Runaway Rustlick Cart

The Rustlick Cart by Buck and Jim M: While Jim and I were at Kadena we kind of were running the flightline but that's another story altogether, part of our duties was to wash and rustlick the engines during postflight. This was a pretty laborious task as we had two levels of flight line to work at. Literally two levels, if you have ever been to Kadena there was a lower line and the upper line with a good sized hill in between. One evening Jim and I, as industrious as we were, were washing the birds on the lower line and when we finished that task decided we would take a short cut with the rustlick cart and rather than go around the flight line to get to the upper line we would just pull the cart up the hill using the bread truck. Well...the ground was damp and muddy and we were inclined to use a rope rather than anything substantial. So we backed the bread truck up to the edge of the top ramp and tied the rope from the truck bumper to the rustlick cart at the bottom and proceeded to pull the cart up the hill. The little wheels were not meant for the mud slope and the cart tipped over about half way up snapping the rope, the rope snapped up and hit the truck and the cart tumbled back down to the lower ramp. We had rustlick and water everywhere and it didn't do well for the cart either. Fortunately we did not damage the truck but had a hell of a time getting everything right again to finish the job on the birds on the upper ramp. The shortcut turned out to be one hell of a job. Jim and I were so clandestine with the complete operation not one knew but us what had transpired. So goes the story of the Rustlick Cart endeavor at Kadena...We still have a good laugh about it to this day...Actually you had to be there!!!....There you go Jim I spilled the beans...Buck
(Jerry Bucknall)