Don't Tell Me We Are Lost!!!

While stationed at Suffolk County AFB, LI, NY in early 1961, I was part of a H-43B crew that was task to make a cross country lobster run......scratch lobster run....make that....training flight, by the base commander, to Loring AFB.

Weather was predicted to be scattered clouds after we crossed the Long Island Sound and headed on North. Every thing was going as predicted and since we had climbed to around 8,000 feet to cross the sound, we continued on inland at that altitude for a while.

However we soon realized the scattered clouds had became a solid overcast and we were on top of it. We continued on for some time until we finally spotted a hole in the clouds, which we took full advantage of and descended down below the cloud layer. We chugged along for a bit and came to the conclusion that none of us knew where in the hell we were at.

We spotted a gas station along a rural road and landed in the field behind it and I went inside to get a road map and ask for directions. With some guidance from the station owner and our road map we again took off heading for Loring AFB and flew into the next town, circled the town water tower and confirmed our location....then followed the road map the rest of the way into Loring. The next day we headed back, flying down the Hudson, (scenic route) cabin loaded with crates of Maine lobster, for the CO's weekend cook out, and had an uneventful trip back to SCAFB. (Jim Burns)