“It will not fly without an engineer’s seat”

Published July 8, 2006
By Chief Master Sgt. Bill Hamilton
317th Airlift Squadron

CHARLESTON AFB, S.C. -- COMMENTARY -- May 5-6 marked the final flights of the C-141 and the turnover of the last flying C-141 to the Air Force Museum. Nearly 1,300 people showed up for the grand old lady’s finale. There were approximately 1,000 former C-141 crewmembers in attendance with almost two million flying hours between them.

Those of us from Charleston Air Force Base watched her pass through our lives and off the tarmac back in 2000. Many of her former crewmembers retired, some followed her to other bases, and those left behind began new flying careers in the C-17 Globemaster III.
The C-141, much like the C-17, had a break-in period in the mid-1960s. The Vietnam War was raging and the C-141 proved herself quickly by making the world seem a little smaller as she closed the distances and seemingly moved the time zones closer together in replacing the Air Force’s prime airlifter of the day, the C-124 Globemaster II.

The C-17 came to us under similar circumstances in the mid-1990s. First there was conflict in the Balkans, primarily Bosnia, and the C-17 quickly became the airlifter of choice due to its heavy lift capability, short field performance and reliability of a new weapon system. By 1999 there was a crisis and conflict in Kosovo, and she was heavily involved again. On Sept. 11, 2001, the whole world as we knew it changed and the C-17 became the United States’ primary spear carrier as we engaged in combat in the Middle East – first in Afghanistan and later in Iraq as we battled global terrorism worldwide.

Many people thought this would never happen…there is no way you could replace the C-141, they said. Many of these were flight engineers who couldn’t believe a large airplane could fly without their services. A lot of them were my close friends, and we’ve continued to throw verbal jabs at each other in a good natured way about their demise.

The 317th Airlift Squadron was the first Air Force Reserve squadron to covert to the C-17 and one of the few C-17 squadrons which never flew the C-141, although many of us have roots in the Starlifter. One thing we have in our squadron recreation room is an old C-141 flight engineer chair.

Knowing that, we decided to take the chair up to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for the C-141 farewell as we would have several of those old, crusty retired C-141 flight engineers onboard for the first time flying space available on a C-17. We “reactivated” the old flight engineer chair and strapped it down to the floor next to the other sidewall seats and waited for our passengers. There was a lot of laughs and good-natured kidding as they entered the aircraft and saw the chair. Many sat in it, and photos were made.

We returned it to our squadron recreation room at the end of the flight but will place a small plaque on the chair in the future noting it logged an additional 3.5 flying hours onboard a C-17 Globemaster III.

C-141 Chair