How do you drop a jeep from an airplane at 1500 feet and not destroy it?
Oh, by the way. It’s 1965.
Well, you find an outstanding, young navigator with a superb aircrew and a reliable C-130 Hercules aircraft. Then you pray a lot.
Airdrop was the most challenging, uncertain and stressful mission for this naviguesser.
We would load the item to be airdropped. Say a jeep. Our loadmaster had the job of preparing it for airdrop and rigging the airdrop release equipment.
On this particular training mission at Charleston AFB we were to fly about a one hour navigation pattern and airdrop a jeep on North Field in North, SC ( I kid you not). This was a typical airdrop training mission for our flying squadron.
After takeoff, the navigator, me, would direct the aircraft over the navigation route and give five timed warnings. Each warning had a checklist attached to it for each crew position. 15, 10, 5, 3, and 1-minute warnings. Then he would countdown to the “ Green Light” signal at which the loadmaster would release the load. Hopefully, the jeep would float on the parachute attached and land safely on the drop zone.
On this slightly ill fated mission the loadmaster got one checklist ahead by mistake. So at the 10 minute warning he executed the 5 minute warning checklist. He was to release the left lock of the extraction equipment at the one-minute warning and the final right lock on green light at which the jeep would be extracted from the C-130 and float harmlessly to the drop zone.
Remember, the Loadmaster was one checklist ahead , so at the 3-minute warning he unlocked the left side and when the navigator ( me) said “One minute warning” he unlocked the right side RELEASING the jeep ( about one minute or two miles early).
We dropped that damned jeep right in Farmer Brown’s cemetery. Luckily missing graves and blessedly not hurting anybody. Also luckily, Farmer Brown was a patriot and pro Air Force and only wanted us to clean up our mess. The loadmaster was a student, so his instructor was downgraded and received additional instructor training. The navigator, me, was held blameless, but has never forgotten the incident. ( obviously).
