The Nuts and Bolts of the C-124

A retired Air Force maintenance technician recalls working on one of these famous aircraft.

Meg Godlewski

Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 01:23 PM ET

Verified

Steve Childers in front of the landing gear of a C-124. Contributed photo

Key Takeaways:

Stephen Childers joined the U.S. Air Force in 1961 and was assigned to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, working for the 28th Air Transport Squadron.
He worked on C-124 transport aircraft, which were the largest USAF transports at the time and heavily utilized in conflicts like Korea and Vietnam.
Childers' duties included performing detailed graveyard shift postflight inspections of the C-124's four 28-cylinder R-4360 engines.
During these inspections, he discovered critical defects such as a completely detached exhaust stack and a persistent fuel leak on aircraft slated for launch.

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Stephen Childers joined the U.S. Air Force in October 1961, just four months after graduating from Del Norte County High School in Crescent City, California, in the far northwestern corner of the Golden State. After basic training and aircraft maintenance tech school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, Childers was assigned to the 28th Air Transport Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

“I had to get a map to find out where Utah was,” Childers recalls.