russian airspace. Mig 17 got on wing and ordered it to a Russian field. Pilot dropped all the garbage and quickly got in the clouds and safely got the hell out of there.

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For LDonDar
51-8031 (c /n 10857) converted to C-119G between 1955 and 1957. Transferred
to Taiwan Nov 1970 as 3212

These Fairchild aircraft built under this USAF Contract"

51-7968 /8052 Fairchild C-119F-FA Flying Boxcar
7968 /7995 were c /n 10707 /10734
7996 /8015 were c /n 10739 /10758
8016 was c /n 10706
8017 /8029 were c /n 10760 /10772
8030 was c /n 10822
8031 /8032 were c /n 10857 /10858.
8033 /8034 were c /n 10873 /10874
8035 /8052 were c /n 10913 /10930

This group was in the very first group of F models. Looks like you took pretty good care of it if it made it all the way to Taiwan.

Hope this helps,

Chuck Lunsford (former C-119 radio operator)

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As a young Marine Corporal in 1955, I was assigned to H&MS-35 at MCAS Cherry Point, N.C. The Group supported two R4Q-2 "Flying Boxcar" Squadrons, VMGR-152 and VMGR-353. The Marines, at that time, didn't call them C-119's several years later when the services shifted to common aircraft designations for all services and they certainly weren't called C-119's in 1952!
I take great exception to the "sea-story" regarding the (?) "Marine" C-119 that "blew out" a brake and "ground-looped" The aircraft would not "ground-loop while taxiing as the aircrew would be using engine power to taxi and would be going too slow to "ground loop." If a brake "blew-out" during taxi, the aircraft would be going slowly enough that it wouldn't swing about with a brake failure. It seems that the writer was more "smart ass" than smart and, as a tow vehicle operator, didn't know much about aircraft terminology, operation or maintenance. Marine maintainers used the U.S. Navy's Maintenance schedule of 30, 60, 90 and 120 hour maintenance check schedules and a major maintenance at 240 hours. I know, as I have pulled each type of those checks and made sure that the aircraft was in the best possible condition for flight! The aircrews put their lives in our hands and we were always aware of that responsibility!! As an Airgroup, we had NO accidents or incidents that were determined to be maintenance issues for the three years I was in the Group!
Semper Fidelis,
Jim Lake, Major, USMC (ret)

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I worked on 119's at Hayward Ca. ANG base.I was 18 and it was the only plane I had ever worked on so they are the best.As I recall the landing gear is 16' long,that in its self is amasing.Yeh it is noisy to ride in,but its 1947 technology.

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1952, stationed at North Island Naval Air Station, San Diego. Marine (?) C-119 came in. As they wre taxing to our visitor's parking area they suddenly did a ground loop and shut down. They blew out a brake. I drove our tug to get a tow bar. As the crew chief and us visiting a /c people got set to tow the plane, with chock walkers, the piolt came over and told me I couldn't tow the plane as it had no brakes! I asked him if he wanted to push it! We towed the plane. It was my experiance that the Marines didn't have very good maintenance.

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1952, stationed at North Island Naval Air Station, San Diego. Marine (?) C-119 came in. As they wre taxing to our visitor's parking area they suddenly did a ground loop and shut down. They blew out a brake. I drove our tug to get a tow bar. As the crew chief and us visiting a /c people got set to tow the plane, with chock walkers, the piolt came over and told me I couldn't tow the plane as it had no brakes! I asked him if he wanted to push it! We towed the plane. It was my experiance that the Marines didn't have very good maintenance.

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Yes, I know this aircraft well having flown in it from 1951 through 1953. It was a very reliable aircraft even if it only flew us one way and that was up. You see I was a paratrooper in the 11th Airborne. I would guess that I jumped out it about twenty three or so times. But what a ride!

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In 1954 I was stationed in eastern France at Toul-Rosiere AFB, a C119 air base. I was in the army engineers, attached to the USAF, called SCARWAF. In December, 1955, when Russia invaded Hungry the air base was put on alert. I was on guard duty, 24:00 to 2:00, in freezing rain. with a parka shell to protect from the weather, a M-30 carbing, sut no ammunition. The ice storm was raging so bad there was no way that I would need any ammunition. What fool would be out there anyway. By the way, there is one place around the C119 to find protection from bad weather, and there locked up, can't get inside. My relief came and I was glad to say goodbye to that big hulk. Broke about a half inch shell of ice off my parka and had to be helped into the deuce and a half. Never got to see the inside of one.

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Lot of Memories.Stationed in Ashiya 52-54, 319th TC SQ Packet Rats. Flew to Haiphong via Okinowa to Clark AFB where US markings were removed and replaced with French Markings, then onto a secluded base in Indo China named Touraine.90 day TDY. French Forces lost their stronghold at DenBinFu (excuse spelling) and we departed In a hurry I might add. While there the French hired Civilian Pilots to drop supplies to the encircled French Forces. I later learned that no US Forces were knowmed to be in Indo China. The base came under small arms fire at night but were always beaten off by the French Military. Most of our C-119s returned to Clark pretty well shot up but.all returned safley . I often think about my AirCraft Commander, one Captain Knebusch who I most respected.

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