[ARC5] Hamming of Surplus Equipment

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com
> wrote:

> On 14 Oct 2012 at 14:29, Robert  Eleazer wrote:
>
> > Relative to the subject question, a college professor told me that in
> > 1945 he was directed to destroy 100 B-25's in southern Germany by
> > means of explosives and burying the remains - and specifically was
> > told by a general officer that he would NOT remove the radio equipment
> > for use by US forces there.
>
> I think all of us can relate similar stories: I have heard at least three.
>

One of my profs in college (the one who traded me the BC-455B and helped me
'modify' it) provided two instances I recall. One was new/unissued A2
leather flight jackets being piled on the ground and burned. Another was a
dump truck load of NIB receivers (the re-packaged airborne SX-28s, can't
remember the mil number) being slowly dumped in a line along a runway then
run over with a dozer. He said the reasoning was that sending all vs some
of the surplus back would've driven some companies out of business.

Another story came from a SeaBee who told me about shoving aircraft off
carriers and also pushing them off a steep cliff into the ocean somewhere
in the south Pacific post war.

Though on a more controlled level, scrapping goes on today in AZ with
surplussed aircraft. At least some of them get a second lease on life.

~ Todd/KAQ