By: Steve Pearce
The mission of our C-130 unit in country was to fly things around. We flew food, ammunition, people, vehicles, etc. We hauled “stuff”. In the GI vernacular we were trash haulers.
Two of the most desired commodities were mail ferried in from home and feature films which made their way from one base to the next. Each small outpost would have its own version of a movie theater so Army and Marine troops would meet the planes with high expectations of what films and mail would be there.
One day, in late 1971 our crew was on such a mission. When we hit the ground all 4 of us crew members helped get the cargo off so that our turnaround time was minimal. It cut the exposure time to both the oppressive heat and to enemies who might want to take advantage of the big slow targets but who would need precious minutes to get themselves in position for our departure.
On this particular day a young soldier, bare chest, wearing just his camo jungle hat and fatigue bottoms was pouring sweat as he rammed the forklift around. Immediately, our entire crew began to step back out of his way. He was either angry or high and the articulating forklift was jackknifed first this way, then that way as he offloaded and slung pallets around. His own helpers were wary of being hit as he carelessly flung the cargo around.
The films were the last thing to offload and we could be on our way.
He stuck the forks carelessly into the pallet slots, jammed the forklift into reverse and slammed backward. The pallet came off the forks slinging the bundled films off the pallet. He angrily threw the machine into forward gear, crammed the throttle open and lurched forward, running the front wheel over the entire bundle of films. Then, in anger he slammed back into reverse and backed over them, mashing them beyond use.
At this point the aircraft commander could see the anger building among the soldiers who were gathered around waiting for the mail and films. With a silent sign we all piled into the C-130, closed the back loading ramp, cranked engines and left the angry gathering with only the forklift operator to blame.
