WW II-Silent Wings Museum TB01

This trackable is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-15, the owner released a total of 2168 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times.  That is a rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days.  As of 28-Feb-21 this particular trackable had survived for 9.8 years and had been moved by 49 cachers, for an average release every 73 days. Keep it moving!

Please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Keychain Pendant (WACO-CG4A). This item was purchased at the Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, TX. The museum preserves and promotes the history of the World War II military glider program. The facility is located on the site of the World War II South Plains Army Air Field, where about 80% of the glider pilots were trained between 1942 and 1945. The pendant depicts a WACO CG4A, the most widely used United States troop/cargo military glider of World War II.  Among many exhibits, the museum houses a faithfully restored example of the nearly the nearly 15,000 WACO gliders built during the war effort.

The CG-4A was constructed of fabric-covered wood and metal and was crewed by a pilot and copilot. It had two fixed mainwheels and a tailwheel. The CG-4A could carry 13 troops and their equipment. Cargo loads could be a jeep, a 75 mm howitzer, or a ¼ ton trailer; they were loaded through the upward-hinged nose section. C-47s were usually used as tow aircraft. CG-4As went into operation in July 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily. They participated in the American airborne landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, and in other important airborne operations in Europe and in the China-Burma-India Theater.

The WACOs were conceived and built to be retrieved and reused. On the battlefield a tow cable was elevated to be available for a low-flying tow plane equipped with a tail hook. However, gliders were generally considered expendable by high-ranking European theater officers and combat personnel and were usually abandoned, or destroyed, after the initial landing. Despite this general lack of support for the recovery system, several gliders were recovered from Normandy and even more from the Operation Market-Garden in the Netherlands and Wesel, Germany.