The Nuts and Bolts of the C-124

Meg Godlewski

Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 03:49 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Stephen Childers joined the U.S. Air Force in 1961, serving with the 28th Air Transport Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
He spent four years working the graveyard shift, performing postflight inspections on C-124 transport planes, the largest in the USAF at that time.
Childers' duties involved inspecting the C-124's four 28-cylinder R-4360 engines for issues like oil leaks and damaged exhaust stacks.
He recalls significant maintenance problems discovered during inspections, including a completely detached exhaust stack and a persistent fuel leak on an engine.

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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.