Flying the Freedom Birds: Flights Home

Posted on June 30, 2023 by Roger Young

Brought to my attention by Silver Spur President, John ‘Waldo’ Pepper:

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About Roger Young

Roger "Bear" Young served with the Silver Spurs as a Scout crew chief and Line Chief from Dec '69 through Nov '70. Upon his return to the "world" he served at Hunter AAF as a Cobra Periodic Inspection team leader. He founded the Spur website in Sept 1997.
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One Response to Flying the Freedom Birds: Flights Home

  1. Denny Caldwell says:
    July 3, 2023 at 9:48 am

    Interesting post. Thanks to the airline crews and especially the flight attendants who did their best to bring us safely home from such a mess. They suffered, too.
    My “freedom bird” experience was much different in mid-October ’69. Many of us on this flight had been dodging bullets only a couple of days before. Taxiing for a mid-day departure from TSN, our plane became stuck on the parallel taxiway because an F-100 fighter on the alert pad was parked too close to the taxiway and some malfunction prevented it being moved. We sat, engines running, burning fuel for maybe ten minutes, feeling like a fine, juicy target for a VC rocket or mortar crew if they had been watching, until the ground handlers finally moved the F-100 out of our way so we could get to the runway and take off. Throughout the boarding, door-closing, taxiing, takeoff and departure, there was pretty much dead silence in the plane except for the customary seat belt briefing from the flight attendants. No clapping, cheering, or anything. Hardly a word was spoken among us the whole flight home.

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