[Milsurplus] Your Tax Dollars At Work, part nnnnnn

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

One of my profs in school told me similar stories from WWII. He said he
watched brand new leather flight jackets dumped in a pile, gas poured over
them, and burned. He said there was so much stuff that releasing it for
sale on an already feeble consumer market (due to 4+ years of war) would've
really messed up the economy and driven some companies out of business.

Same thing with a bunch of radio gear. He specifically mentioned the
'airborne SX-28' - a dump truck full of new, unissued radios slowly dumped
them in a line on the runway. Following behind was a bulldozer which ran
over them and crushed them into scrap. Same reasoning.

Another old timer was a SeaBee in the South Pacific. He told stories of
pushing planes over the cliff at the end of one of the runways, and also
shoving more off the ship on his way home.

More recently I was chatting with a fellow in NC who has a car stored for
me. He came here from Oz and was into warbirds before the move (had to sell
his Spitfire project due to the move). He mentioned an island where
apparently, to this day, there are (I think) P-39 Airacobras sitting in
crates where they were unloaded. He said the island hopping campaign was
moving so fast in that area that they just left them behind. I'd never
heard of them being used in the Pacific, so I'll recheck his email.

Some of it certainly makes sense - tired, shot up, worn out equipment
wasn't worth the effort or expense of moving. Maybe a lot of newer stuff,
too.

On Sun, Mar 12, 2017 at 7:21 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com
> wrote:

> When I was a much younger ham, I was told a similar story by one of my
> Elmers who was a
> WWII vet.
>
> He was in Alaska at some small airbase at the end of WWII. As I remember
> it, it was in the
> Aleutians somewhere. FAR out in the sticks.
>
> His commander was told to get rid of everything in inventory except what
> was immediately
> needed for the troops to come home.
>
> When he asked what he was supposed to do with the stuff, he was told
> "Throw it in the fire".
>
> So, he had a long thin bonfire constructed down some portion of the length
> of the runway, lit it
> off, then had his men "throw the stuff in the fire".
>
> He had notified the people who lived in the town to which the airbase was
> attached, and had
> them come out to the base. His men lined up, started throwing the stuff in
> the fire, while the
> towns people lined up on the other side of the bonfire and caught the
> stuff as it came flying
> through the flames.
>
> Blankets, cots, clotheing, food, first aid items, radios, medical
> supplies, kitchen supplies,
> tents, tools, spare parts, everything possible, etc.
>
> I don't remember all of the items, but my Elmer was quite specific at the
> time. I can
> remember him shaking his head as he told some of us of it.
>
> Ken W7EKB
>
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