A mentor of mine once told me a story of when he was a young airman in Special Operations. They were developing a new recovery method called the "STAR" or Surface to Air Recovery, it was invented by a gentleman named Robert Fulton who the Great (x?)...grandson of THE Robert Fulton we've all read about for inventing the steam powered ship. Apparently inventing runs in the family. STAR is also known as the Fulton Recovery System. If you've seen the John Wayne movie "Green Berets", or perhaps a James Bond movie or Batman you may have seen how it works. If not, here is a link from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5GJ4cu311o
During the testing they wanted to see how the system worked with live weight, without putting a human at risk. Since it was designed to lift two men they figured they would use a 500 lb. pig. The plan was to sedate the pig, lift it into the aircraft and then herd it into a crate and bring it home.
The testing was being done over the airdrop ranges around Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Everything went as planned on pick up. The pig was successfully lifted into the trail position and began the process of being winched onto the airplane. It was only when they got it to the ramp that they realized it was no longer sedated.
As they brought it on board they had one really pissed off porker to deal with. They unhooked it from the harness and tried to push it into the pen. Instead the pig took off squealing and shitting all over the cargo compartment. After running around the front of the plane it went charging off the ramp into space, falling from about 2,000 feet to the North Carolina countryside.
I can see this in my minds eye! I can imagine a country farmer walking out of his house in the morning on the way to the fields when all the sudden a 500 pound pig comes crashing to earth. "Come quick Martha, pigs are falling from the sky!" Being North Carolina the next statement would be "fire up the barbecue."
5 comments:
Well, now we know for certain that pigs can fall. I wonder if they can fly?
You're right, maybe I should have called it When Pigs Fall From the Sky.
Perhaps a 500 pound falling pig would dig its own pit on landing...necessitating luau rather than grill style bbq?
I am not sure, but perhaps you're right. I would hate to see a North Carolina Luau though. I've seen those farmers and their wives. Grass skirts wouldn't be a pretty sight.
I grew up about 45 minutes from Fayetteville, I-95 to Lumberton, then to Fairmont, and my first 5 years in the Air Force were at Pope. I can still picture Sicily, Normand, Holland, Solerano, Luzon/Nijmegen(sp). I graduated nav school in 83 (DG in Advanced Nav training), and after going through the C-130 school house at Little Rock, arrived at Pope just in time to take part in Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada). Thanks for all of the memories that you bring back.
And... for a North Carolinian BBQ does = pork. For Texans and many westerners it often means beef. I raised pigs while growing up on the farm and even wrote a cookbook based on the country foods that I ate while growing up :-)
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