"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
George Z. Bush wrote:
Stephen Harding wrote:

I'll ask my mother for info as to where my father might have been
flying during the 51-55 time frame. Could be another "small world"
episode in the making!

Please do....who knows where our paths may have crossed?

Hey George, my mother directed me towards a mug my father
got sometime in 1953-54 for us two (at the time) kids.

It has my name "Steve" on it along with the Japanese equivalent
(I presume) under it. A red seal with a yellow bee in leather
flying helmet and goggles, carrying something with each pair of
its legs, and a star and bar emblem under one of its wings. A
banner under the seal says "21st Troop Carrier Squadron". On the
back a C-54 is pictured with "Bee liners" under it.

I still have a few of those kinds of mugs we all had made while we were there.
Mine had a USAF insignia on one side, and the words "344th Troop Carrier
Squadron" and "Fat Cats" around a cartoon depiction of a smiling pot bellied cat
slouched in a chair holding onto a cocktail glass. A half century later, I
still have a few of them left and occasionally have a beer in one and smile as I
drink from it.

He obtained this while stationed at Tachi in the 53-54 time
period, but apparently was also in the various Japanese bases
you mentioned too from time to time.

What I found especially interesting is that he was basically
"commuting to work". Used Japan as a base and running stuff
back and forth (and everywhere) from Korea and I think focused
on helping out the French in Indochina at the time.

Is this what you were doing too? Of course the hop to Korea
from Japan isn't especially large. A bit more of a haul to
Vietnam. I think it's very likely you guys crossed each
others paths at the time.

We also used to do that kind of stuff. We were in and out of Korea almost on a
daily basis, and sometimes to some of the smaller, hairier places where 4 engine
planes wouldn't safely fit. When I first got there, the vast preponderence of
our flights were into and out of Korea. Later on, we also got some of the
intra-Japan traffic, as well as flights to Okinawa, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Although I never went on one of those flights, we also used to have flights to
Hanoi by way of Taiwan. As I recall, we had to cover up our USAF insignia
before departing home base, and our aircrews always wore civilian clothing.

Interesting times, those. BTW, we used to import fresh fruit and veggies from
Taiwan, and learned from that that Taiwanese pineapples were as good as if not
better than the Hawaiian variety.

George Z.