Travis C-133 Reunion

Now that the post-reunion travel is over, here's a bit about the Travis 19th biannual reunion.

The attendance was up to standard of past years, about 170 people at both the Friday evening banquet and the Saturday gathering at the Travis Air Museum. The reunion committee was headed by Jetta Burnett, assisted by John Burnett and daughter Julie. The rest of the committee was comprised of Ike and Audrey Isaacson, LeRoy and Darlene Graham, Ken and Nancy Whitaker and Carl and Gloria Johnsen. Sid Anderson, the last 84th commander, reprised his role as master of ceremonies.

The evening's special program was from Dick Bunting, telling of his efforts to restore a C-133 pilot seat from 90531. This picture shows what he started with. After lots of work with bead blasting and the pleasures of inhaling methyl ethyl ketone, he got everything stripped, painted and ready for assembly.

 He also has the data plate from 90531, which was simply glued to the bulkhead low on the left side, when facing the door to the crew rest compartment.

I told him that, with the seat, the data plate and my piece of fuselage, we have a whole C-133.

The museum opened 61999 and everyone that wanted to toured the airplane. It is still very much as it was when the final landing occurred on 30 Aug 08. It now sits between the B-52 and the B-29, standing tall among the exhibits. Museum curator Terry Juran said that the final move to the new museum site, whenever that happens, will certainly require removal of the outer wing panels, for clearance around things in the way.

After the reunion, I spent a few days near Lake Tahoe. There, I reconnected with former 39th nav Hanley Rosevold. We were in the same air intel officer class at Lowry, 1976-77. That we had both been in the C-133 was not known to either of us until much later. So, we caught up on about 48 years of history in four hours or so.

The 20th Travis reunion will take place on 17-18 May 2014. Details will be posted on my web site, as they are pinned down.