In February of 2004, I went to visit my brother in Greensburg Pa.
One night, we went bar hopping and wound up at the local American
Legion. After a little while the regulars warmed up to us and made
us feel welcome. As with all veterans, some are more prone to tell
war stories, sea stories and hangar flying than others.
One older gentleman asked me “Where are you from, son?”
“Why do you ask?’ I said. “Well, I can’t place that accent, but
you ain’t from around here”
“Yes sir, you are right, I am not from around here, I live in
Savannah, but been all around this great big world, courtesy of our
benevolent uncle”
“Savannah Georgia?? Heck son, let me tell about the time we made
an emergency landing out there at Hunter Air Force Base.”
“I was a loadmaster on a C-123 K Provider, flying down there in
South America in support of Operation Coronet Oak, mostly flying in
and out of little dirt strips bringing supplies to them Christians
in Action boys. Kind of like that movie Air America with that Mad
Max fellow in it”
“We were coming back to Savannah for some R&R. We were at
12,000 ft and making our descent into Hunter when all hell broke
loose. The left engine caught fire and was belching smoke and
flames from the cowling. Guess we should have overhauled those old
Pratt and Whitneys before we left”
“The navigator radioed a mayday and gave our position as N 32
03.743 W 080 28.868 and told the tower we were headed straight
in.”
“I had one a burning and one a turning, did I mention that we
was inverted?”
“It looked like we might not make it back to the airfield, so
the pilot ordered us to jettison all the cargo from the back of the
plane. One of those college boys was holding onto a box like his
life depended on it, just like Sammy L Jackson and that Vinny
Barbarino fellow in Pulp Fiction. I told him that the box had to
go. College boy told me, 'You have no idea what I went through for
this box' I told College Boy, either you go or the box goes, it was
his choice” We were 4,000 ft up when I threw that box out the back,
out there near Fort Pulaski”
We landed at Hunter Field N 32 00.600 W 81 08.740.
"Never knew what was in that box, must have been important
because they searched for it for days. I would have told them where
landed, if they had asked me. Hey, why don’t you go find it when
you get back home? If you find it, let me know what was in the box
that was so important”
Since it was getting close to closing, we did decided that it
was time to head towards the house, especially since our designated
driver was getting impatient.
The last thing that old gentleman sad before I left was “ Son,
do you know the only difference between a fairy tale and a war
story? One starts out with ‘Once upon a time’ and the other start
with ‘No crap, this really happened”
This is not a great circle problem
It is easier if you convert the coordinates into
hhdd.ddddd
I used geocalc to convert the co-ordinates
GEOCALC
Geocalc
Do not take 1/3 of the distance and project a bearing. The
distance will be right but your bearing will not be precise enough
to find the cache (you will be 140ft off in the marsh). Think
co-ordinate geometry.
If you want to check your work before you go seek the cache,
feel free to email me with your co-ords and I will let you know if
you are right.