I Always Wanted to Fly: America's Cold War Airmen

3. ‘‘Ramp Rats’’: The Men Who Kept Them Flying

Chapter 3 ‘‘Ramp Rats’’ The Men Who Kept Them Flying German mechanics were extensively used to balance airmen shortages. The incentives for German aircraft workers were one free meal per day, inexpensive clothing and free billets. Berlin Airlift: A USAFE Summary Things were different then. If a man said he could do the job, the retort from the boss was, ‘‘Have at it.’’ I really think that all of us believed we could do anything. Tom Etherson, Berlin Airlift C-54 maintenance man and flight engineer The first things that come to mind when speaking of the Berlin Airlift are the airplanes and their pilots. In the final analysis, they made the airlift happen. Thoughts then turn to the vast tonnages of food and coal delivered and to the number of missions flown. Finally, one recalls the men who died to save Berlin. Often forgotten are the men who 72 ‘‘Ramp Rats’’ kept those airplanes flying—who sealed leaking fuel tanks, busted their knuckles trying to change recalcitrant sparkplugs, swept snow off wings with push brooms, and changed lightbulbs in two-story-high vertical stabilizers. These men worked twenty-four hours a day in rain, sunshine , and snow to keep the airplanes flying, to make the Berlin Airlift a success. Rarely did anyone think to run hot coffee and donuts out to the men on the line. Rarely did anyone ask if they were warm enough out on the open-air engine dock. Rarely did anyone wonder how they could change an engine in the rain and driving snow. But the sergeants and airmen kept working—grousing, yes, even fighting back when the opportunity presented itself. The men on the line, the ‘‘ramp rats’’ of Rhein-Main, Wiesbaden, Celle, and Fassberg, never neglected to keep the airplanes flying. Master Sergeant Thomas W. Etherson Tom Etherson was a ramp rat at RAF Celle. Tom was born in 1927 in Blissville, New York, a place, he insists, that no longer exists. He was a less than enthusiastic student, and with the war going on, he was looking for an opportunity to escape into the real world. His opportunity came when he turned sixteen. The Merchant Marine accepted young men at age sixteen, while the army and navy required youngsters to be at least seventeen years old. After learning how to launch and steer a lifeboat, Tom shipped out for the Mediterranean in May 1944, just short of his seventeenth birthday. He found it a long and boring trip. He made one more trip to Sicily and the south of France in 1945, and upon turning seventeen, he jumped ship and joined the army. Tom recalls being among a thousand or so basic trainees ordered to fall out on a parade ground. A sergeant walked down the line of recruits, counting off ranks and ordering men to the left and right. Those on the right, including Tom, were assigned to the Army Air Force. He wound up at Keesler Field near Biloxi, Mississippi, where he acquired the skills of an aircraft mechanic. From there he shipped out to Pan73 The Berlin Airlift, 1948 ama, and in February 1947 he elected to get out of the Army Air Force and went off to New York City. New York was cold and gray when he got there, the streets covered in snow and slush. Tom soon discovered he preferred a warmer climate and promptly reenlisted to escape the cold of New York. Some place warmer turned out to be Tachikawa Air Base, Japan. ‘‘Duty in Japan wasn’t bad. I worked on the C-54 aircraft engine maintenance docks. We had two men per engine plus the people needed for the general maintenance inspections, about fifteen men total per aircraft. We worked an eight-hour day, five days a week. The aircraft and engines were run through the wash rack before being towed into the covered docks. We used the checklists of Pan American Airlines . Our working conditions weren’t bad. Living conditions weren’t bad either. A Japanese houseboy took care of the barracks for a pack of cigarettes a week. He made my bed and ran a rag over my shoes. The chow was plenty good, and there was lots of it. The vegetables were grown on a hydroponic farm since the local produce was grown using human waste, called ‘‘honey.’’ Most of the meat came frozen from the States, and...