Wow!!!

Three days with old friends at the MPA Symposium at NAS JAX, and I’m still amazed by the speech given by retired LCDR Clyde Barber. He has some pretty serious credentials… WWII, Korea, Vietnam veteran in the PBY, P-2, P-3 community. He was one of the original group of sailors that ‘reconstituted’ VP-11 after Pearl Harbor, in PBY-1s. As soon as they were up to speed, they flew search missions looking for the Japanese, then after Midway, forward deployed to  Espirtu Santos to support the landings on Guadalcanal (day flights in a big, slow, unarmored airplane), with only 2 50cal and 2 30cal guns for defense. The squadron got credit for one sub sunk, and after 10 months, were brought back stateside for a 30 day leave. Reconstituted in April 1943, they were back in the Western Pacific in May of 1943, flying from Port Moresby, with black P-5 Catalinas, all equipped with ASE radar (these were the ORIGINAL Black Cats). They claimed over 100,000 tons of hostile shipping during the next 20 months of operations (talk about a LONG deployment)… But the best story was “Where do you store 200 cases of beer?”

VP-11 had lost an airplane and another was found about 6 hours away. AM1 Barber, along with two pilots and two other mechs were sent to get it…

Turns out that island was also a newly set up R&R location! So they pooled thier money ($48 among the five of them), and the officers went off to buy beer. Next morning the pilots show up with a truck with 200 cases of beer! The math doesn’t work, so don’t go there, and no, he never found out ‘how’ they got the 200 cases for $48, either.  So Barber’s job was to load the 200 cases… He put up a graphic of a cutaway PBY-5, and pointed out how they stacked it front to rear on the catwalk that runs from the cockpit to the aft bulkhead…

The pilots were a ‘bit’ surprised they had to climb over beer to get to the cockpit, but they did. Barber was a ‘tad’ concerned about gross weight and CG, but the pilot said they had a long enough ‘runway’ it wasn’t an issue…

So off they go, finally staggering into the air and headed back to Port Morsbey.  It was all good for about 2 hours, until Barber noticed issues with the starboard engine. No oil pressure, etc; but no leaks were seen, so they kept on trucking.  Until the engine quit!

Barber rather drolly said, “Normally, not an issue to get rid of 2500 pounds, we just jettisoned the bombs.  But beer…” THAT was another story. Since the Bismarck Sea was calm, they decided to land on the water. And succeeded! They threw a raft out and tied it off to the starboard blister, and Barber and the other mech took a look at the engine, while the pilots talked to a Destroyer that was in the area. An hour or so later, he said they were under tow, back toward Port Moresby. Hours later, a crash boat from thier base showed up, picked up the tow, and the next morning they were pushed up on the beach. The CO was apparently ‘very’ understanding of thier delay… And the squadron and Seabees throughly enjoyed the beer!!! And Clyde Barber made Chief in 4 years.

LCDR Barber was accompanied by his wife of 73 years! Remember that 30 day leave in 1942? They met, courted and got married in 30 days, and they are still together!

Comments

Wow!!! — 9 Comments

  1. Good read about Clyde Barber that resparked some old times. VP-18 P2’s Flying out of NASJAX in 1960-63 a common stop or destination was Rosie Rds. Leaving there to come back to JAX it was common to make a pitstop at a liquor super store on St. Thomas to pick up some ’emergency supplies’ to bring back home. Crown Royal was only a few bucks (seven maybe) a fifth. Other prime whiskeys went as low as two bucks. Lift off at St. Thomas back to JAX occurred with many cases on the flight deck, radio station, bomb bay, aft station and on a few flights some were tucked away in the in the wheel wells. An unwritten law was: never aft in the MAD boom.

  2. Another man’s man, of great courage, fortitude, and ingenuity. No wonder he made Chief in 4 years. We’ll miss him and his kind as they leave on their final mission. They’re few and harder to find nowadays.

    As a side note, there has to be a way to clean and carefully re-rig a decontamination unit for a mobile morale stop. Never mind the hot showers, that’s a 500 gal tank with potential for major beer supply. I can work from the discharge valve down through jockey boxes to chill it, but pondering how to keep moderate pressure in the unit to keep the carbonation in place. More calculation needed …

  3. And considering the time frame and AO, I’m willing to bet my Dad was one of those happy SeaBees!

  4. And for the AF pukes, I’m not sure if it’s true or not. But I read in atleast one book on the B-36, that atleast 1 trip to the UK, had a return with a MG roadster packed aboard a bomber. Supposedly hidden in the wing root area.

    • C-90, from the specs I looked at and some interior drawings and pictures, I can believe it. The 7-ft tall interior space at the wingroot meant a lot of unofficial “personal goods.” Might even have stacked two of them. 🙂

      Old NFO, I homebrew, and use 5 gal casks for storage and pouring. That thought chain started as a joke with a couple retired Chem Corps officers. The venerable M12A1 (maybe A2 now) decon apparatus had a 500 gal tank for mixing decon chemicals, or for water wash and spray. Our thoughts were, “well what about beer instead? How much could you haul and dispense? LOL!” Then came the fateful change to “Let’s try and design something … to hold my beer.” OK, we’re getting close to danger word configuration. It became impractical because we couldn’t figure a way to keep a good seal at 5-8 psig on the big hopper inlet, with the material and tolerances available. However, it was a fun exercise because we drained half a cask Irish Red Ale in the “design” process.

      • War surplus water buffalo, steam cleaned and modified to be a towed beer fermentation device…. just saying.