Lift off for Terry Juran - Jimmy Doolittle Air & Space Museum

Jimmy Doolittle Air & Space Museum Foundation NEWS
Mr. Florek was an active duty Airman and worked on the aircraft
while stationed in Okinawa. He, along with other C-133A crew
members and maintainers, from as far away
as Switzerland, made the trip to Travis to
see the landing.
“It’s a great day for the aircraft,” said retired
Lt. Col. Joe Fouts, a former C-133A pilot.
Colonel Fouts resides in Anchorage, Alaska,
where the C-133 had been flying. He saw the
plane take off from there and land during the
show at Travis.
Colonel Fouts said he had many fond
memories of the Aircraft. In particular was
a mission that took his crew around the
globe, flying heads of state and dignitaries
in July, 1960.
“We planned for the trip to take 84 hours,” he
said. “We took off from Travis and touched
down in exactly that time.”
Colonel Fouts praised the Aircraft for its
reliability but said they knew it was better
to be safe than sorry.
“We took two extra engines, two
props and an extra maintenance crew,
just in case.”
The Travis Air Museum has plans to
move the aircraft from its position on
the ramp to a location near the David
Grant Medical Center, closer to the
base’s entrance and future site of the
Jimmy Doolittle Air Museum.
“We really want to show off this aircraft
to honor those who served and
sacrificed.”
Because only 50 total C-133s flew in
the Air Force, Sergeant Juran said he
felt its history, and the history of its
crewmembers had been overlooked.
“It’s such a small community of
people who served on this aircraft.
But they did a lot of work. I think
we may have forgotten that, but with
the arrival of this aircraft we can right
that wrong.”
Page 4
(Photos below by Tom Degen, C-133 navigator)