H-19 Oil Servicing

I guess I never had much excitement during my chopper days. I don't even remember so much as getting a chip light!!! I do remember one night at Stead I was servicing the H-19 with oil. As I remember I couldn't see in the tank from the ground. It was a windy cold night and I ran the tank over. Oil everywhere down the outside and down under the oil tank. I spent most of the night cleaning up the mess. (Jim M)

The oil tank story has happened before. When we got old hopalong to the point that we could run the engine, the fuel & oil trucks were called to fill tanks. We were starting with empty fuel & oil tanks. The oil trucks were used for all the B-25s & were large. Well none of us had ever serviced an H-19 before & I was putting the oil in & using the dip stick to see if the tank was getting close to full, well you know the rest, the tank filled so fast that it looked like an oil well gusher. I never used the dip stick on an H-19 again.

We would pump oil from a 55 gal drum into the jerry can & then pour & look,pour & look. That's what we worked in when it was hot,swimming trunks & jump boots. Thats what I had on when the fuel tank that came from the salvage yard at Clark caught on fire, fighting a fire dressed like that is not fun. (Bill Crawford)