Don Paul Email
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997
Hi Ted:Sometime in September '51, it must have been Indian Summer and quite hot, we loaded the F84's with two 500 lb bombs and two Jato bottles each.
Those poor birds were so under-powered they needed rockets to get them off the ground in hot weather. One pilot apparently couldn't fire his Jato bottles so as he approached the end of our 10,000 foot PSP runway he saw he wasn't going to make it, so he jettisoned the two 500 lb bombs which proceeded to skid down the runway at over 100 mph.
He probably toggled them off with the arming wires in place but they probably got pulled out during their journey. As a result both of the bombs went off and blew the end of the runway off!
The airplane was long gone when this happened but our tents, which were fairly close, didn't fair so well. I remember coming into the tent, it was still light outside, and looking up at the tent top!. It looked like the stars were out!! It was badly perforated and needed some repair before the next rain storm.
Don.
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