Fairchild C-119 "Boxcar", Background Information
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There was very little literature on the Fairchild C-119s and no reference books on the individual C-119 individual histories, when I started these C-119 Info Pages. I started these pages in an attempt to learn a little more about 'the Dollar Nineteen'; when I started Wikipedia wasn't available yet!
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Ernest Kaiser wrote me in july 2012: I was with the 456th, Sq 744, in 1953, '54, until we parted, they to Okinawa, myself to Greenville AFB.A few items I'd like to contribute to your C-119 pages: The F model was marked with the lower boom fin. The engines we R-3350-85, turbocompound. The 119s came in two variants, Fairchild and Kaiser. The Kaiser model had an escape hatch in the cockit, just ahead of the entry ladder, a handle which would allow you to pull up the floor panel, which automatically released the outer panel, making a clear opening out of the cockpit. In late 1953, the GM's hydromatic transmission plant burned down (fact). Charlie Wilson, former GM pres, was secretary of defence (fact), the defence dept canceled Kaiser's contract to build 119s at Willow Run (fact, I went there to load parts from the plant, which we took to Charleston AFB) , GM took over Willow Run to make hydromatics (fact). Interesting item: the 119s used water/alcohol injection for the 3350-85s. two 50 gal tanks, one on each side. The tanks had a cast magnesium screen to filter large items (pea sized), the alcohol slowly was dissolving the magnesium casting, it made a greenish slime. I wrote up the problem, but nothing happened while I was still there. I was sure that eventually it would cause an engine failure, but..??? My experiences, plus a few more. Ernest P. Kaiser A/1st USAF. 1952-1956> |
 Robert Jordan sent me this in nov.2012, and he wrote: "Here’s a C-119 I photographed landing at DaNang in 1971 or 72. It has '161' on the nose." Robert Jordan, Radar Operator at the 620th TCS 71-72 'Motel' TACC, 620th TCS Monkey Mtn Vietnam ASM ISO/T 72-74 Kindsbach COC, Germany (Det 1, 615th AC&W) SDO 77-78 Watertown, NY, 655th AC&W |
Came across this photo on a Dutch (claims Wikipedia as source) website: http://www.kennislink.nl/publicaties/dossier-vijftig-jaar-ruimtevaart
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| Mark Schroeder did me the pleasure of sending me these images from his collection; he wrote: "I have some assorted photographs and back stories on some planes you may find interesting. I live in Anchorage and am from Fairbanks, so I am no stranger to the old prop planes!"
The photo shows a C-119 with USMC tailcode QD and the BuNo. shows as 13..00. When QD was assigned to C-130B's they were based at Kessler AFB,MS with 815TAS/459TAW: perhaps a clue? -Webmaster. |
| Colleen Rankin sent me this in Feb.2013, she wrote: "I live very remote, on Afognak Island, about 80 miles north of Kodiak, Alaska. While doing beach cleanups this summer we found something that we felt was an airplane part, wrapped up in fishing net and it had made its way to shore. The part has honeycomb between the inner and outer wall. A friend did some research and found out about Warm Wind Three, a C-119 that disappeared in November of 1952 on a flight from Anchorage to Kodiak... Do you know anyone that may be able to confirm if this could be part of that aircraft? It is of a size that might be an engine cowling."  The Aviation Safety Network database provided details on 'Warm Wind Three': Sharon Land Kraft wrote me in August 2015, with another suggestion.
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Ed Hobson sent me this in March 2013. 
Checking the Aviation Safety Network database, I found USAF C-119C 49-161 (c/n 10398) crashing at sea in 1953, only 24 km NNE of Ashiya Air Force Base (link). Was 49-161 towed ashore and stored at Ashiya AB? The Korean War was from 1950 - 1953. The C-119 was a major transport for the US airforces. UPDATE SENT SEP.2013 BY TED QUACKENBUSH:
James Harvey Knauss wrote me in april 2013: "You have done a good job of presenting one of the world’s worst airplanes.
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Fsgt Leon Murtagh, RAAF C-47 Dakota pilot Korean War : career photos 1948 - 1953 You'll find many photos of transports here, including the C-119. Thanks to Neil Morrison for sharing this link. |
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Henry Young did me the pleasure of sending these photos. When I asked him what he did at the time and how he came in the opportunity to make these photos, he wrote:
On this website http://www.c82packet.com/stewarddavis1.html N383S was described as "... From 1970, Steward-Davis began supplying US C-119G operators with their Jet-Pak 3402 kits, up to 29 were eventually sold. N383S (c/n 10999) was registered to Hawkins & Powers of Greybull,WY and flown as Tanker 133.
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Here is another website with details on the 01Oct1966 crash: www.av.qnet.com/~carcomm/wreck25.htm |
| Paul Weston sent me these images, of his flying days in the early 1980s, in Alaska:
Here's Kaiser-Frazer C-119L N8504W (c/n 259) at Dahl Creek,Alaska: Paul wrote: |
Richard B. Gifford sent me this interesting account in Feb.2015: The C-119 wasn't a very good airplane, and it taught this young pilot
how to deal with serious emergencies quite often. It did have two
outstanding features: It had a world-class deicing system and there
was no published crosswind limitation in the book. I've landed it in
a direct 55 knot crosswind, and I've known pilots who bettered that. |
| Murray wrote me Oct.2014 (but did not get round to adding it until may 2015): "I looked through your website regarding the Packet, Fairchild C-119 with which I did have some experience. I was trained as an airborne radio operator at Keesler AFB and at graduation, November 1954, was assigned to the 816th Troop Carrier Squadron ('The Packet Rats') of the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing, Ashiya in Japan. With our lack of loadmasters, I was also cross-trained to handle those operations as well. I had both good and bad experiences with the C-119G.  I was crewing on 52-5929 on a 'ball-buster' flight from Ashiya to Tachikawa to Seoul, then on to other South Korean bases before returning to Ashiya. I had boarded 13 typical passengers plus a nattily dressed army major plus his faithful travelling companion, a tech sergeant who were the paymaster accompanying 6 1/2 million in US$ MPC certificates packed in 12 wooden crates and bound for Seoul.... The funds had been delivered by an armoured car accompanied by a weapons carrier with a mounted 50cal machine gun(manned and loaded). We took the active runway and everything looked and felt normal. We started our takeoff roll and at about 60mph our starboard prop reversed pitch. We spun off the active onto the grass while our left seat (I think his name was Capt. Fox but I'm not certain) grabbed the controls and reversed pitch on the port prop and brought the aircraft to a stop. I contacted 'space control' and advised them of our situation and requested a bus to take our passengers back to the terminal. Almost immediately, the armoured car pulled up and demanded that we unload the money ASAP and we did. A bus did arrive to take our passengers away and we called for a tug to take us to a hardstand so we could figure out what happened.  C-119 12574/57 'Packet Rats' I checked 51-2574 on Joe Baugher's website and found: Fairchild C-119C-23-FA Flying, found a serial batch 51-2557/2584 - but no details on 51-2574. From that batch I concluded (right or wrong..) the airframe c/n (or msn) should be 10532. This aircraft was a conversion to the 3350/aeroprop combination and was not the first to run into the reversing problem. We spent the next 30 days at the prop lab at Tachikawa (thankfully they had one!) and discovered that the prop regulator conversions had been shipped to Japan without 'pickling' and with original fluids inside and the condition of the fluids was never checked after the conversion. They had lost their viscosity and damaged the pitch controls and had to be replaced.  I remember all C-119G conversions were put AOCP until new regulators were shipped to replace the bad ones. The four of us were stuck in transient crew quarters and the only money we had was a daily allowance supplied by our pilot, enough for cigarettes and burgers. We had to send for spare underwear and socks not knowing when we would be able to return to Ashiya; it was a month later! A side note: This occurred in March of 1955, just after all aircrews had been given a lecture by our Operations Officer about the Ashiya C-119 that had gone down in the Sea of Japan earlier that month with the loss of 3 of its 7 crewmen. It seems the 'after-event' report told the story: All 5 cockpit crew left the aircraft via the escape chute located just forward of the jump seat and with the yellow "T" handle, the first time this chute had been successfully used to our knowledge. All 5 had chutes open properly but one man drowned before the 5 were a picked up by local Japanese fishing boats. The other two deaths were the two spare crewmen who had sacked out laying on their parachutes in the cargo compartment when the event occurred. The aircraft went into a violent spin as one prop regulator had reversed in flight and the two crewmen were unable to don their parachutes due to centrifugal force and leave the aircraft before it spun into the sea... We also had a report that another identically-equipped C-119 had gone into a Korean mountain, killing all aboard and assumed for the same reason.  One shameful incident: We were responsible for mounting and dismounting the IFF transceiver in the ceiling of the fuselage before and after each flight. This was a heavy piece of apparatus that had to be slid onto 2 rails and screwed down for safety. On one flight, i had inadvertently mis-alligned the mount and the screw-downs had not properly caught. During the flight, vibration caused the IFF to get loose and it fell out of the ceiling onto the shoulder of one of our passengers. |
Jim Blackburn wrote me in May 2015: This was with the 6614th Air Transport Squadron at Harmon AFB in Western Newfoundland. In the article is a photo of one of our planes making an air delivery of 55 gallon drums of fuel to a site on the Greenland Ice cap. We were on a summer resupply mission out of Thule AFB inGreenland. JIM BLACKBURN'S 'ARCTIC ADVENTURES' (.pdf document) |
Del Mitchell sent me this image a year ago, in june 2014; he asked for help on its history. What a truly magnificent photo! (January 2010)Good thing it found a fine new home, read on below... What do we have on this C-119 Flying Boxcar. Its serial 80352 would translate to USAF serial 48-0352, c/n 10334; preserved by AFTC Museum, Edwards AFB in California. 80352 is currently stored at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum on Edwards Air Force Base. CA. More I could not find and I would welcome more details, about ownership and also (e.g.) about its service record: EMAIL Scott Minshall wrote me in March 2016: Some very welcome news was published 02Jan17 on warbirdnews.com: "A true piece of American history that has sat in the Mojave Desert for decades and was slated to be turned into scrap metal will now have a new home at the Air Mobility Command Museum. A C-5M Super Galaxy, operated by the 709th Airlift Squadron, and an AMC Museum team traveled to Edwards Air Force Base (16-19Dec2016), to transport portions of the Fairchild C-119B Flying Boxcar 48-0352 'Am Can Co Special' to the AMC Museum at Dover AFB for restoration and display." The above news prompted Del Mitchell in sending a few more images of C-119 48-0352:
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"I was assigned to the 17th Sq. @ Donaldson AFB,Greenville S.C. 10/53 flying C-119C.
My brother, Ferdinand M. Kinnier, was in the 18th Sq. at the same time. Transferred Neubiberg AFB 7/54, flying the C-119G. In May 1956 I was made Instructor Pilot for the C-119G. While at Neubi, I supervised the flight simulator at Frankfort for 30 days and conducted test pilot duties at Burtonwood, England following corrections to the reverse system and installation of dual nose wheels. I thought the the engine was fine and had little trouble. I did think it was 3250 cubic inch engine. Had one problem with the turbine, with 28 paratroopers aboard. Kept the engine going and got back to base no problem. I am getting to the point that I cannot remember the names of the pilots involved." Edgar O. Kinnier Jr. ('Kinny') PS "I neglected to say I was in the 40th TCS at Neubiberg." |
| LeRoy W. Boardman wrote me in may 2016: "I was stationed at Nellis AFB, from 1959 to Jan 1963, in the 4520th APRON. I remember flying in the C-119 to Tyndall AFB,FL in 1962 for the Cuban Crisis. On the way back, we stayed overnight in Amarillo,TX. We left that morning and somewhere over New Mexico the right prop run away; but they rcovered from it and we flew on to Nellis AFB,NV. I still like that airplane though! It was so long ago that some of the memory is fading, but I always loved airplanes and later became a Flight Instructor and Corporate Pilot. Loved your article." |
Alaska Dispatch News (ADN) had a nice feature ain June 2016: a C-119 wreck survives as a shed in Shageluk, Alaska!  This Kaiser-Frazer C-119L Flying Boxcar N8504X was a former USAF transport (53-8142; c/n 7982). The type became a fairly popular commercial transport for use in Alaska, but also fell victim to rugged use in an unsophisticated aviation environment. A number of C-119s dot the Alaska landscape, but this one actually found some use after it was wrecked! ASN has the details of the crash: A few details from the ADN article by Laurel Andrews: In March 1987, Shageluk's Innoko River School burned down. This C-119, at the time commissioned by a contractor, was enlisted to bring in supplies. On 13May1987 the C-119 went in for a landing, but fell short... None of the five people aboard the plane were injured, but the plane was written off.
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Brian Murray noticed the C-119 dossier on my website and contributed this image (Nov.2016).  C-119 234 during 1950s somewhere in Germany Brian wrote:"Hi, thought you might be interested in this photo, taken somewhere in Germany, late 1950s, by a friend named Lee who used to work as maintenance crew for this aircraft." |
Jim Roode shared his C-119 memories with me (dec.2016):
"Between 1964 and the end of 1965 I was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. During that time I made several jumps from C 119's. On one occasion the pilot, with what was probably an overloaded airplane (only overloaded for takeoff, right?) aborted the take off, turned around and went back to the other end. As we passed the start of the pavement at the beginning of the runway I knew this was going to be interesting! He went as far as he could before doing a 180, revving up the engines, and starting the takeoff again; this time starting in the dirt. The old airplane bounced down the dirt runway, each bounce getting a little higher... and finally lifted off, clearing the telephone lines at the end of the runway by less than their height... Was glad to exit that one!" |
| Gordon Tatro sent me this 03Feb2017; he wrote:"Any ideas about this incident? Notice the prop is not bent nor feathered: caused by a ground accident? Notice the gash in fuselage at wing root? Picture taken about 1950-60s. Notice it is at Logan Airport in Massachusetts: a USAF plane at a civilian airport? I know the owner of this photo, Peter Waltz, the person standing there is his father, Alden E. Waltz."  The four-bladed prop and double-main wheels make this a C-119, as C-82 had 3-blade props and a single mainwheel. Purpose of a C-119 visiting Logan Field could be the Air National Guard unit stationed here, e.g. the 101st Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS; MA ANG).
Gordon responded to my initial idea of an inflight accident and immediate diversion to Logan: About Gordon Tatro, see www.westin553.net/batcat16.htm which has this... Peter Waltz continues:"A little history on my Dad. He graduated from Aircraft Maintenance School in april 1942 with an FAA certificate for 'Engine and Propeller Maintenance'. Well, going back to this picture, I would guess that he was looking over the damage as a curiosity while on break. Maybe he witnessed whatever happened. I do agree that whatever happened, happened on the ground (see observations below).
Photo observations:
I (Webmaster, RL) checked my bookcase and found in 'United States Military Aviation: The Air Force' (Robert J. Archer, Midland Counties Publications, 1980) in the chapter on Military Airlift Command a page with the badges of 12 MAC Wings and found among them the one for 317th TAW a close match... In Alwyn T. Lloyd's book 'Fairchild C-82 Packet and C-119 Flying Boxcar' (AeroFax, Ian Allen Publishing, 2005) I found reference to 317th TCG based in Europe at Rhein-Main AB, West Germany (1952-1953), Neubiberg AB, West Germany (1953-1957) and Evreux-Fauville AB, France (1957-1958). Peter volunteered on the period the photo may have been taken: "As far as the incident date is concerned I no believe my guess of 1949 to 1950 was incorrect as the 317th History shows C-119's were used starting in 1952. See www.dyess.af.mil/Portals/145/Docs/AFD-150210-038.pdf " Someone suggested "Hanscom AFB is about 20 miles NW of Logan Field. Is it possible that the guy wearing the Logan Airport coat just happens to be standing at Hanscom AFB when that photo was taken?" Peter Waltz forwarded the email he received in Oct.2017 upon his query |
An exquiste update by Ron Mak (his propliner gallery PAGE ONE - TWO - THREE), added 25Feb2017:
The above airframe history would make it the same airframe as the Belgian Air Force C-119 CP-9 below!
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| My gateway to various C-119 pages External links: |
Chuck Lunsford wrote a book about his days as a radio operator onboard the C-119: "Departure Message"
He also wrote a novel, featuring the C-119 Flying Boxcar, called "Boxcar Down, the Albanian Incident" Both books can be bought through Amazon.com and are also available as eBook for Kindle! |
| Charles 'Chuck' Lunsford (76) succumbed to cancer; he passed away on 21Sep12. I will miss our regular correspondence on the C-119 and less mundane subjects. I learned much from him and shared the information on the C-119 Information Pages, esspecially at a time when so little on this aircraft had been published in writing. Rest in peace, old friend. - Ruud Leeuw, webmaster |
| Another writer, Larry E. Fletcher (ex USAF Captain), used his personal experience to write a novel about the C-119 Gunship in Vietnam: "Shadows of Saigon, Air Commandos in SE Asia". Update Jan.2014: the book CHARLIE CHASERS – History of USAF AC-119 “Shadow” Gunships in the Vietnam War – was published by Hellgate Press in 2013. My website is www.shadowgunships.com. Hardback, Paperback, and Ebooks are available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and from the publisher at http://hellgatepress.com. |
For a long time the Fairchild C-119 had my (RL) special interest, for there was little in print. Now (2025) Simon D. Beck has published a book after many years of research! "Hope you might post a few pictures of my new book on the C-119, which covers the full histories of all 1.185 Boxcars built. Something many people have been looking for. It is available in print or as an e-book at Amazon and most other online book websites or from the publisher at McFarland. Google searches easily bring up any shopping site."  While I have not seen a copy in print it seems the real deal, finally! Disclaimer: I do not benefit in any way from the sales of this book. |
 To email me, click on the image and write the correct adress as given below (replace -AT- by the @ symbol).  Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is because spam has increasingly become a problem.
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'Miss Cape Ann'
"Let'er go ... Catch'er next time" by H.Abe 1957
Little remains of this Fairchild C-119F N2700 (c/n10689). I don't know in which movie this airframe played a part, if ever, but it must have been quite some time ago. 
The cockpit is in even worse condition.
