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426 "Thunderbird" Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force History Part 6 |
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Operation Hawk -
War broke out on the Korean Peninsular on 25 June 1950. Approximately
one month later it was confirmed that "Thunderbirds" would deploy
to McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington. From there they would
operate as a unit of the USAF Military Air Transport System(MATS). Six
aircraft with twelve crews and 180 support personnel on board left Dorval
Airport in formation over Montreal, then over the Peace Tower in Ottawa,
where the body of The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon W. L. MacKenzie King
was lying in state. After over flying to Toronto, the Squadron broke formation
and the aircraft proceeded individually to McChord arriving early on 26
July. The operational plan called for one departure every morning; aircraft
would be flown at 150 hours and aircrew at 110 hours per month. Three
aircraft departed McChord on 27 July with slip crews and servicing personnel
to set up the North Pacific route through Anchorage and Shemya to Haneda
AFB at Tokyo. The round trip was 10,000 miles, the flying time was in
the order of 50 hours depending of course on the weather conditions and
enroute winds. Flying operations involved long crew days and particularly
challenging weather conditions at the terminals along the Aleutian chain
of islands where high winds and low clouds or fog were the norm. Many
aircrew flew in excess of the planned rate of 110 hours per month and
on occasion some individuals exceeded the 200 hour mark.
The statistics for the Squadron on the Korean airlift are impressive. In just under four years, 599 round trips were made to the Far East. This entailed a total of 34,000 flying hours without loss of cargo or a single passenger. No one was injured on flight operations which was a miracle when one considers the numerous incidents and "near misses". 426 Squadron continues to this day as a training squadron in Trenton, Ontario, the result of the amalgamation of 4(T)Operational Training Unit and 4 Field Technical Training Unit. |
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