Dave's Doings
Less than five years after the cessation of hostilities, another young Intelligence lieutenant was packed off to Korea to help keep the peace.
David Loxtercamp was a 1st Lieutenant who had completed Chinese language training and was sent to Korea to fly on C-47 reconnaissance missions over the Yellow Sea. Dave was assigned to the 6053rd Radio Flight Mobile, and he still has the patch from that assignment. You can read Monte Schriver's description of living conditions. Dave has a story about his work.
About the Patch
It has a cloak and dagger guy riding a gooney bird about to be creamed by a red falcon or eagle. Our motto was INPURIS NATURALIBUS SERVEMUS. I think that this is a lame attempt at Latin to say, "We serve without protection."
Flying in the C-47
Our C/O was Capt. Gordan A. Pierce, a mustang from WWII, and a real character. He was ROPA Major but had been busted back to Captain. None of us knew why. He was a real Texan and us Yankees had a hell of a time trying to understand him. Mostly, because he always had an unlit cigar in the corner of his mouth.
On my first flight with him, I really wanted to impress him, so I started my walk-around before he left Ops. I had my flip book checklist in my hand and paying close attention to every item. He came out of Ops, dragging his parachute behind him on the ground. When he got to the ship, he threw it in the back.
He used to say, "You ain't gonna get out alive anyway, and if you do, you'll just freeze to death in the Yellow Sea."
When he saw me under the wing with my checklist, he motioned to me. When I approached him, he said, "Ain't nobody ever told you how to preflight this bird?" "Yes sir," I said. He then went under the wing to the left wheel, kicked it, looked under the airplane and said, "Ain't nothin' fallin' off. You gotta go!" And with that, he crawled into the plane.
Upon returning from the misssion, he flew so low, I swear he was chopping rice with the props. He even made a Papasan in his top hat abandon his ox-cart. Approaching Osan AB, he buzzed the runway, did a chandel up to a left downwind, and made a real grease job landing. One thing for sure, he could fly an airplane like no one else.
Rumor had it that he was given hell for that stunt but nothing else ever came of it. I believe that he retired upon leaving Korea.
Dave doesn't talk about the dangers of each of the missions on which he flew. I think the image on the patch tells it all. Now go take a look at what else he found in Dave's Doings.
